this
he pointed to the garbage bagcontains bones we found in the field behind Turner Psychiatric. The important ones, I suspect. Pete must have brought them to his house when he came back from the morgue on the Monday after I left him.
Her eyes widened. The
Turner
skeletons?
He radiated excitement. The Turner skeletons. What your adorable, mother-loving,
brilliant
dog brought us was the mandible from Skeleton Four. I guess the label fell off when Mycroft brought it to us.
* * *
Jakes joy was infectious, Manny thought, forgetting for a moment the seriousness of their endeavor. Why would Harrigan take the bones? she asked. Isnt it against procedure?
Absolutely. So there was a good reason for him to do it. He must have known the bones were evidence of something though Im not sure just what. Anyway, thats why he was murdered. He knew what the bones were evidence
of,
and he might have revealed it.
He picked up the bag, holding his hand over the tear. Lets go to my office. Theres an articulated skeleton there, and we can use it to compare the bones in the bag. He chuckled. In a former life, Sam used the house for . . . social engagements. One of his companions took it upon herself to slow-dance with the skeleton. So I decided it would be best if no one, including Sam, entered without my permission.
I feel privileged, Manny thought, but why? She felt foolish.
Jakes office was a large comfortable room on the second floor. The walls were covered with framed pictures and documents, clearly arranged with care: a warrant signed by President Abraham Lincoln to pardon a deserter if he took an oath of allegiance to the United States; four autographed pictures of Muhammad Ali, sequentially showing a disintegrating signature; an article by Jake on the neurological effects of punches on boxers brains. I think boxing should be banned, Jake said, seeing her interest. Its whole purpose is to inflict ten seconds worth of brain damage to your opponent.
At the end of the room was a massive oak desk, so big Manny couldnt imagine how it got through the door. In the far corner stood the skeleton. Its a real one, from the Ganges River, Jake explained. The plastic ones they use in medical school may be adequate, but the weight of the bones is all wrong. Although one entire wall was lined with shelves displaying more books, bones, and specimens, the desktop was bare.
Jake set the paper bag on the desk, offering Manny the leather swivel chair. He pulled out samples of hair in separate envelopes, then a thin oval-shaped piece of gray metal.
Whats that? Manny asked.
James Lyons had a plate in his skull. Pete found it.
He handed it to her. The plate was perforated with tiny holes; she held it up to the light.
Manny Manfreda, Private Eye.
There are letters punched into this. She squinted. A.V.E.
Probably the initials of the neurosurgeon who inserted it.
She suppressed a shudder. Why would anyone do that? A plate in the head is bad enough but an autograph?
Skull, Jake corrected. Its not unheard of. The doctor might have done it so he could be located. More probably, it was out of vanity. Some doctors cant resist playing God. In one of the bodies I autopsied, a surgeon had carved his initials into a lobe of the liver. He was showing off for the operating room nurse.
Thats
assault.
You guys are weird.
The initials on this plate could come in handy, Jake continued, ignoring her attack.
You think we can use them to identify the other bodies?
Thats what Im hoping. If we can track down the surgeon, or at least his records, maybe hed know who else was in those graves.
Why would Lyons have a plate in his head anyway? Manny asked. Could he have been in an accident?
Sure, but Im inclined to think it was a treatment for his trauma-induced epilepsy from a war wound.
By cutting a
hole
in his head?
There was once a theory that removing part of the skull could prevent seizures by reducing intracranial pressure. Nobody believes it anymore. The practice is barbaric, like frontal lobotomies. He caressed the metal softly, deep in thought.
That same gentle touch. I can almost feel it.
Must have been done after he was discharged from the army, Jake went on. Hed have been rejected otherwise. Its funny. I thought the treatment stopped in the forties. But Lyons fought in Korea. Maybe the army medics continued to use outdated procedures to save money. He began to pace.
When hes thinking, thats what he does. So did Sherlock Holmes.
Jakes voice was the one he used when he was autopsying Mrs. Alessis. Lyons didnt die right after the plate was put in. The cut bone had been healing for some months.
Significant?
I have no idea. He sat down and took out another bone. The labels still on this one. Its the first and second cervical vertebrae of Skeleton Three. See, the broken edges are irregular no healing. Next he pulled out the humerus of Skeleton Two. It looked normal, just like it had the day he and Harrigan had removed it from the ground.
Once more he reached into the bag and held up his discovery. Skeleton One, the ulna, the forearm bone. And the metacarpal with the anomaly.
Why would Harrigan save that?
Well have to figure it out.
Anything else in there?
Other bones. He put the remains into a clean bankers box and rubbed his eyes. Theres a safe downstairs. Ill store them overnight.
Manny felt a stab of disappointment.
Id been hoping for what?
