LC 04 - Skeleton Crew (32 page)

"It was a lucky break for the killer to be the one to discover the
body when it washed up."

"Maybe someone else-someone who didn't want the body
found."

Lindsay wrinkled up her face. "Why would someone else not
want the body found?"

"It had to be someone who knew the quicksand pit was there,"
Ramirez said. "Who knew?"

"The biologists ... or one of us who had become familiar with
the island ... I'm sure Boote and Keith knew; they practically lived
on the island before they were run off, I'm told. They could have
told any number of people about it. For all I know, it may be on a
map of St. Magdalena. That scenario kind of fits Denton, too,"
Lindsay said.

"How?"

"Well, suppose it is the same person. I'd like to think we have
one murderer instead of two." Ramirez nodded in agreement.
Lindsay continued. "Denton is killed in the warehouse and the
killer decides to-" She stopped.

"You have another idea?" asked Ramirez.

"Denton was a strong man. Holding his head under water was
a difficult way to kill him. Why didn't the killer use some other
method?" Lindsay asked.

"The killer didn't want the sound of a gunshot or the blood of
a knife wound. Poison was too slow, the roof was too high to hang
him, and he couldn't get behind Denton to hit him on the head,"
Ramirez answered.

Lindsay suppressed a laugh and coughed instead. She took a drink of her cold coffee. "Torture. The killer wanted to know something, so he held Denton's head under water. Maybe he didn't
even mean for him to drown."

"That's not bad. I could hang my hat on that. What was it they
wanted? The cross? The location of the ship?"

"Maybe to know why Denton was lurking around the island,"
Lindsay suggested.

Ramirez nodded. "What was the other thing? The thing you
said fit with Keith's death?"

"Oh. The murderer killed Denton. I'm assuming it was a man.
It would be hard for a woman to hold a man's head under water.
After Denton died, the killer had the problem many killers end up
with-getting rid of the body. He hauled it to the deck on that side
of the warehouse. Got a rowboat so as not to make noise. We have
lots of boats of all kinds around this place. He towed him behind
the boat because that was easy, and was going to leave him in the
waterway or take him out to the ocean. But the killer lost Denton's
body in the alligator pond," finished Lindsay.

"That's good, too. The M.O. kind of fits. I like that. This has
been a good conversation. Please let me know if anything else
occurs to you."

Ramirez had brought someone from his office with him to pilot
the boat to the dam. The young man was waiting in the break room
with several of the scuba crew in from their dives. Lindsay looked
at her watch. Time had passed quickly. Ramirez shook her hand
and thanked her again.

"You have been a big help. I think you have this half solved.
Good luck with your excavation."

"Thanks."

Lindsay went back to Lewis's office to clean up the coffee cups.
As she passed through the weather room, she noticed that they
seemed busier than usual.

"How are things?" she asked.

"William looked up from a readout and smiled. "Oh, we're getting some weather. Nothing to worry about. It's far away from
here."

"Good, keep it far away."

She emptied the mugs and washed them out in the small
kitchen off the break room.

"Was that the FBI man?"

Lindsay looked up to see Sarah, coffee cup in hand to wash.
"Hi. Yes, that was him."

"How're things going? Are they going to find the person who's
doing this? I mean, some of us are kind of afraid."

"Yes, they are making progress. I don't think you need to worry.
Lewis is putting on extra security."

"That's a relief."

"How's the diving going? Any more cannons?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. One of the other teams found another
cannon and a cask."

"How do you retrieve the barrels and cannons? Don't they
weigh a lot?"

"We call for the barge, tie several balloons to it, and raise it to
the surface, to be hoisted onto the barge."

Seeing Sarah reminded Lindsay: "Are you going to be in this
evening? I need to talk to you and Nate about Keith Teal."

"Lewis has you detecting, I heard." Sarah made a face. "Sure,
I'll tell you what, we'll have dinner on the barge tomorrow
evening. I'll bring Nate."

"Thanks. I'm sorry about doing this, but-"

"I know. We all work with Lewis. What he wants, he gets."

