LC 02 - Questionable Remains by Beverly Connor Page B

on its side. Beside it was the skeleton of a child. Lindsay
wasn't sure at a glance, but the child looked to be about six or
seven. She leaned over and examined the adult skeleton
more closely. It was a woman, relatively small, with a graceful head. The excavator was taking up the bones of a hand
and dropping the small pieces onto cotton wadding in a carton. He cautiously lifted out the long bones of the arm and
handed them to Gerri who pointed out the cut marks on the
ulna where something had sliced into the bone at an angle.
    Next Gerri showed Lindsay the scapula. It had a dorsal
cut that went deep into the spine of the scapula and became
more shallow as it extended diagonally across to the medial border.
    "I'm guessing that the sixth and seventh thoracic vertebrae will show cuts as well," Lindsay said.
    Gerri gave the scapula to the student wrapping the
bones. "It looks like first she held her arms up like this." She
demonstrated by holding her arms bent at the elbow and
crossed in front of her face in the classic pose of someone
warding off a blow. "Then it looks like she fell to her knees
and received the final blow to her back. She must have just
frozen and couldn't run."
    Lindsay shook her head. "She was protecting her child. She defended herself against the first blow, which was a
surprise to her. Then she bent over her child in an effort to
save it."

    "How do you know?" Gerri had a slightly defensive tone
to her voice, but still sounded friendly.
    "Her child was there with her, and that's what mothers
do. That would be her final act."
    "But you can't tell that from the bones," Gerri said. "The
child may have already been dead."
    "That's possible, too," said Lindsay.
    "Grim," said Sally.
    "I thought battle wounds were most often on the legs,"
said Brian as they sat under a giant live oak tree, eating lunch.
    "They are," said Lindsay, shooing a fly from her sandwich. "European armor was made to protect the torso, so
Spanish soldiers were trained to attack the legs and the
head of their enemy. When they fought with Indians, they
used the tactics they had learned to use against Europeans.
I suspect, when these bones are analyzed, you'll find plenty
of leg wounds."
    "We have found several remains already with classic
femur cuts," said Gerri.
    "This is going to be an intriguing site to piece together,"
Lindsay said.
    Lindsay called Derrick from her car phone that evening
and was pleasantly surprised that she reached him.
    "Hey, Lindsay. Where are you? At Brian's dig, I hope."
    "Yep, I'm rooming with Sally," she said, leaning against
her Rover. The coming darkness and emerging stars gave
Lindsay a sense of privacy and intimacy as she spoke to
Derrick. "It's a nice dig. Brian is doing a good job of it. I also
came across something else rather fascinating before I got
here. It was why I was late." Lindsay gave Derrick a
detailed account of the find in the Lamberts' field.
    "Well, what do you reckon?" he asked. "A lost conquistador?"

    "There are historical accounts of Spaniards captured by
Indians and living with them for years. Perhaps the
Lamberts' burial is one of them. At any rate, it's curious."
    Lindsay then called Susan to check on Mandrake and her
home.
    "Everything is just fine here," she said, then hesitated.
    "Is there something else?" asked Lindsay.
    "There have been some phone calls. Some-uh-not so
much threatening as insulting. I made a list of their names
and numbers. I guess the idiots don't know about caller ID."
    "What are they about?" asked Lindsay.
    "That trial thing," Susan said.
    "You mean Denny Ferguson's? What now? Have they
found him?"
    "No, but his family's come on the local television station
saying they're tired of being harassed by the police and that
they don't know where he's got to. I think they're the ones
who're calling."
    "I expect it will settle down after a while. It has before. If
you want, just let the machine pick up most of the