behind one ear as she approached.
“You don’t look so good,” she told Josie.
“You don’t need to check my pulse,” Josie told her. “I can already tell you it’s racing.”
Dr. Feist put her hands into her jeans pockets. “Mettner called me. He told me…” she trailed off.
Josie said, “I need you to look at the remains. I need to know… if it’s her.”
“We’ll need dental records. That’s the fastest way to do this. You know that DNA testing can take weeks. Months, even.”
“I know. Her dentist would be in New York City. I can get in touch with her assistant and find out who she saw there.”
Dr. Feist nodded. Silence descended between them. All around them, Josie heard the sounds of insects, birds, and a light breeze filtering through the trees. Finally, she said, “Doc, how long does it take for a human body to decompose to the point that it’s skeletonized? It’s years, isn’t it?”
Dr. Feist stared at her, eyes narrowing. “There’s no easy answer to that, Josie. You know that. Soil, vegetation, sunlight, temperature—all of those things factor in. It could be months or years.”
“But not days or weeks?”
“Not typically days, no, although I’m sure there are exceptions. It’s possible for it to happen in weeks. There are circumstances in which a body could be skeletonized in a short amount of time, especially in cases where insects or animals are able to disturb the body. A lot of conditions would have to be just right in order for a body to decompose to that point that quickly, but again, you know this already.”
Josie tried and failed to smile. “I needed to hear it from you.”
Dr. Feist nodded. “I’ll suit up and go have a look. Do you want to come have a look with me?”
Josie suppressed a shudder recalling the remains. She didn’t want to see them again, but she owed it to her sister to find out what was going on. “Yes,” she answered.
“Will they let you on the scene?”
Josie said, “I don’t know.”
Dr. Feist smiled at her. “What is it you say? Sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Let’s go.”
* * *
Once they were properly suited up, they had the uniformed officer log them into the scene. Then Josie followed the doctor up the driveway, both of them staying to the side. They passed two ERT members taking casts of some of the tire tracks where the gravel had worn down to mud. Trinity’s car came into view, the late morning sun beating down on its shiny red frame. A uniformed officer stood at the side of the cabin. He gave Josie a mock salute as she and Dr. Feist approached. “They’re around the back, boss.”
In the back, Noah and Mettner stood staring down at the bones in the grass while Hummel finished taking photos. When Noah looked up at Josie, she saw the pallor that had come over his features. She hung back while Dr. Feist picked her way over. Mettner’s cell phone rang. He answered it, pressed it to his ear, and stepped away from the scene as Dr. Feist knelt beside the bones. Noah walked over to Josie. “This can’t be her,” he said. “No way would her body have decomposed this quickly.”
“We don’t know that,” Josie choked out. “Dr. Feist said there are some conditions in which it can happen.”
“It’s definitely a female,” Dr. Feist called out. “The skull has a smooth, vertical frontal bone and a more rounded chin than we’d expect to see in a male. The mastoid process—this small, conical bone behind the jaw where the neck muscles attach—it’s very small. Much smaller than that of a male.”
Noah and Josie moved closer.
Dr. Feist pointed to the pelvis. “See how the opening of the pelvic girdle is broad and round? That’s typical of a female. The pubic arch, here at the bottom where the two sides come together, is wide, greater than ninety degrees, all of which is to allow for childbirth, as both of you know.”
Noah’s hand wrapped around Josie’s upper arm just as her knees buckled. She leaned against him to stay upright but continued to stare at Dr. Feist, who went on, “Whoever this is, she didn’t die here. The grass underneath is pristine. If this body had decomposed here, the ground would not look like this. When a body decomposes, the fatty acids leak into the ground and leave a greasy residue. This body decomposed somewhere else and then someone brought these bones here.”
“Can