“Positive.”Bronwyn studied the flat end.“The epiphysis has fully fused, so it’s an adult.The bone is robust, and healthy.No indication of inflammation or any other pathology.Probably young adult to early middle age.The taphonomic changes are slight, so it’s either been buried for a long time and protected from the elements, or this person died fairly recently.”
“How recently?”
“Impossible for me to say with any accuracy, but I can tell you this fracture is definitely postmortem damage.Meaning it happened after death.”
“How can you tell?”Rafe leaned in closer, frowning.
“The break is sharp, and there’s no visible sign of healing.See the edges of the bone where it’s broken here?”She traced a fingertip over the thinner surfaces around the end of the break, showing them both.“The inside surface of the fracture is paler than the outside of the cortex.Plus the fracture itself is jagged and at almost a right angle to the diaphysis—sorry,shaft—which means the break didn’t happen while the bone was fresh.Or wet, whichever you want to call it.”
Rafe made an impressed face and looked at Willow.“Okay, she really is a bone expert.”
“Told you.”It was fascinating that Bronwyn could tell all that in just a few moments.
Her friend snorted.“I’m at Kindergarten level compared to my professors, but even I can tell all that.”
She brought the bone closer to her face, studied it with narrowed eyes.“Ah, yeah, and there are some nice little tooth marks in there from Rufus near the nutrient foramen on the posterior surface of the diaph—shaft.Not too bad though.No sign of rodent gnawing or root etching, and there’s no weathering of the surface anywhere.”
“Can you tell us anything else?Age?Sex maybe?”Rafe asked.
“No.In theory, sex could be determined through DNA or peptide testing, though teeth would be better.But that’s expensive and could be time consuming depending on the current workload of the lab you send it to.Age, no, at least not a biological age.You could radiocarbon date it to find out an approximation of what year the person died, but that’s not going to help much other than to determine whether this is a recent forensic case, or an archaeological one.”
“Ah.”Rafe nodded.“What about the person’s height maybe?”
“We can provide an estimate using long bone measurements and a regression formula, but I’d need to know the likely ancestry and biological sex to be accurate.Also, we can only use ones that are intact, and even if this one was, the tibia isn’t all that accurate, for reasons that I can go into if you’re interested.”She glanced between them, her expression hopeful.
“Maybe another time,” Rafe said, one side of his mouth lifting in amusement.It was clear he got a kick out of Bronwyn.And that he found her fascinating.
Bronwyn really was adorable in nerd mode.Her enthusiasm for her subject was contagious.“So, what now?”Willow asked.
“Any graves in the area?”Bronwyn asked.
“There are a few shipwrecks off that side of the island, but they were back in the mid or late 1800s.”
She nodded.“Was there a high tide or a storm recently?”
“Yeah, a couple days ago.Windstorm, big waves, especially on the west side of the island where the bone was found,” Rafe said.
“Storm could have dislodged it, then the surf picked it up and carried it into the rocks.What about a cemetery nearby?”
“Not that I know of, at least nothing marked.There could potentially be indigenous or early settlers’ graves in the area, I guess.”
“It’s possible a grave was opened by erosion, and the bones washed out by the sea.Can we go back down there and take a look?I’d like to see if we can find any more remains in that area.”
“Right now?”
Bronwyn blinked.“I was thinking that, yeah.I know you’re probably too busy, but Willow and I can go.”
“No, I’ll come along,” Rafe said, surprising Willow.He stood again, grabbing his sheriff’s hat from the edge of his desk.“I’ll drive us over there.”
“I’ve got Rufus,” Willow reminded him.
“He can ride on the backseat.”Rafe rounded the desk, held the door for them and led the way to the front entrance.“I’m out of the office for a while,” he told the receptionist as they neared her desk inside the doors.“We’re heading out to look for more evidence.”
“Come on, buddy, another car ride,” Willow told Rufus, who looked up at her with clear gold eyes.“Let’s see if you can sniff out more bones for us.”
The thrill of their impending adventure held until they reached the parking area near Shipwreck Cove and she saw the truck there with Tripp’s company logo on it.
