Page 24 of Gem Warfare

“Same here,” I said, as I reached for my phone. “But I’d also like to know the answer to their questions.”

Chapter Six

“What’s the news?” I asked when Garrett picked up the phone.

“Hello to you too,” he said. “Let’s see now. Mom and Dad are okay so far as I know. Patrick is taking a class for extra credit. Sam and Chloe both got on soccer teams. Traci is going for a girl’s night out at the end of the month with her buddies and thinking of starting a book club, although I think it’s just a ruse for drinking…”

“Fascinating stuff,” I said, “but I’m calling about the case.”

“Any case in particular?” Garrett asked a smidge too brightly.

“Ha ha.”

Garrett turned serious. “I have fifteen homicides on my desk, which is kinda high. Three are slum dunks the spouses did it so I’m hoping for twelve by the end of the week, presuming no one else gets murderous,” he said.

“I meant last night’s case.” I drummed my fingers on the desk, trying not to fall for his attempt to wind me up. Delgado placed a second coffee in front of me and I gave him a thumbs up and mouthed “Thank you.” He nodded and sat down at his own desk, concentrating on his laptop screen where he appeared to be slowly typing a report.

“And that would be…” Garrett trailed off.

“The Dugans hired me,” I told him as I made a poor attempt at stifling a loud yawn. “I hope the case doesn’t run into my babysitting time. Gosh, that would be just terrible but you know how these things go.”

“Oh! The Dugans! Well, why didn’t you say so? Yeah, that’s an interesting case all right.”

“They told me the remains were removed but they’re concerned there might be more. Should they be worried?”

“Thankfully not. We had the cadaver dogs go over the siteinside and out first thing this morning and they didn’t pick up anything. I’m confident the body was hanging out solo.”

“That’s good news,” I said, making a note.

“Unless you’re an extroverted ghost,” snorted Garrett.

I forced a laugh since buttering my brother up seemed in my best interests right now. “You’re hilarious! What about a cause of death?” I asked.

“Unknown, as of yet. The ME thinks she’ll get to preliminary findings tomorrow since they’re currently low on stiffs as she already dealt with most of my prior cases. She’ll need to clean the skeleton and…”

“Please don’t tell me,” I cut in, my stomach roiling at the thought of whatever gross things they had to do to a dirt-ridden, mostly-decomposed skeleton before they could examine it.

“I can tell you the driver’s license was fake,” said Garrett. “I took it over to a contact at the DMV. They said it was very good and suspect it was the work of a forger who was busted a few years ago.”

“So no ID.” My hopes dropped.

“Not yet but the ME intends to extract DNA from the bones and there’s always dental and other markers to look for when she gets to that. Her best guess so far is male, forty to sixty years old, six feet tall, Caucasian.”

“That fits with your estimate and the age on the driver’s license.”

“Which is still currently my best lead. I’m going to put in a request to interview the forger.”

“You’re being very forthcoming about all of this.”

“Yeah.” Garrett sighed. “I wasn’t kidding about all those other open cases. My team is slammed. I’m intrigued by this one for the obvious reasons but the brass say it’s not top priority given how long the body’s probably been in the ground. They don’t want to waste the manpower on a case as cold as this.”

“I understand.”

“So, with a whole bunch of enthusiasm…”

“I can hear it,” I scoffed.

“Work with me here!With a whole bunch of enthusiasm, I would welcome your input in the case. With the caveat that there’s no budget for this,” Garrett finished quickly.

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