Annie watched her.“I think that’s how it works, yes.But my case is different.I’m not here for being incorrigible.”
Before Emily could ask more, the same ear-splitting bell that had woken them that morning sounded from somewhere outside the dining hall doors.
“Thanks for the help,” Annie said.She placed the knife back on Emily’s empty plate and walked off without another word.
CHAPTER 15
RACHEL
Clinton, Ontario—June, 1996
“Rachel?”
A week after the Jane Doe in the Millgate Cemetery was sent to Toronto for forensic analysis, Crystal, the secretary at the police headquarters, appears in Rachel’s doorway.
“Yes?”Rachel sits back in her chair, tamping down her frustration.
Crystal is Green’s daughter, working at HQ for the summer before she starts university in the fall.Rachel would like to think Crystal’s just being friendly by using her first name, but no one calls any of the male detectives by their first names.They’re always Detective So-And-So, delivered with respect and something bordering on reverence.But Rachel isn’t about to correct her on how to address a detective; this girl is her boss’s daughter.Crystal could practically take a shit on Rachel’s desk if she wanted to, and Rachel couldn’t say a damn thing about it.
She looks at Crystal with some dread.The last time she’d appeared in Rachel’s doorway, the day after the discovery, she’d announced Tamara Cooper was waiting for her in the lobby.Tamara had sobbed as Rachel explained that the body was not, in fact, Stacy’s.There was still some minor buzzing from a couple of reporters in the county eager for more information, but Rachel had put them off, telling them it was now an active investigation and there would be no further comment on the matter.
“There’s someone named Sawyer on the phone for you,” Crystal says now.“From something called…CFF, I think?”
Rachel blinks, then the penny drops.“CFS?”
“Maybe.What’s that?”
“The Centre of Forensic Sciences.”You should know this.
“Oh!”Crystal laughs.“Yeah.I guess!Sounds right.”
She floats away and Rachel takes a moment to breathe before she reaches for the phone.
“This is Mackenzie.”
“Hi, Detective Mackenzie,” a deep female voice says.“It’s Sawyer.”
“Hey Sawyer.”She’s a forensic archeologist Rachel has worked with before.She’s efficient and thorough.
“Got your body here, Jane Doe from the cemetery?”
“Yeah.Weird one.”
“Agreed.Got a bit of info though.Do you have a minute?
“Absolutely.”Rachel agitates the mouse to wake up her IBM, and the screen comes alive with a tinyplinksound.She opens the word processor and pins the phone between her ear and shoulder.“Go ahead.”
“Okay, I’ll fax you the full docs for your records, but the summary is that the body is definitely female, height approximately five foot five, age between twenty and forty years, dating from the early 1960s.”
“Sixties?Huh.Okay.”
“Yeah.The skeleton is mostly intact, but she’s missing two teeth.I assume they would have been found in the initial excavation if they were elsewhere in the grave, so I think she must have already had fewer teeth to begin with when she died.Could be a genetic defect, but most likely just lost at some point during her lifetime.”
The keyboard clacks too loudly as Rachel takes notes, so she gives up in favour of a pen and paper.
“As for the casket,” Sawyer continues, “aside from the damage from the initial discovery—they said a gravedigger found it, hit it by accident?”
“Yup.”