"Thanks." Lindsay took her coffee cup. "It's the least I can do."

Lewis was in the break room when Lindsay came out of the
kitchen, drying her hands on a paper towel. He took her arm. "We
took up Gina's skeleton today. Thought you might like to get on
it."

Lindsay looked at Lewis and smiled. "When would you like it
done? By tomorrow morning?"

Lewis smiled back. "If you can do that, I'd love it."

"No problem."

He pulled her outside the break room and into a corner. "How
did it go with Ramirez?"

"Fine. He's going to keep our secret. He was a little miffed at
not being told in the beginning, but I explained that it isn't something we actually know is there."

"Good, he bought that?"

"Yes, because I believed it to be true."

"Great. I knew I did right in bringing you here. You have great
connections, ones that I don't have."

"I'm glad to fill in a gap in your associations."

"You have a great sense of humor, too." He squeezed her shoulder and went to meet Trey coming through the door. "The skeleton's downstairs. Carolyn put it in a tub of water before she left,"
he yelled back at her.

LINDSAY WAS RUNNING her fingers over the right humerus of the
new set of bones when John came into the lab. Carolyn and Korey
had the evening off, and she worked alone at one of the artifact
tables. Lindsay didn't see him until she lifted her head.

"Hello," he said and walked over. He stood for a moment. "You
love bones, don't you?"

"Yes, why?"

"Oh, just watching you with them. What is it you feel?"

"From the bones? Their story. Every one is different."

"What's his story?" asked John.

"I don't know yet. It'll gradually unfold as I examine the
bones."

"I was not unmoved by the story you told of my ancestors
buried on Royce's land when we met."

Lindsay could see this was going to lead to a conversation she
was not yet prepared to have, but she didn't quite know how to
stop it.

"I know we will always differ about"-he hesitated, searching
for words-"about what you do. Not even members of my own
tribe agree, nor do all the members of our nation agree, but you
didn't use that as an argument against me, and I appreciate that."

Lindsay remained silent, not certain of what to say, not wanting
to break the spell of the island, hoping John wouldn't. He came
closer.

"It makes no sense," he said, not without some vehemence,
"that I should be falling in love with an archaeologist."

Lindsay's gaze lingered on John for a moment, then searched
the room as if the words she wanted could be found close by. "I
want there to be a solution that doesn't require either of us to com promise what we believe. Wanting the impossible is, well-"she
shrugged.

"You and Derrick were close." This was a conversation Lindsay
didn't want to have, either. She took a breath.

"We were. Derrick and I were in graduate school together. He
was-still is in some ways-my best friend. I loved him, and it
meant something. It's hard to let go of some of it. I don't mean I
yearn to have him back, I mean-the friendship, the memories ...

"I understand. I wouldn't mind your being friends with him,
just don't be with him, if you understand what I mean."

"Yes, I do. Are you still close to your ex-wife? You have kids
together."

"Sometimes we are close. We didn't end as amicably. But yes,
there are memories. Good memories. You worry about my exwife?"

"No. I worry that one day we're going to fight over the matter
of what I do for a living that puts us at opposite ends of a pole, and
we won't be able to find our way back together." Lindsay put the
humerus away.

"I've got to run some errands. I was going to offer to bring you
something for dinner from the mainland if you're staying here."

"Yes, I think I'll ask Harper to put me up for the night. I feel like
I'm behind, and this will give me a chance to catch up. How about
another of those pizzas-mushrooms, sausage, and pepperoni?"

"You got it."

"Thanks for thinking about me."

"I think about you all the time," he said and waved as he left.

The lab filled up and emptied as everyone came in and then
read that there would be no debriefing this evening. Lindsay was
alone in the lab as she took the skull measurements of HSkR4.
Steven Nemo entered and began flipping through his charts, filling in finds on the cross section of the ship, matching a map he
brought with him with the one on the chart. Lindsay put the skull
back in the saline solution and walked over to him.

"Is it my turn?" he asked.

"Yes."

