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scanned the menu and ordered the Cowboy Breakfast Platter.
    When the waitress was gone, Gage settled his attention on Kelsey. She’d been in here before, obviously, probably grabbing a bite to eat with some of her students. Or was there one student in particular? That guy Aaron was very territorial. Gage could feel the man watching him whenever he got within ten feet of Kelsey, which was pretty much all the time. Aaron’s preoccupation seemed to go beyond professional interest, but from what Gage could tell it was a one-way street. At the dig site, Kelsey was completely wrapped up in her work, much like right now.
    “Okay, spill it.” Gage rested his arm on the back of the seat. “What’s the problem?”
    She blew out a sigh. “Sattler’s the problem. He’s not taking this seriously.”
    “What’s to take seriously?”
    “I think we’re dealing with a homicide. He should be all over this. The rest of the remains need to be recovered, and he needs to launch a murder investigation. Instead, you know what he’s doing today?”
    “What?”
    “Speed traps between here and I-10.”
    “He told you that?”
    “I overheard one of his deputies talking while I was waiting to meet with him.”
    Their drinks came and they both downed half the glass in one gulp.
    “How can you be sure this is a murder case?” Gage asked.
    “I can’t, especially not until I have the other bones, but I definitely found signs.”
    Gage lifted his eyebrows and waited.
    “Tiny flecks of metal embedded in the mandible,” she said. “Probably the result of a bullet fired through the skull.”
    “And you showed Sattler?”
    “Whipped out my magnifying glass and everything. He wasn’t convinced.”
    “So forget the cadaver dog. Why don’t you get a metal detector out there, see if you can find the bullet? If he was shot on site you might even get a shell casing.”
    She leaned back against the booth and blinked at him.
    “What?”
    “You ever thought of becoming a cop?” she asked.
    Gage glanced away. Life beyond the navy wasn’t something he talked about. But Spec Ops was a young man’s game, and he’d just turned thirty-two. He’d been doing a lot of soul-searching lately, especially since Kandahar.
    Kelsey stirred her drink with a straw. “I sent the jaw off to the lab for testing. Before they run the metal, I’m going to have my friend Mia take a look at it. She’s a DNA tracer, and I’m hoping she can get something useful from the tooth pulp.”
    “Don’t you need something to compare it to so you can get an ID?” Gage asked.
    “There could be something already in the Missing Persons index. If there is, we’ll get his remains turned over to his family. If there isn’t, we’ll enter the DNA profile in case someone comes looking for him someday.”
    Gage watched her, intrigued by the way she talked with so much emotion about a little chunk of bone. Obviously, to her, it represented a lot more than that.
    Their food came and she immediately dug into her sandwich. She had an appetite, which didn’t surprise him given the amount of time she spent working outdoors. Gage had never cared much for skinny girls, but this one actually had some meat on her—in all the right places.
    She caught him staring. “What?” she asked and took a slurp of Diet Coke.
    “You keep saying ‘him.’ You’re sure it’s a man?”
    She shrugged. “Mia can tell me for sure, but it looks that way, given the shape of the mental protuberance.”
    “The who?”
    She motioned him closer. He hesitated a second before resting his elbows on the table and leaning in.
    “The mental protuberance.” She rubbed her index finger over his chin. “It tends to have a square edge and be thicker for males.” Her finger moved to the side of his jaw. “And the gonial angle here? In males it’s usually more flared.”
    She dropped her hand away and picked up a french fry. “Anyway, we’ll know the sex for sure when Mia runs the DNA. I also found