ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S NOTE: My reasoning about the road/age of the crime is rather dubious. Sorry. :/
"You can't seriously mean to tell me we don't have any fresher cases to work on," Devetko said, popping open an umbrella as they got out of the car and headed up the sidewalk into the Sheriff's Department. The rain hadn't stopped pouring for days; the Souris River* was flooding, and a local road had washed out, and that was the reason why they were now going to see the county medical examiner.
"Oh," Kristeva said, ignoring the rain that promptly drenched him straight through, "there's plenty of them. You're free to look into some, if you really want."
They slowed down at the doors and Devetko lowered the umbrella, shaking it off. "That would kind of do away with the entire point of partners."
Kristeva's mouth twitched again on hearing the unpleasant note just barely enter the other detective's voice. "Well...you're stuck with me then, I guess. For now."
He felt a twinge of relief that on their way to the morgue they didn't run into Sheriff Rhoades or anyone else he knew; he wasn't going to bother explaining it, but as they neared the doors to the morgue Devetko said under his breath, "And I really appreciate being dragged into something you're not even supposed to be looking into," and he realized he'd been seen right through. Well, at least the guy was good at his job.
"Max?" Dr. Steiner said, lifting his chin so the fluorescent lights caught on his round glasses and turned them gleaming white, a confused furrow creasing his brow. "You didn't need to come all the way down here..."
"I actually wanted to see it for myself," Kristeva said. He gestured at Devetko, who was still shaking the umbrella out a little bit over a drain. "This is Dev. My new partner."
"Devetko," Devetko immediately corrected him.
"Partner?" Dr. Steiner looked from one to the other, then made a soft whistling noise. "Good luck," he murmured to Devetko, earning a frown, and turned to a metal table nearby. "Well, like I said, it's not much to see by now, but if you're really curious..."
He waited until the other two had drawn close--Kristeva noticed that Devetko's interest seemed piqued at last--before lifting the edge of a sheet covering the table and pulling it back. There was no body underneath...but there was an almost complete skeleton, with just several pieces missing, such as the lower jaw, a few ribs and foot bones, and part of one of the arms. Devetko furrowed his own brow now, and after a slight pause started slowly walking around the table, looking it over.
"One of the troopers who located it is in the hospital," Dr. Steiner said. "His partner claims somebody attacked him, though it's looking like maybe it was a slip and fall, since it was pretty chaotic at the scene and he didn't get a good look at what happened. Anyway, the partner gave a brief summary of how it went down before he went to be with him if he wakes up." He picked up a stapled sheaf* of papers and flipped through it. "Let's see...ah. They were investigating the washed-out road not far from the Souris Narrows Bridge* when they got separated. On horseback, I should add, since no cars could get down there. Trying to figure out how best to redirect any traffic that might come that way. Trooper Lopata--he's the one who gave the report--says he went back looking for Trooper Condry--he's the one in the hospital now, head injury--and found him unconscious at the bottom of the washout. Nearly drowned. Part of this fellow--" he waved at the skeleton "--nearby. From the looks of it, whoever this is, his bones washed away from the river and ended up embedded in the washout. If my memory serves me, they built that road sometime in the Eighties*, so I'd assume that's how long he's been down in the water."
"Why washed away from the river and not just buried in the ground?" Kristeva asked. "And why necessarily down there since the road was built?"
Dr. Steiner opened his mouth to answer, but Devetko spoke up instead.
"Because if they were close enough to the surface to appear when the road washed out, that means they would've been close enough to the surface to appear when the road was originally built." He'd been leaning forward, peering at the skeleton's pelvis, but stood up straight now and glanced at the medical examiner. "Unless anyone here has reason to believe the road crew killed and buried him...?"
Kristeva and Dr. Steiner both stared at him. After a moment the coroner coughed.
