family.” Pauline wasn’t family, not in the strict sense, but Dave knew that.
I nodded. “I was just thinking.”
“Lots to think about?” When I didn’t answer right away, he said, “Your husband Brian’s been keeping me posted. I was hoping it was just a fluke, the bones you and Meg found out here.”
“No, it’s Tony Markham all right.”
“So Brian said. I’m still…”
He waited. I shrugged again. I wasn’t ready to tell anyone what had happened earlier this afternoon. Not yet.
“Well, just take care,” Dave said finally. “No sense in wasting all that history, is there? Who’d sort it all out for us?”
“It’s getting chilly out here,” I said.
“Fall’s coming. But you’re shivering.”
“I’ve got a fleece in the car.”
“I’ll walk you up there, then.”
There was no arguing with him, and I was done thinking.
Besides, Dave had asked the question I needed to complete my thoughts. If I wasn’t here, who’d sort it all out? I couldn’t leave that up to just anyone.
When I got home, Brian ran out to the driveway, waving his arms around like a crazy man.
“They found him! They found his body!”
I got out of the car. “What? Who?”
“They’ve found Tony’s body. You don’t need to worry that he’s come back.”
Chapter 17
SAY THAT AGAIN.” I LEANED AGAINST THE CAR, not sure which Tony he might be talking about, not daring to believe him.
“Look, I know there’s a long way to go before the case is completely closed”—Brian’s eyes were wide open, a smile on his face—“but it really looks like Tony Markham is dead. They found his body.”
“How long ago?”
“I just got a call now—”
“No, I mean how long ago did he die?”
Brian frowned. “I don’t get what you mean.”
“Knowing that tells me whether he died five years ago and someone else is responsible for all the crap that’s been going on around here. Or it tells me he died last week, and we might really be through it.”
Brian nodded. “I don’t know exactly, but they kind of gave the impression that it was more recently than not. We’ll have to wait for a full report.”
I nodded impatiently; of the two of us, I wanted to be the judge. “Tell me what they told you.”
“A man’s body, fished it out of the water near Stone Harbor.” Brian swallowed. “It had been in the water a while. It…well, it was kind of a mess…the skin…actually—”
My renewed anxiety pushed aside an image of what water and marine life will do to a human body; the books I’d been reading for fun—mostly about forensic techniques and crime scene processing—were all too clear on the subject. But the fact that there was skin left at all suggested that it hadn’t been in the water very long, probably less than a couple of weeks, I guessed. “But then how can they tell it’s Tony?”
“A male, the right age, the right build, the right kind of clothes—what’s left of them anyway. You know, good quality, not too showy—”
“Yeah, I could find six guys like that down the coffee shop at lunchtime,” I snapped. “Doesn’t make them Tony. What about teeth? What about fingerprints?”
“No teeth. No fingerprints, either.”
“None of those things? Not even teeth? They should have survived, even if the soft tissues didn’t.”
“Apparently, this guy’s hands were…removed. Probably cut off before he was dumped in the water.” Brian swallowed, looked queasy.
“Cut off? As opposed to what? Shark attack?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Okay, what about teeth?”
“No teeth. His head was cut off as well. Somebody really didn’t like this guy.”
“Are you joking? Brian, this sounds like they’ve found a body and want to call it Tony; it’s all so terribly convenient.” I didn’t want to give up, not yet. “What about blood type, DNA, that sort of thing?”
“Right, they’re doing it,” Brian assured me. “I guess they have to find Tony’s old medical reports, or a relative or something, and that’s going to take time, on top of a full-blown autopsy.”
“And maybe they’ll look for fingerprints then?”
“Em, I said there were no hands.”
“Not his fingerprints. The killer’s. They might be able to find something from that, something left on the…” I slumped down in my seat, shook my head. “Brian, what in the name of God makes them at all sure that it’s Tony?”
Apparently some measure of peace of mind was keeping Brian calmer than I. “I know we need to wait, I just think this is a real hopeful turn. But there’s a couple of things that I’m hanging on to. For one thing,