Free The Body Box by Lynn Abercrombie

studied his face for a moment. There was something he wanted to tell us. “Talk to me,” I said.
    â€œThere was a peculiarity that I noticed. As I was doing the autopsy, the decedent’s femur shattered.
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œThat’s not normal. It could indicate that the child had been suffering from a disorder called osteogenesis imperfecta. A very rare genetic disorder that causes bones to break extremely easily. Occasionally children with osteogenesis imperfecta get brought to emergency rooms with broken bones, where X-rays reveal dozens of healed fractures. The parents are frequently charged with child abuse. Until a correct diagnosis is made.”
    â€œOsteogenesis imperfecta didn’t cause no bullet hole in this gal’s head,” Lt. Gooch said drily.
    â€œTrue.”
    â€œSo what else could cause this girl’s bones to fall apart?” I said.
    â€œAdvanced malnutrition causes the decalcification of bones.”
    I felt sick suddenly. “You’re saying this little girl was starved to death?”
    I got the superior smile for that. “No. As the report states, cause of death was a GSW to the head. But she appears to have been starved almost to death.”
    â€œLet me see that.” I took the folder from him, leafed through it until I found what I was looking for. “You have a section here where you list the contents of the stomach. I’m reading this, quote, “Contents of stomach, 400 grams of partially digested food, possibly SpaghettiOs.”
    â€œYour question, I take it, is: If she was being starved, why did she have SpaghettiOs in her stomach? ”
    I nodded.
    â€œThat would be what we in the death-investigation trade call a mystery.”
    â€œWas there any other evidence of starvation?”
    â€œHard to say. The body had lost mass both from decomposition and from being munched on by critters. But under the circumstances, it was not unusually light.”
    â€œIs it possible the starvation occurred before her abduction?”
    Vale Pleassance shrugged. “I suppose.”
    â€œSo maybe her abductor fed her better than her own parents?”
    â€œAgain, possible.”
    â€œProbable?”
    â€œI would say not. According to the file, the mother was not in danger of being nominated for the parental Olympics. She was an alcoholic and occasional prostitute. But still—starving a kid almost to death? Not all that likely.”
    I waited to see if Lt. Gooch had any questions. But he just stood there, arms crossed, holding up the door frame and looking down at his pointy-toed cowboy boots. I started to feel like maybe he was testing me, seeing if I knew the right questions to ask.
    â€œWe’re trying to go back and dig up old cases that have extant DNA samples,” I said. “Any evidence of anything on this body that we could get DNA off of?”
    â€œI wouldn’t think so, no.”
    â€œYou didn’t use a rape kit on her, anything like that? No semen swabs, no blood stains?”
    He laughed pleasantly. “There wouldn’t have been any point.”
    â€œHair?” Hair follicles, if they were properly preserved, also contained DNA.
    â€œAny hair samples—from her clothes, say—would have been gathered by the crime-scene investigator. Not by me.”
    I had read the list of evidence samples carefully and didn’t recall any hair samples listed.
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    After we’d finished talking to Dr. Pleassance, we went back out to the car. “You think this girl’s uncle, this Driggers guy, you think he put her in that cabin and starved her to death?”
    Lt. Gooch shrugged.
    â€œBut if he did, how come she had food in her stomach there at the end?”
    Still nothing from Gooch.
    â€œHey, wait,” I said. “How about this? Her uncle was the main suspect in the case, right? And he lived here in Atlanta. But his hunting cabin was down in Putnam County. So maybe