Read A Rumor of Bones: A Lindsay Chamberlain Mystery for Free Online Page A

turned their heads toward
each other, their faces so close Lindsay could feel his
breath as he spoke.
    "We need to find a better place to meet," he said,
grinning.

    Lindsay couldn't help but smile at him. "I agree."
    Frank was squatting next to the grave. "What about
it?" he asked. "Or are you two going to just stare at
each other?"
    Derrick didn't move. "This looks like an amalgam
to me. That would make it much more recent," he said.
    "I agree," said Lindsay, who looked at Derrick a
moment longer before she turned her attention back
to the skeleton. "Here is some residual cartilage on
the head of the right humerus," she pointed out.
"Can't be too old."
    Both pushed themselves up and dusted themselves
off.
    "Keep this quiet, Derrick," said Frank. "You, too,
Jane"
    "No problem," Jane replied.
    "I'll get the photographic equipment ready," Derrick said.
    He trotted off to the laboratory tent, and Lindsay
walked to the parking area to use the phone in Frank's
car. The sheriff drove up just as she arrived.
    "Hello, Sheriff Duggan. I was just about to call
you. "
    "I thought I would take you up on that offer of the
use of your crew."
    "Okay. I'll take you to Frank, but first I have to tell
you something. We came upon a burial that is much
more recent than the others. An adult with a gold filling." The sheriff's mouth fell open, and for a minute
Lindsay thought he was going to ask her how she got
into things like that. She took him over to the grave,
and he looked down at the half-buried anachronistic
bones Jane was carefully excavating.

    "Why is its mouth opened like that?" asked the
sheriff.
    "That's not uncommon," explained Lindsay. "Dirt
is very active. It is constantly being moved around by
the percolation of water, changing temperatures, the
burrowing of insects and small animals. And when the
flesh and ligaments are gone, the jaws move freely
and the dirt action often forces the jaws apart. It creates the appearance of a scream."
    "Well, it looks rather startling. How old do you
think it is?" he asked.
    "I don't know. I can't examine it until it is fully
excavated, but I'd guess between 25 and a 100 years"
Lindsay explained to him what she wanted to do with it.
    "Sounds fine. If it's that old, there is no hurry. This
case with the little Hastings girl is more urgent."
    "Sheriff, would you mind keeping this quiet? We'll
get all kinds of curious people out here walking all
over the site if news gets around"
    "No, I don't mind. If the papers get ahold of it, they
will insist I do something about it, and right now my
plate is full."
    Lindsay smiled. "I'll take you to Frank"
    As they walked across the site, Lindsay showed
him various stains on the ground she thought were
burials.
    "How can you tell?" he asked.
    "The shape and size, mainly. You get accustomed
to what to look for."
    "How did you know the Indian village was here?"
asked the sheriff.
    "Ned surface collected here for years. That is one
way you know there is something under the soil,"

    Lindsay explained. "Debris filters up to the surface."
    The sheriff nodded, and she continued. "Over the
years the flooding of the river and runoff from
higher ground covered the area. The really heavy
work is in removing the dirt overburden to get to the
site floor. Once that's done, we shave the area
smooth with sharp-edged shovels, which lets us see
the markings that reveal where houses, burials, and
other kinds of structures were when the village was
here."
    "What's this here?"
    He pointed to a fifteen-by-fifteen-foot area bounded by an outline of round stains. It was filled with
rocks, broken clay pots, and bones scattered about.
Overlying the area was a grid of string supported by
wooden stakes a foot apart. Workers were carefully
digging out one square at a time, putting the dirt in
labeled bags.
    "Structure 4. It was a house"
    "How do you know?"
    "See all those roundish stains about six inches to a
foot in diameter? Those