Skye Cree 03: The Bones Will Tell by Vickie McKeehan Page B

Harry urged.
    “ Not much. As you can see there is no outward damage to the skull, no visible fractures, not even a hairline crack in any of the bones. The rest of the skeletal remains would be necessary to determine a cause of death, if then. No tissue to deal with means this victim could have died in any number of ways. Natural causes, possibly asphyxiated, could have been stabbed in the heart without nicking any bones. See, not a single nick on any of these. Unfortunate for us, in this case, the bones don’t give up much. I have no hyoid bone and so far nothing to indicate a violent death. But since your sender sent bones in the first place, them showing up like they have, it does open up a whole list of possibilities as to how this person could’ve died. Are we all on the same page here so far?”
    When e veryone nodded Bayliss continued. “As to identity, there’s hope there, thanks to the genetics expert I’ve brought in. Hennings here is the best. Old human remains are his specialty. Hopefully he’ll get lucky and ID this victim by getting DNA out of the teeth in the skull. The bones themselves might eventually yield DNA. Patience is key here. In turn, Hennings will extract DNA and run it through CODIS.”
    Skye interrupted him. “But traveling down that road, obtaining an ID by that means, would depend on whether or not the victim’s family actually took the time to submit to DNA screening at some point.”
    Bayliss stared at the striking woman with the violet eyes. “You are indeed correct. Not all families with a missing loved one take that extra step. Which brings us back to square one. So I’ll ask again, what do you expect me to do here today, Drummond? After all, we don’t even have a pelvis to indicate whether we have a male or a female.”
    “The note said it was female so we’re assuming—” Harry began but was interrupted by Bayliss, who simply gave him a withering stare and continued.
    “ I’m not here to assume, detective.”
    Just as stubborn, Harry snapped back. “There’s pink nail polish on that hand. I’d say it belongs to a female.”
    Bayliss squawked back, “Or a transvestite. Did you consider that? If I may continue. With such little to go on we don’t even know if the hand belongs with the bones that were mailed first, nail polish and all. The hand could belong to another person entirely. That’s mainly why I called in Hennings here. His lab is state-of-the-art and at this stage will likely be able to help you a good deal more than mine.” Bayliss glowered at the younger man, an overt indication to take his cue from that and run with it.
    In response, the forty-year-old Dawson Hennings cleared his throat. “The remaining teeth in the skull tell me it’s more than likely from a young adult, between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four. I say that because there’s no indication the wisdom teeth came in before the time of death. And see the cranial sutures in the skull? They aren’t yet fully closed. Another indication the victim was young.”
    Skye winced just a little as she watched Dawson pick up the head to show the others what he meant. “Like Dr. Bayliss pointed out, it would be great if we had a pelvis to indicate male or female, but since we don’t, I’ll extract DNA, send it to the clearinghouse and like he said we could get lucky with a match. If not, at least we’ll know gender.”
    “What if you can’t get DNA from these bones?” Skye wondered.
    “ It’s rare that we get no usable DNA whatsoever from teeth, but I won’t lie, it is a possibility. Bones in water for too long or exposed to the environment may not respond well to testing the nucleus.”
    “ If that happens, then perhaps we could find a forensic artist to do a facial reconstruction for a missing person flyer. Maybe identify her that way,” Skye suggested. “If we get no DNA match we should at least try to find out who she is.”
    Hennings nodded. “I f that turns out to be the case,