Page 83 of Lost Cause
“Are you sure it’s a guy?” Staring into the grave with unblinking eyes, Burke crossed his arms.
“Positive.”
He shook his head. “How?”
“The male pelvis is structurally different from that of a female. In simple terms, it’s narrower. Facially, males have more pronounced brow ridges and a larger, squarer jawline, evidenced by this skull too.”
Abby turned her gaze back to Kelsey. Their theory of what was going on at this property had just been annihilated. “We’ve been working under the assumption that if we found a body buried on this property, it would be Estelle. It’s hard to shift gears.”
“No kidding.” Burke gave a short, dry laugh.
“He could be the gardener or even Victor’s brother,” Abby said, but they needed way more information to positively identify him, other than her hunch. “Is there any sign of cause of death?”
Kelsey shook her head. “I’ll need to examine the remains back at my lab. It could take some time to figure it out. Teeth are the hardest substance in the human body, and they remain intact, so if you have a potential victim in mind and can get dental records, that would expedite your answer.”
Burke frowned. “No idea of his identity at this point, but what about a wallet? Or driver’s license? Did you find either of those?”
“Sorry, no. The only extraneous evidence were portions of his decomposed clothing. He most likely wore blue jeans and a cotton shirt. I also found the remains of a leather belt and a large silver buckle, which was tarnished and corroded, leaving a blackened and crusty surface.”
“Do you think this buckle could be helpful in identifying him?” Burke asked.
Kelsey looked away briefly, as if weighing her answer. “Possibly. Even with the corrosion, I can tell it was intricately carved and has two sapphires mounted on the surface.”
“If they’re real, it could mean he had money,” Abby said.
Kelsey nodded. “You’d have to get the jewels authenticated. They survived intact, but imitation sapphires would also be virtually unchanged, so I can’t say if they’re real or not. I’ll email pictures for now, but once the buckle is taken into evidence, you could bring it to a jeweler for confirmation.”
Abby looked at Burke. “We could show it to the antique dealer Nolan spoke to. He might be able to tell us when and where it was made.”
“I haven’t picked it up yet,” Kelsey said. “I might find a maker stamp on the back that could help you identify him too.”
Burke nodded, his frustrated expression gone. “We should first show it to Victor. If he recognizes it and can identify the owner, we won’t need to do anything else.”
“Good point.” Abby smiled at him.
He was still looking at Kelsey and didn’t notice. “Anything else you can tell us about the remains or any other evidence buried with him?”
“He was wearing leather shoes. The stitching has disintegrated, but you can still see the shape of the shoe, and it looks to be a formal dress style. I could see remnants of leather soles, though quite degraded. Could indicate his footwear is expensive.”
“Interesting.” Abby let the information work through her muddled brain. “So he had on basic jeans and cotton pants, but his footwear and his belt were likely higher-end items.”
“Exactly,” Kelsey said. “The only other thing I can tell you at this point is this man was between five-foot-ten and six feet tall. The catch is that without knowing ancestry or population, my estimate could be off by more than two inches.”
“Still, this is all helpful information.” Abby wanted to speculate on the victim’s identity, but she didn’t want to waste Kelsey’s time and would wait to talk to Burke about that. She shifted to their interview with Dr. Shore and opened her notepad. “One of our suspects, a botanist, gave Victor botanical toxins supposedly for pest control.”
“And you wonder if they were used to commit murder?” Kelsey frowned. “Depending on the toxin used, it could well be poisonous to people. I can’t visually detect that. Did she give you the name of the toxins?”
Abby consulted her notes. “Rotenone, Ryania, and nicotine.”
“Oh, well then it’s not very likely it’ll help in this investigation. These poisons are organic and biodegradable. They aren’t known to bind to bone or deposit in detectable ways. It’s possible we could find them in the bone marrow, but I hate to even mention it because the possibility is very slim. Still, I’ll see what I can do.”
“One more thing,” Abby said. “Since we really believed Estelle was buried on the property, can you continue to search the remaining areas with your drone? We found her necklace in the greenhouse. Might be a good place to look.”
“Sure. I can use GPR in there.” Kelsey glanced at her assistant. “In fact, if it’s a priority, I can leave Shawn to recover the rest of these remains and begin the search immediately.”
Abby cast a questioning look at Burke. “Your thoughts?”
“Splitting responsibility to finish the property search would be good.”
