accounted for all the missing females involved in the crash except Roseanne Dresden. So this unexplained female body poses a problem.”
“You’re sure it’s female?” Marge asked.
“The pelvic bones, by the angle and appearance, are almost certainly female,” the doctor answered. “But even if it was a small male or an adolescent boy, we’d still have a problem. Still unaccounted for from the crash are two male bodies: an old man in his seventies and another man in his forties. We do not have the pelvis of an old man or a man in his forties. It is most certainly a woman, and I would say probably a young woman. But an old young woman, meaning I think the body predated the crash. Once the mandible did not match up with Roseanne Dresden’s radiograph, we began to study the bones more carefully. On the top of the skull there is a well-formed depression.”
“Blunt-force trauma,” Decker said. “Homicide.”
“Probably that would be my ruling if the body was in better shape.Right now I’m going with inconclusive because of all the extenuating circumstances.”
“How long has the body been lying there?” Oliver was up to number five in the fritter department. Last one, he swore to himself.
“If it would have been discovered before the fire, I would have had a much better idea. Now it is almost impossible for me to say.”
Decker twirled the ends of his mustache. He did that in order to prevent his hands from taking more dessert. “Can you at least tell us a race?”
“Possibly Caucasian, possibly Hispanic.”
Oliver said, “Well, in L.A., that’ll narrow it down to a few gazillion people.”
“Was she inside the wreckage of the building or was she found in the ground under the building?” Decker inquired.
“You’ll have to ask recovery, but I think there is still quite a bit of foundation left from the building. I can’t imagine why anyone would dig under the foundation and discover a body.”
“If she was found in the wreckage and not under the foundation, her death can’t be any older than the building,” Decker surmised. “So let’s find out when the building went up. Then we’ll go through the missing persons from that time forward. I’d like to send the skull out to a forensic reconstructionist and put a face on the bones.”
“The bones are too delicate. They would break under the impression material needed to make a cast of the skull. Then you would lose any forensic evidence that the original skull might produce.”
“This is a nightmare,” Marge said. “We finally find a missing body, but it isn’t Roseanne. Instead of one possible homicide, we now have two.”
Inwardly, Decker groaned. He hated cold homicides and this one was in deep freeze. But his main concern was dealing with Farley Lodestone. “Is there anything you can do to help us pinpoint a time of murder?”
“From the skeleton, no. But I think we have tremendous good luck in one regard.”
“The clothing!” Marge said.
“Yes, the clothing.” Darwin ate the last fritter and called for the check. “A chunk remained remarkably intact. No label but it seems that Jane Doe was wearing a shirt with lettering on the back. It was preserved because she was buried faceup and the shirt material was synthetic and not as prone to decay. I have it enclosed in a protective plastic bag. We can go back to my office and examine it under a microscope.”
Marta, the tattooed teenager, handed the bill to Darwin, but her eyes were on Decker. “Dessert okay?”
“Delicious.”
“Next time you come here, Germando can fix you up real good. No problem if you’re a vegetarian. We can do somethin’ for you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Yeah, we get all kinds of requests nowadays. No this, no that, no this, no that…man, even the cholos are picky. Everyone’s tryin’ to cut down on the fat.”
THE L.A. COUNTY Coroner’s Office was on North Mission Road in the once-notorious Ramparts district, northeast
“You’re sure it’s female?” Marge asked.
“The pelvic bones, by the angle and appearance, are almost certainly female,” the doctor answered. “But even if it was a small male or an adolescent boy, we’d still have a problem. Still unaccounted for from the crash are two male bodies: an old man in his seventies and another man in his forties. We do not have the pelvis of an old man or a man in his forties. It is most certainly a woman, and I would say probably a young woman. But an old young woman, meaning I think the body predated the crash. Once the mandible did not match up with Roseanne Dresden’s radiograph, we began to study the bones more carefully. On the top of the skull there is a well-formed depression.”
“Blunt-force trauma,” Decker said. “Homicide.”
“Probably that would be my ruling if the body was in better shape.Right now I’m going with inconclusive because of all the extenuating circumstances.”
“How long has the body been lying there?” Oliver was up to number five in the fritter department. Last one, he swore to himself.
“If it would have been discovered before the fire, I would have had a much better idea. Now it is almost impossible for me to say.”
Decker twirled the ends of his mustache. He did that in order to prevent his hands from taking more dessert. “Can you at least tell us a race?”
“Possibly Caucasian, possibly Hispanic.”
Oliver said, “Well, in L.A., that’ll narrow it down to a few gazillion people.”
“Was she inside the wreckage of the building or was she found in the ground under the building?” Decker inquired.
“You’ll have to ask recovery, but I think there is still quite a bit of foundation left from the building. I can’t imagine why anyone would dig under the foundation and discover a body.”
“If she was found in the wreckage and not under the foundation, her death can’t be any older than the building,” Decker surmised. “So let’s find out when the building went up. Then we’ll go through the missing persons from that time forward. I’d like to send the skull out to a forensic reconstructionist and put a face on the bones.”
“The bones are too delicate. They would break under the impression material needed to make a cast of the skull. Then you would lose any forensic evidence that the original skull might produce.”
“This is a nightmare,” Marge said. “We finally find a missing body, but it isn’t Roseanne. Instead of one possible homicide, we now have two.”
Inwardly, Decker groaned. He hated cold homicides and this one was in deep freeze. But his main concern was dealing with Farley Lodestone. “Is there anything you can do to help us pinpoint a time of murder?”
“From the skeleton, no. But I think we have tremendous good luck in one regard.”
“The clothing!” Marge said.
“Yes, the clothing.” Darwin ate the last fritter and called for the check. “A chunk remained remarkably intact. No label but it seems that Jane Doe was wearing a shirt with lettering on the back. It was preserved because she was buried faceup and the shirt material was synthetic and not as prone to decay. I have it enclosed in a protective plastic bag. We can go back to my office and examine it under a microscope.”
Marta, the tattooed teenager, handed the bill to Darwin, but her eyes were on Decker. “Dessert okay?”
“Delicious.”
“Next time you come here, Germando can fix you up real good. No problem if you’re a vegetarian. We can do somethin’ for you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Yeah, we get all kinds of requests nowadays. No this, no that, no this, no that…man, even the cholos are picky. Everyone’s tryin’ to cut down on the fat.”
THE L.A. COUNTY Coroner’s Office was on North Mission Road in the once-notorious Ramparts district, northeast
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