Tattooed by Pamela Callow Read Free Book Online Page A

bag horizontally. The forensic anthropologist slid the hummock section into the bag, her movement quick and precise, avoiding the disturbance of any potential evidence caught in the tangle. Ethan studied the cross-section of the hummock. There were no obvious bones sticking out, which boded well for the prospects of finding an intact skeleton. It would make identification much easier. And if they could find some clothing or jewelry…or even a murder weapon…
If the decedent had been murdered, he reminded
himself.
He bit down his impatience.
The removal of the first section of the hummock left a perfectly square hole. Dr. Hughes gazed into it. “It’s definitely a rubber mask… .”
“Do you see anything else?” asked Sergeant Deb Ferguson, head of the Major Crimes Unit, craning forward with a scowl of concentration on her milkmaid features as she peered into the hole.
Dr. Hughes adjusted the camera lens. “No. I can only see a bit of the mask. It’s covered in soil.”
“May I look?” Ethan asked.
Dr. Hughes stepped back, handing him the flashlight. He directed the beam into the hole.
Despite the many dead faces he had seen over the years, this one caused him to gasp. He realized, with a start, that he had been visualizing Heather’s face, postmortem, possibly decayed, most likely a skull.
But not a witch’s face.
It glared at him. The mask had lost its paint years ago, but it was almost creepier in monochromatic shades of brown. A few strands of hair were visible.
Dr. Hughes caught his eye. “Did your missing girl have a rubber mask as part of her costume?”
He shook his head. “No one reported it. But it doesn’t mean she didn’t.”
“Looks like she was strangled,” Dr. Hughes pointed to the lower right quadrant of the exposed square. “See the rope?”
It was covered in dirt, with roots growing around it. Good catch by the forensic anthropologist, Ethan thought. He stood. “Definitely looks like foul play.”
He was itching to have a closer look at the mask, but there were still several hours of meticulous dusting and sifting of loose soil to be completed. There could be key evidence in the strata soil above and below the remains.
He glanced at his watch—6:53 p.m. The light was changing, the landscape subtly hazed by twilight’s first encroachment.
The next section of the grid came out a little more easily than the first. Dr. Hughes and Dr. Guthro followed the same procedure, bagging the section and placing it in a large plastic container. The forensic anthropologist peered into the hole. She threw Dr. Guthro a look of astonishment. “There’s a body.”
“You mean a skeleton, right?” Ethan asked.
Dr. Hughes shook her head, the expression of wonder in her eyes quickly replaced by excitement. “No, an actual body. I can see a corpse.”
“So this is recent?” Ethan frowned.
Dr. Hughes shook her head. “No. The body is mummified.” She flashed a grin at Dr. Guthro. “We have found ourselves, sir, a genuine bog body.”
Dr. Guthro slowly shook his head. “Are you sure, Darcie?”
“I can definitely see a mummified shoulder.”
“How can you have mummified remains in water?” Ethan asked, trying to peer over Dr. Hughes’ head into the hole.
Dr. Hughes still had a slightly dazed look on her face. “Bacteria cause decomposition in a body. But when there is a lack of oxygen in the environment—such as bogs, which are highly anaerobic—there is no bacteria. So the body will mummify, instead. I knew this was a possibility when I heard about the location, but I still didn’t really believe that we’d actually find a mummified corpse. I thought we’d just find skeletonized remains, since the high school student had discovered a bone.”
“But what about the fact the body was exposed to water? Why isn’t it rotten?” It seemed kind of bizarre.
“The tissue actually dries up from the acids in the water,” Dr. Guthro said, rubbing his hands, a clear sign he was dying to embark into a