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the scene suggest he was wearing
blue jeans, a red tee-shirt and a tan jacket. The only object found
at the scene was a crossbow bolt with a three-blade hunting
broadhead.”
    She picked up an ulna and held it
so that Peter and Brent could see where it was riddled with
triangular punctures. “These are bite marks from coyotes. The marks
are of various sizes, indicating more than one animal. I haven't
yet counted up how many coyotes feasted on John, but it looks like
it could have been a whole pack.
    “I found no specific marks on the
skeleton to indicate cause of death. We can postulate that with the
blood soaked area found at the scene along with the crossbow bolt,
the bolt was the cause of death and that he bled out at the scene.
The amount of blood in that spot suggests he bled out very
quickly.
    “It’s likely the bolt struck a
major artery, the carotid in the neck or the femoral artery in his
thigh. It’s doubtful he was struck in the head or the heart, as
this would have been indicated by damage to the skull or the
ribs.
    “Due to the difficulty confirming
cause of death, we’re holding the remains until we can get a
forensic anthropologist in to make an examination. This may take a
week or longer.
    “Our coyote pack went after John
like a school of piranha. There was not much left for insects to
chew on, but from the existing activity, my preliminary estimate is
that death took place sometime on Monday. He’s been dead
approximately seventy-two hours.“
    “Why do you think the coyotes went
after him like that?” Peter asked.
    Amanda walked over to the next
table and picked up a scrap of fabric from an array laid out like a
quilt. As she brought it near, the reek grew stronger.
    “What is that smell?” Brent
asked.
    “I’ve sent a sample over to the
lab. It’ll be days before we have an answer, but I suspect someone
doused Mr. Doe here with scent lure. It would have drawn every
coyote in the park. I bet they were fighting over the body like
rabid zombies.”
    “Let’s hope they did that after he
died,” Brent said.
~ ~ ~
    Back at District Five, Brent
tackled their list hunters while Peter went to work identifying the
victim. He pulled up the missing persons database and plugged in
search options. There were three matches in the
Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana region over the last year. He scanned them
quickly for proximity.
    One, a George Munce, lived less
than two miles from Mount Airy Forest. This report was also the
most recent, having been filed late Tuesday. He reviewed the other
entries just in case. Neither were especially promising. He went
back to George’s file.
    George was last seen by his wife on
Monday morning before she went in to her job as a school counselor
for Hughes High School. George worked evenings as store manager at
the Dollar Hut on Colerain Avenue, and hadn’t been discovered
missing until he failed to show up for his shift that afternoon. He
was most likely wearing jeans and a tan jacket. Huh . The
family dog was also missing.
    He glanced at the name of the
officer taking the report. Hinkle. Peter snorted. That was why the
report hadn’t hit the news. It also explained why the interview was
sketchy. Nothing like having to redo someone else’s work. At least
Hinkle remembered to put out a BOLO for the man’s car.
    How do you tell a wife that what
might be her husband’s body is in no condition to be viewed, and
who is his dentist? Not a situation he’d ever faced before. It
would be interesting to see how the likely widow reacted to news
that her husband’s body may have been found. He’d get Brent to tag
along. Any excuse to power up his new toy would do.
~ ~ ~
    The woman who answered the door was
small and trim, neatly dressed with a cap of dark,
salon-highlighted hair and a sprinkling of freckles across a small
nose. Peter thought she looked like a pixie, except for the dark
circles under her eyes.
    Peter and Brent introduced
themselves as they produced badges.
    “Is this