Lets start again in the morning, Jake said. Im due a sick day. Do you have the time to help me?
Time? No.
Try and keep me away.
Good. Ill tell Sam about tonight and ask him to come over, too. You can go over the other stuff from Petes house while I get these hair and bone samples to a private lab owned by my friend Hans Galt. I need to take new X-rays, too. Pete never gave me his. And Ive got to see a dentist about a mandible.
Meaning hell be gone while I work with Sam. Such is the detective business.
How and why could the deaths of four patients at a mental hospital be kept secret for more than forty years? Manny asked. Somebody would leak it, no?
Not if they wanted to live, Jake said, remembering his last conversation with his friend. Thats the point. Pete knew he was about to die. What was it to him if he knew something he shouldnt? Thats why he was killed. And why, by knowing him, were all in danger.
DR. GEOFFREY RENKO was one of the foremost forensic dentists in America. Jake had consulted with him many times on forensic matters and as few times as possible when it came to his own teeth.
The dentist greeted him warmly. Sit, sit. Youre not here for your checkup, I take it.
Next month, Jake said, struck by how a man so big could have such delicate hands. They were seated in Renkos office. Jake handed him the mandible. I was wondering if you would take a look at this.
Renko turned it over in his hands. You have dental records for comparison?
Jake shook his head.
The rest of the skull?
What you see is all there is.
Renko smiled. I like a challenge.
Good, because Im hoping you can tell me something that might help identify the victim. All I know is that its a woman in her late teens or early twenties who probably died in the mid-sixties, when she was a patient at the Turner Psychiatric Hospital.
Renko raised his eyebrows. O-ho. A mental hospital. Theyre often butchers when it comes to dental care. He took up the mandible. Bones and teeth are formed when youre young, so we could examine the carbon isotopes to determine whether she spent her childhood eating cane sugar versus beet sugar. Thatd narrow down the region where she grew up. Of course, youd need a nuclear reactor
I hope it doesnt come to that, Jake said, but it might.
Renko pulled down a magnifying lamp attached to an arm at the corner of the desk and looked at the jawbone with the concentration of a diamond merchant. Well . . . heres something. He held out the bone for Jake to examine. See those four fillings on the edges of the teeth? Theyre Class Three gold-foil between-teeth fillings. Popular in the fifties, before dentists moved to silicate cement and acrylic. If the work was done in the sixties, it was behind the times. And its amateurish anyway. They got the job done, but its messy.
So it might have been a sloppy old guy upstate using outdated materials.
Or a sloppy young guy. In the sixties, a dental student still had to be able to do this kind of filling to pass the New York State boards.
Maybe she was from a poor family and had to go to a clinic.
There were only three dental schools in New York State then: Albany, NYU, and Columbia. Sometimes state institutions like prisons or mental hospitals had a day set aside for students to work on-site.
You think a dental school would have records that old?
Sure, if they have archives. Copies might be in the asylum, too. In either case, its a needle in a haystack.
At this point, Jake said, Ill take what I can get.
Sam, its Manny. Office emergency. Im running a little late.
I cant talk now.
Is something wrong?
Its yoga hour.
Why are you doing yoga at Jakes?
Theres a nice vibe here.
Oh.
Have you even started?
Mmmmm.
Ill come just as soon as I can.
* * *
When he entered his office, Jake was stopped by a lawyer in a pin-striped suit, who identified himself as Anthony Travaglini of the Corporation Counsels office the citys attorneys. Im here to serve you this, he said, handing Jake some paper-clipped documents.
Jake looked at the heading: ELIZABETH MARKIS, ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ESTATE OF PETER JOSEPH HARRIGAN,
v.
DR. JACOB ROSEN AND THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
It demands that you return Dr. Harrigans possessions to her, Travaglini explained. Shes only seeking the items you took from his house, nothing more.
Whats she doing? First she wont let me tell her the truth about her father, and now she wont let me have the things from his house things she wanted me to have and begged me to pick up. Whats happening? Do they know Pete had the bones?
Fear went up his spine like fire up a fuse. What if I say no? he asked.
The city wont back you. Shes within her rights. Shes donated them to the Queens campus of the Catskill Medical School for a library thats going to be named after him. And shes powerful remember, shes not just Harrigans daughter, she is a U.S. Attorney.
Bullshit! The word was out before his better sense could censor it.
Thats as it may be. Whatever she wants them for, theyre hers. Matter of fact, the sheriffs officers are waiting outside your house. Your brothers there, but he wont let them in till you give the okay. Call him, please. You have no choice.
Jake went to his desk and dialed his home number. Let the sheriffs men in, he told his brother. Give them Harrigans boxes on the top floor.
Samll understand. I didnt say anything about the box in the basement safe.