"Well...Occam's Razor, I always say. The simpler explanation's usually the better one. I guess it's always possible he hasn't been down there as long as the road, but the age of the bones looks consistent. And I haven't gone looking, that's you fellows' job, but I don't recall there ever being any reports about a hinky road crew, or somebody being buried on the job." He set the papers down and gestured at the bones Devetko had been examining. "Pelvis indicates it's male. Probably in his thirties or early forties. Water damage to the bones, and the lack of any signs of animal activity, indicate he was likely submerged the entire time. The area where the bones were found is prone to washouts and flooding when we get rains like this; they're repairing sections of that road all the damn time. Given what Det. Dev...Dev-whatever here has just said--"
Annoyance flickered across Devetko's face. "Devetko."
"--it's most likely the remains were washed out in this most recent flooding, else a road crew would've noticed them before now. Oh, and this is why I would assume this is one of your cases," he said, turning to Kristeva. "That section of road, and that section of river, are both close to the Souris Narrows Bridge.*"
"Body dump," Kristeva and Devetko both said at once, and then looked at each other, and then back at Dr. Steiner.
Dr. Steiner's eyes shifted from one to the other before he cleared his throat and continued. "Ahm...yes. That'd be my guess. There's been a suicide or two from that location, and one of the victims happened to wash up in just the same area as this fellow. So it's highly possible that's the direction he came from."
"That doesn't necessarily mean murder or even a missing person, though," Devetko said.
"Ah." Dr. Steiner raised an index finger and approached the skeleton. "No, it doesn't...but this does." He reached up and pulled down an overhead magnifying glass with a light built in, and positioned it over the remains. "Take a closer look at the cervical vertebrae, right here below where the mandible would've been. Tell me if you see anything."
The two detectives leaned over the magnifier and stared at the bones. Devetko's eyes must have been sharper than Kristeva's were, for a frown came to his face almost immediately, and he squinted harder.
"Some kind of...markings? Damage to the bone?"
Dr. Steiner turned on one of several monitors located beside the exam table, and a closeup image of the neck vertebrae appeared; an adjustment to the contrast made the markings clearer. "Some sort of slight groove in the bone here..." he slowly swept his hand from one side of the image to the other "...to here. Made with some kind of sharp implement...most likely a blade."
"His throat was cut," Devetko said quietly, staring at the image.
Dr. Steiner perused the image himself for a moment or so, before nodding and shutting it off, pushing the overhead magnifier up and out of the way as well. "Deep enough for the blade to scrape the bone. I'd say that that, combined with the proximity to the bridge and the washout, make it likely this is a homicide victim, probably someone from one of your missing person cases." He turned back to them and dusted his gloved hands. "Now--it just remains for you to figure out if he fits any descriptions?"
It was a good thing Devetko spoke up, since hearing the words His throat was cut had effectively stilled Kristeva's voice, as if his own throat had been slashed, though he wasn't sure why. "Well...adult male, thirties to forties, seems kind of...vague." He gestured at the skeleton. "We don't even know what his eye or hair color would've been, and I don't think you have any way to determine that from this alone...?"
Dr. Steiner held up a finger. "Adult male, thirties to forties, probably missing since at least the Eighties.* That narrow it down any?"
"My guess would be not nearly enough. Who knows, he might've been dumped from the bridge quite a while after he was killed, couldn't he? And judging by how long he was down there, I'm assuming there was no clothing or personal effects left..."
"Just fragments here and there..."
"You said there was something," Kristeva said now, and both of them looked at him. "The reason you called in the first place," he added, and Dr. Steiner's face lit up.
"Ah! Yes! I swear sometimes, maybe it's time to retire, I must be losing it..." He turned to the counter and started rummaging around. "There was one thing...tangled up in the ribcage. Mind you, with the condition they found these bones in, it could've come from anywhere...I had to reassemble a lot of these, and who knows what sort of weird debris might wash together down there. But, who knows...the location was pretty striking." He turned back, holding a small plastic baggie in his hand, and set it down on the table. "See if you can make anything out of it."
Kristeva and Devetko leaned over the table again. The small item in the baggie was somewhat damaged--the leather cord was broken and partly missing, and the pendant was discolored, partially crusted over and eaten through by whatever microorganisms dwelled in the river...but its general shape, and part of its design, were still visible.
Again Kristeva's voice seemed to have abandoned him, seeing the design staring back up at him like that. Devetko's own voice was vaguely perplexed, as he had no way of knowing the significance of what they were looking at.
"A...mandala...?"
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