Deadly Decisions

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Authors: Kathy Reichs
watched him approach with as much enthusiasm as I’d have for frostbite.
    Quickwater drew close and drilled me with one of his looks, his face rigid as granite. He smelled of male sweat and pine, and I realized he’d worked throughout the afternoon. While others had taken breaks to check the progress at the main burial, Quickwater had stayed at his task. Maybe he just wanted to keep some distance between us. Fine with me.
    “There’s something you need to see.”
    There was a stillness about him I found unnerving. I waited for further explanation, but Quickwater merely turned and walked back toward his site, fully confident that I would follow.
    Arrogant prick, I thought.
    The trees were casting long shadows, and the temperature was falling by the minute. I looked at my watch. Almost six. The bologna and cheese seemed like prehistory.
    This better be good, I thought.
    I trudged across the cleared area to coordinates 3 North 9 East, the site of the disturbance to which Quickwater’s team had been assigned. I was amazed to see they’d dug my entire grid.
    The object of Quickwater’s concern lay one meter down, left in place as I’d instructed. The team had excavated the rest of the square to a depth of two meters.
    “That’s it?”
    Quickwater nodded.
    “Nothing else?”
    His expression did not change.
    I looked around. They’d obviously been thorough. The screen still rested on its supports, flanked by cones of soggy earth. It looked as if they’d sifted every particle of dirt in the province. My eyes went back to the earthen pedestal and its macabre exhibit.
    What they’d discovered made no sense at all.

I CLOSED MY EYES AND LISTENED TO COWS LOWING SOFTLY IN THE distance. Somewhere life was calm, routine, and made sense.
    When I raised my lids the bones were still there but made little sense. Dusk was closing in quickly, robbing the landscape of detail, like a slow fade in an old-time movie. We wouldn’t finish the recovery that day, so answers would need to wait.
    I would not risk destroying evidence by blundering around in the dark. The burials had been here for some time, and they could stay in place a few more hours. We would remove the exposed remains from each grave, but that was all. The site would be secured and work would resume in the morning.
    Quickwater was still watching me. I looked around but couldn’t see Claudel.
    “I need to talk to your partner,” I said, turning back toward my site.
    Quickwater held up a finger. Then he pulled a cell phone from his jacket, punched in a number, and handed it to me. Claudel answered almost immediately.
    “Where are you?”
    “Behind a poplar. Should I have requested a bathroom pass?”
    Stupid question, Brennan.
    “Your partner didn’t think two skeletons were enough so he found us a third.”
    “Sacré bleu!”
    “Well, it’s not exactly a skeleton. From what I can see, bachelor number three consists of a skull and a couple long bones.”
    “Where’s the rest?”
    “Very perceptive question, Detective Claudel. That’s the source of some confusion on my part, as well.”
    “What do you want to do?”
    “Let’s get all the bones out, then shut it down until daylight. St-Basile will have to seal off the property and post a watch at each grave. It shouldn’t be too hard to guard the place since it has tighter security than Los Alamos.”
    “The homeowners aren’t going to be thrilled.”
    “Yeah, well, this isn’t how I’d planned to spend my week, either.”
     
    •    •    •
     
    It took less than an hour to bag the bones and dispatch them to the morgue. The grill and other physical evidence were tagged and sent to the crime lab. Then I covered the holes with plastic sheets and left them in the care of the St-Basile PD.
    Predictably, Quickwater and I returned to town in silence. At home, I tried Ryan’s number, but got no response.
    “Why, Andy, why?” I whispered, as if he were there to hear me. “Please don’t let this

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