Murder Bone by Bone by Lora Roberts Page B

job to do.”
    “Yeah, yeah.” Drake clapped him briefly on the shoulder. “Go do it, then.”
    “Okay, then. I’m gone.” Smitty swung himself into the ambulance, and it roared away, sirens going, lights flashing. Moira clapped her hands.
    Dinah started toward the excavation, maybe to pick up her compact, which had fallen near the place Richard’s head had been. Drake held her back. “Let’s not mess it up any more.” He was watching down the street. More sirens, more flashing lights. This time it was a police van, closely followed by Bruno Morales’s Honda. “Took you guys long enough.”
    “We waited to let the ambulance get out of the way.” Bruno glanced at our faces when he vaulted out. “Parking is tight, Paolo. You know that.”
    I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, but Drake smiled. “They’ve made a hash out of the ground, Bruno. Maybe you can find something out anyway.”
    “I’ll try.” The uniformed officers were hauling stuff out of the van, but Bruno didn’t pay any attention to them. He stood at the edge of the excavation, his eyes devouring the ground. Squatting, he checked it out from every angle. Once he glanced at Dinah’s feet and mine. Drake waited patiently.
    Finally Bruno shook his head. “Sorry, Paolo. It’s been dry, and too many people have trampled around. I can see where she—” he nodded toward Dinah— "knelt beside him. Two hollows for her knees, two dents behind for the toes of her shoes.” He indicated the area, and we all nodded solemnly. “But you already knew that. And you probably figured already that judging from the way he fell, he was hit from behind by someone standing in or near the driveway. I don’t see anything I could pinpoint as the perp’s footprints, though. Too many people have stirred it all up.” He reached forward and delicately picked up the compact. Without looking at her, he handed it to Dinah, who accepted it numbly.
    “Well, thanks anyway, Bruno.” Drake was resigned. “Guess we might as well get started.”
    “Wait.” Bruno was still bent over the churned-up earth of the sidewalk excavation. He picked up a silvery piece of foil, folded over and over to make a tiny square.
    Dinah peered at it. “Nelson and his gum,” she said, sounding disgusted. “He knows better than to drop anything around an excavation.”
    “So this is fresh?” Bruno took a plastic evidence bag and some tweezers out of his shirt pocket. He put the foil on top of the bag and unfolded it with the tweezers, manipulating them as delicately as a watch repairer. The foil was empty.
    “He was chewing gum yesterday, I noticed.” I put in my two cents’ worth.
    Still using the tweezers, Bruno brought the foil up to his nose and sniffed. “Spearmint.” He turned it this way and that. “This doesn’t appear damp, which it would be if it had been on the ground all night.” He slipped it into the evidence bag, and turned to Dinah. “Does he always fold it like this, into a little square?”
    She wrinkled her forehead, impatient. “What does it matter, anyway? Nelson is always chewing gum, I know that much. He’ll hear from me if he’s littering around an excavation.” She turned to Drake. “Do you need me? She was here the whole time.” She pointed at me. “I want to get over to the hospital.”
    “In a moment.” Drake’s voice was gentle. “You were here this morning when Liz came back from her walk, is that right?”
    Dinah sighed, blowing up at her bangs. “I got here about the same time she came walking up.” She spoke with exaggerated patience. “It was around eight-fifteen, no later than eight-thirty. I like to get an early start, before the crew comes.” She glanced at her watch. “Which they’re going to do any moment now.”
    “We’ll take care of them.”
    “Does this mean our excavation is over?”
    “That doesn’t matter now.” Drake led the conversation back where he wanted it. “You and Liz got here at the same time.