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stained the same earth-toned colors. It had similar wounds
in the skull sharp-force trauma to the back of the head.
His limbs had been removed from his body, not with any
surgical precision, but with an axe, and evidenced all the
clumsy damage that came with a coarse instrument.
Looking at the arms that had been severed, the sliced
head and trochlea of the humeri, Diane wondered whether
the woman, MAG, could have been the artist who cre-
ated the bone-tempered pottery. Could she have dis-
membered these bodies by herself? No, she would have
needed help. Lynn Webber needed a diener to grapple with
the cadavers, put them on the table for autopsy, arrange
them for photographs. Most medical examiners did. The
deadweight of a human body would have been extremely
hard to move around. There had to be at least two perps
or one burley man. It would have been next to impossible
for one woman to do this. Especially at a time when women
were not as buff as they are now.
Perhaps it was a true artist colony and several people
lived in the house. Maybe the message on the desk drawer
meant MAG knew what was going on and she was afraid
for her life. She or her mother was the landlord. Why didn t
she move in with her parents? Or get them to throw the
others out? But sometimes it isn t that easy. Bullies can
intimidate some people into emotional paralysis. And the
writing on the drawer came from an emotionally distraught
person.
DUST TO DUST 263
Diane had finished with the measurements of the skull
when she heard raised voices coming from the crime lab.
She took off her gloves, washed her hands, and went out to
see what was happening now.
David, Neva, and Izzy were at the round debriefing table
with Jin. David was pointing to evidence envelopes laid out
in front of them. He was arguing with Jin, gesturing to a
report he had in his hand. Neva stood by with a frown on
her face. Izzy just looked puzzled.
What s going on? Diane asked. Her people rarely ar-
gued.
Jin has mixed up the evidence, said David. It s all
compromised. Marcella s and the Dance case from Gaines-
ville you are working on.
What? said Diane. She did not want to hear that, not
with a crowd of law enforcement and forensic people on
the way to examine the Stacy Dance evidence. Jin?
I didn t, Boss. I don t know what he s talking about. You
know I don t mess up, he said.
Diane turned to David. He looked tired.
What s this about, David?
This evidence he s about to give away to Gainesville.
Some of it is the evidence we collected at Marcella s. I
don t know how, but somehow when he was working on
the Gainesville stuff, it got mixed up. I don t see how we
can use any of it now.
No, Boss, I ve been trying to tell him, said Jin. I don t
know what he s talking about. I worked on the Dance evi-
dence in my lab. You know that.
Jin stood with his arms crossed, glaring at David, who
glared back.
Let me see, said Diane.
She read the Stacy Dance evidence report, flipping
through the pages, looking at the photographs Jin had
taken of the evidence.
What s the problem? said Diane.
David tapped the paper in her hand. The evidence Neva
and Izzy collected from Marcella s is mixed in with the
Dance evidence. Jin must have been working here when
we were, and he grabbed the wrong evidence.
Diane had collected much of the evidence from the
264 Beverly Connor
Stacy Dance crime scene, and she recognized it in Jin s re-
port and photos.
Are you saying this is the evidence collected at Mar-
cella s? Have you looked in Marcella s container? said
Diane.
I was about to get it to see what kind of damage has
been done, said David.
Diane looked at the jumble of shoe prints Jin had sepa-
rated out using the computer software. The shoe prints
too?
Yes, said David, especially the shoe prints.
You re saying this is the boot print collected at Marcel-
la s? Diane asked David again, pointing to a photo.
I had to work on it to get it clear, offered Jin. There
was a jumble of shoes on the electrostatic lifting film. I had
the software separate out some of the prints from one an-
other.
David pointed at the photograph. This is the hiking
boot print from Marcella s. Yes.
In that one, the heel was showing good, said Jin. I
tried to filter out the other overlapping shoes from the rest
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