Chapter 21
Sour acid burned in Abby’s stomach. She wished the trip back to the mansion had been faster, but even though Burke had done an excellent job of navigating around other boats, it was still thirty minutes before they reached Kelsey.
Crime scene tape had been strung around the clandestine grave, marking the shape of the dig.
Mounds of soil now lined the edges of the hole.
Kelsey knelt on the far side facing Abby, Shawn on the other.
Five-gallon buckets sat next to each of them.
They scooped soil in strainers then moved the shifted soil to the buckets.
“Kelsey?” Abby approached the forensic anthropologist, Burke by her side.
She stood. “You’re probably not going to like this, but I’ve exposed enough of the remains to know this isn’t Estelle.”
“But how can you tell?” Burke asked before Kelsey could continue.
“You’re looking at a male, not a female.”
Burke and Abby swiveled in unison to stare at the grave. She hadn’t wanted to look at the remains, but it couldn’t be helped. Inside the half-dug grave lay a fully skeletonized body.
“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.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Kelsey said.
Abby gave Kelsey’s arm a gentle squeeze. “I’m so thankful you and your team are here.”
Kelsey beamed. “Glad to help. I’ll have Ainslie send the photos of the belt buckle to your email right away.”
“Thank you,” Abby said. “Any idea how long it will take you to complete recovering these remains?”
“Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Shawn should have them ready for transport in less than two hours, and I can probably finish the property search in the same amount of time. Gathering the evidence will take longer. In fact, since I won’t be working the recovery, there’ll be room for Sam to work alongside Shawn right now and may reduce the time she’ll need after we’ve departed. ”
“I’ll send her right out,” Abby said. “Is there anything else I can help with?”
“If it isn’t inconvenient, it would be great if you could provide lunch for us. I hate to waste time traveling somewhere to get food, but I want to make sure my team is fed.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Burke said.
Now that was a surprise. Abby would never expect him to offer to get their lunches.
“Thank you,” Kelsey said. “And you don’t need to be concerned about any food allergies, but in general, we prefer to eat light at lunch.”
“Understood,” Burke said. “Anything else we can do for you?”
“Not that I can think of right now,” Kelsey said. “But as we get further into the dig, we’ll likely come across something we need your help with, so it would be great if I can reach you by text or phone at all times.”
“We’ll be available,” Abby said. “Now we’ll take off and let you get back to work.”
Kelsey stepped over to talk to Shawn, and Abby and Burke took long strides to the path.
Abby looked up at Burke. “This certainly changes everything.”
“You can say that again,” Burke said. “Big question is whose remains did we find? Only one male we know of who spent much time here. The gardener. I don’t mean to stereotype, but Hispanic males are typically not six feet tall, and he probably wouldn’t have had money to spend on expensive clothing items, so I doubt it’s Juan. ”
“I would agree, but we can’t rule him out yet. If Victor can’t identify the belt buckle, we can ask him about Juan’s height.”
“Only other guy we know of who hasn’t been seen in a while and that’s Victor’s brother.”
“You think it’s him?”
Burke shrugged. “The detective Victor hired didn’t actually see him so it’s possible.”
“Possible, but a long shot.” She got out her phone and woke it up. “I’m texting Hayden to look into Vincent to see if he can locate the guy.” She fired off a quick text, then looked back at Burke.
“Something else we need to consider.” He ran a hand over his hair. “These remains might not be related to the crown theft at all.”
“Let’s hope Victor can shed some light on the victim’s identity so we know what to make of this murder.
” Abby was already dreading having to tell the older man a body was found on his property.
Not because she didn’t want to question him, but she didn’t know how he would react.
At first, he would be thankful they hadn’t found Estelle, but then what?
Maybe Victor wouldn’t be surprised at all. Maybe he’d killed a man, his brother even, and buried him by the cliff. If so, he wouldn’t readily admit it, and they had a challenge in front of them to identify this victim. Hopefully Sam would locate additional evidence in the grave to help.
They picked their way through the overgrown path to the mansion and found Sam in the library on her knees in front of the fireplace. She was dusting the lid to the hidden storage space with a fingerprint brush. Her hand stilled, and she looked at them. “Did Kelsey find any remains?”
Abby nodded. “But not what we expected. She located a male who appears to have been buried since the eighties.”
Sam’s eyes widened. “Oh wow. Any thoughts on who it might be?”