Bloodstream by Tess Gerritsen Read Free Book Online Page A

trickling water. She and Lincoln emerged from the woods, onto the stream bank. A section of the eroded bank had been cordoned off by police tape strung between stakes, and on a tarp lay the mud-encrusted bones that had already been unearthed. Claire recognized a tibia and what looked like fragments of a pelvis. Two men
    wearing waders and headlamps stood knee-deep in the stream, gingerly excavating the side of the bank.
    Lucy Overlock was standing among the trees talking on a cell phone. She was like a tree herself, tall and strapping, dressed in a woodsman’s wardrobe of jeans and work boots. Her hair, almost entirely gray, was tied back in a tight, no-nonsense ponytail. She saw Lincoln, gave a harassed wave, and continued with her phone conversation.
    no artifacts yet, just the skeletal remains. But I assure you, this burial doesn’t fall under NAGPRA. The skull looks Caucasoid to me, not Indian. What do you mean, how can I tell? It’s obvious! The brain-case is too narrow, and the facial breadth just isn’t wide enough. No, of course it’s not absolute. But the site is on Locust Lake, and there’s never been a Penobscot settlement here. The tribe wouldn’t even fish in this lake, it’s such a taboo place.” She looked up at the sky and shook her head. “Certainly, you can examine the bones for yourself. But we have to excavate this site now, before the animals do any more damage, or we’ll lose the whole thing.” She hung up and looked at Lincoln in frustration. “Custody battle.”
    “Over bones?”
    “It’s that NAGPRA law. Indian graves protection. Every time we find remains, the tribes demand one hundred percent confirmation it’s not one of theirs. Ninety-five percent isn’t good enough for them.” Her gaze turned to Claire, who’d stepped forward to introduce herself.
    “Lucy Overlock,” said Lincoln. “And this is Claire Elliot. The doctor who found the thigh bone.”
    The two women shook hands, the no-nonsense greeting of two medical professionals meeting over a grim business.
    “We’re lucky you’re the one who spotted the bone,” said Lucy. “Anyone else might not have realized it was human.”
    “To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure,” said Claire. “I’m glad I didn’t drag everyone out here for a cow bone.”
    “It’s definitely not a cow”
    One of the diggers called out from the streambed: “We found something else.”
    Lucy dropped knee-deep into the stream and aimed a flashlight at the exposed bank.
    “There,” said the digger, gently prodding the soil with a trowel. “Looks like it might be another skull.”
    Lucy snapped on gloves. “Okay, let’s ease it out.”
    He slid the tip of his trowel deeper into the bank and gingerly pried away caked mud. The object dropped into Lucy’s gloved hands. She scrambled out of the water and up onto the bank. Kneeling down, she surveyed her treasure over the tarp.
    It was indeed a second skull. Under the floodlight, Lucy carefully turned it over and examined the teeth.
    “Another juvenile. No wisdom teeth,” Lucy noted. “I see decayed molars here and here, but no fillings.”
    “Meaning no dental work,” said Claire.
    “Yes, these are old bones. A good thing for you, Lincoln. Otherwise, this would be an active homicide case.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    She rotated the skull, and the light fell on the crown, where fracture lines radiated out from a central depression, the way a soft-boiled egg cracks when it is struck with the back of a spoon.
    “I don’t think there’s any doubt,” she said. “This child died a violent death.”
    The chirp of a beeper cut through the silence, startling them all. In the stillness of those woods, that electronic sound was strangely foreign. Disconcerting. Both Claire and Lincoln automatically reached for their respective pagers.
    “It’s mine,” said Lincoln, glancing at his readout. Without another word, he took off through the woods toward his cruiser. Seconds later, Claire