Page 33 of The Summer Guests

Alfond said to Volberding: “It’d help if you narrowed down the time frame. How long ago are we talking about? Decades? A century?”

“I wish Icouldnarrow it down, but these remains are completely skeletonized.”

“What about clothing?” Alfond looked at Finn. “Did you see any fragments down there?”

“I’m sorry, sir,” said Finn. “Like I said, I scooped up everything I thought might be relevant.”

“Yeah. Rocks.”

Jo saw her brother flush at Alfond’s dismissive tone, and her protective instincts kicked in. Finn was the one who’d strapped on a tank and jumped into the water. He was the one who’d done the hard workof collecting these bones and hauling them to the surface. “Maybe you’d like to suit up and check the pond for yourself, Detective?” she said to Alfond. “I’m sure the warden service can give you the exact coordinates.”

“The clothing would have decayed by now,” Volberding cut in. “Especially if she was wearing cotton or rayon. There’s a study out of Cornell University demonstrating that within a year, cotton textiles biodegrade almost a hundred percent in fresh water. She was submerged at least that long, and then you have to factor in scavenger activity. It’s no surprise the clothing’s gone.”

“Then you havenoidea how long she was down there,” said Alfond.

“Oh, I’m not done yet. I know you’re a busy man, Detective, but do try a little patience.”

Volberding picked up the detached mandible, which had been separated from the skull by the forces of decay. “Here’s where we find some answers. She has excellent dentition, and an amalgam filling in the right third molar.”

“She has a dental filling?” said Jo.

“Yes, but dental amalgams have been in use for quite some time. In fact, the first amalgams were used way back in the fifteen hundreds. But over the last hundred years, amalgam composition has changed. The metallic composition will help us narrow down which decade the work was done.”

“So we’re only down to decades now,” Alfond scoffed. “At least it’s better than centuries.”

Volberding peered at him over her glasses. “If you have more important business to attend to, Detective, I’d be happy to send you the final report.”

“There are cottages all around that pond,” said Finn. “After a few days, a submerged body would fill up with gases and pop to the surface. It’s strange that no one noticed a body floating on the water.”

“Maybe it happened off season, but while there’s still open water,” said Dr. Wass. “In the early spring or late fall, most of those cottages would have been empty.”

“But Finn brings up a good point,” said Volberding. “If she died during the summer, her bodywouldhave floated to the surface. Unless something held her down. And that brings us to the manner of her death.” She turned the skull onto its side. “I almost missed it at first, but if you look closely, you’ll notice a hairline fracture in the left temporal bone. While it probably didn’t kill her, it would have stunned her.”

“Maybe she fell in a boat, hit her head, and went overboard,” said Jo. “An accident.”

“Except it doesn’t explainthis.” Volberding crossed to the morgue sink and returned with a specimen tray. “When our excellent diver here scooped up the gravel and sediment around the bones, he also collectedthis.” She held up a fragment of green nylon cord. “I think this was used to tie something to the body. A bag of rocks, maybe, to keep her from surfacing.”

“I didn’t see any bag down there,” said Finn.

“If it was made of cotton, it would have decomposed, just like her clothing. But nylon rope like this, even though it becomes brittle and discolored over time, will last for decades.”

“You can’t narrow it down any further?” said Alfond.

“That’s where good police work comes in. This appears to be a homicide, so the ball’s in your court, Detective Alfond. I’ve given you enough information to start looking. Female, age eighteen to thirty-five. Five foot three to five foot five. Excellent dentition, with one amalgam filling in the second right lower molar. In the meantime ...” She looked at Jo. “This happened in your hometown, Chief Thibodeau. If someone went missing in Purity and was never found, that report should still be somewhere in your case files. Find us a name.”

Chapter 17

Susan

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay with you?” Ethan asked. He stood in the doorway, half in and half out of the bedroom, torn between remaining at home with his wife or joining the rest of his family. The others were all downstairs waiting, equipped for the day with hats and water bottles and sunscreen and a folding chair, should Elizabeth get tired during the ceremony. And they had the urn with George’s ashes, of course.Hewas the reason they’d all come to Maine, the reason they’d congregated in this accursed place. Today, George’s friends and family would drive up to Cameron Mountain to say their farewells and scatter his ashes, leaving what remained of George Conover to enrich the soil and find new life in a blade of grass or a wisp of dandelion fluff. In his last will and testament, George had laid out every detail of this ceremony, from the songs they would sing to the poems they would read, and now the family was about to honor his final request.

A request that Susan no longer gave a damn about. She remained sitting on the bed, her hands clasped in her lap, wishing that Ethan would just leave the room. That they wouldalljust leave and grant her the privacy to suffer in solitude.

“I don’t have to go,” said Ethan. “I’ll stay here with you.”

“Of course you have to go. Your father wanted you there.”

“But I don’t want to leave you alone.”

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