"What does Lewis hope to accomplish by having you do this?"
Steven's black hair, neatly trimmed black beard, and the scowl on
his face gave him a devilish appearance.

"Control, I think."

Steven nodded. "I can see that. From what others have told me,
the crime happened between 3:00 and 4:00 A.M. Well, I was asleep
on the barge between 11:30 and 5:30, so I guess I have no alibi."

"Most of us don't. I was asleep on the island during those
times, and I had a confrontation with Denton only days earlier."

"Does Ramirez really suspect us? He's got Isaac scared to death.
Isaac wouldn't hurt a fly."

"I don't think Isaac is a serious contender. It was his bad luck
Denton was drowned in his sink. Did you ever meet Denton?"

"No. I don't think any of us did. West's men had a run-in with
him once. I'm not trying to get them in trouble. It's just that his
beef was about the dam."

"How about Keith Teal? Did you know him?"

"We went diving together a few times. He showed me some of
the things he retrieved from a wreck he found a few years ago. He
was a pothunter, but he knew the area."

"Do you have any idea what he was doing here when he was
killed?"

"I don't know. We weren't using him as an informant anymore.
Mike Altman, the biologist, had more of a reason to do him in.
Keith apparently decided to try his hand at horticulture. He stole
some of the rare plants on the island and sold them to collectors.
Pissed Mike off good, and I can't say as I blame him."

"You think if Keith came around again trying to do the same
thing, Mike might do something?"

"I don't want to blame anyone, not even the bio people." He
sighed. "It's possible that he and Keith would get in a fight. I suppose if I were to stretch things, I could see that Mike might have
killed him accidently, but he wouldn't have hidden the body."

"When was the last time you saw Keith around here?"

"Not for about a couple of months."

Lindsay couldn't think of anything else to ask. She actually felt
silly interrogating the crew and turned her attention to Steven's
cross section. "A site like this deserves our undivided attention."

His mouth widened into a big grin. That, and the dimples in his
cheeks, made him look almost angelic. "I agree. This is just the best
site I've worked on. I pore over those diary pages every night looking for descriptions of the ship, matching them with our finds. You
know Lewis wants to build a museum."

"I heard."

"I went to Athens a couple of weeks ago, and we looked at
some land. If everything goes well, there's this spot on the Oconee
River that would be perfect. Lewis wants the museum near campus and near water. We're going to reconstruct the Estrella inside.
It will be great. Can you imagine"-he gestured to the cross section, then made a wide arc with his arms-"that huge ship reconstructed? It will be magnificent. In a few months he and I are going
to England to look at the Mary Rose and the museum there."

"I like the idea of a museum."

"Odd thing, however; when we talked about the space, I got the
feeling he was planning for two ships. Do you know anything
about that?" He gave Lindsay a hard stare and she said nothing.
"Oh, God, I knew it. I've heard-"

"What have you heard?" she asked.

"Whispers about a second ship from some of the scuba divers."

"Can you tell me who?"

"Bobbie for one. Her team's searches take them out of the grid
and she doesn't understand why. Nate just tells her he's running
experiments with that program of his. I got the feeling that she
doesn't like working on his dissertation and not on the main part
of the excavation."

"What do you think of his computer program?"

"I don't know much about it. Great thing, if it works. Awful lot
of variables."

"Don't pass on any rumors that you hear," Lindsay warned.

"No. I keep pretty much to myself. Damn! Another ship."

"Don't say it out loud, either."

"What? Why? No . . . oh, shit, you're not saying . . . that's
impossible."

"Just keep all your thoughts in your head."

"Oh, God, what a nightmare that would be."

"Thank you for talking to me. I know it's a nuisance."

"Not really. This murder business is the nuisance, and just so
odd. Jeff says this happens to you all the time."

"Not all the time."

"Still, more than once is amazing. Was HSkR1 really murdered?"

"If the authorities brought me a modern skeleton with those
same wounds, I would call it murder. He was hit from behind and
sustained repeated blows. The really strange anomaly is HSkR2-
the Asian skeleton."