Hour Game

Michelle put her hand up to her nose as the direction of the wind changed yet again, flinging the stench of the body directly at them. "Some life," she said. "God, she isn't even wearing a mask, and I'm about to hurl from back here."

Twenty minutes later Diaz rose, spoke with the police, popped off her examination gloves and started snapping pictures of the body and surrounding area. Finished with that, she stowed her camera and started to walk away when she noticed King. She smiled warmly and headed toward them.

Michelle whispered, "And you forgot to tell me that you two dated?"

King looked at her surprised. "We went out a few times a while back. How'd you know that?"

"After spending close-up time with a dead body, you don't get a smile like that unless there was a prior relationship."

"Thanks for the astute observation. But be nice. Sylvia's really wonderful."

"I'm sure she was, but I don't need to hear the details, Sean."

"Rest assured, you'll never hear the details while there's breath in my body."

"I see. You're being quite theVirginia gentleman."

"No, I just don't want to be critiqued."

CHAPTER 4

SYLVIA DIAZ GAVE KING A HUG that lingered a bit past "friends" status, Michelle felt, and then King introduced the two women.

The deputy medical examiner looked at Michelle with what the latter perceived as an unfriendly gaze.

"I haven't seen you in a while, Sean," Sylvia said, turning back to him.

"We'd been swamped with investigative work, but things have finally slowed down."

"So," Michelle broke in, "do you have a cause of death on our corpse yet?"

Sylvia looked at her with a surprised expression. "That's not really something I can discuss with you."

"I was just wondering," said Michelle innocently, "since I happened to be one of the first on the scene. I guess you won't know for sure until you do the post."

"You'll be doing the autopsy here, won't you?" asked King.

Sylvia nodded. "Yes, although suspicious deaths traditionally were sent over toRoanoke."

"Why no longer?" asked Michelle.

"There used to be four official facilities certified to conduct autopsies in the state: Fairfax, Richmond, Tidewater and Roanoke. However, due to the generosity of John Poindexter, a very wealthy man who was also a past Speaker of the House in the state General Assembly, we now have a certified forensics substation right here."

"Strange donation, a morgue," said Michelle.

"Poindexter's daughter was killed here years ago. Wrightsburg falls on the jurisdictional line between the medical examiner's office in Richmond and the western district office in Roanoke. Because of that, there was a fight over which office would perform the autopsy..Roanoke finally won out, but during the transfer of the body the vehicle was involved in an accident, and vital evidence was lost or compromised. Consequently, the girl's killer was never caught, and as you can imagine, her father was not very happy. When Poindexter died, his will left the money to build a state-of-the-art facility." Sylvia glanced over her shoulder at the body. "But even with a state-of-the-art facility the cause of death on this one might be tricky."

"Any idea on how long she's been dead?" asked King.

"A lot depends on the individual, environmental factors and degree of decomposition. With a body dead this long the postmortem may give ussome idea of a time frame, but that's all."

"I see some of the fingers have been chewed off," said King.

"Animals, clearly." Sylvia added thoughtfully, "But still there should have been more signs of invasion. They're trying to get an ID on her now."

King said, "What do you make of the hand posed like that?"

"Afraid that's for the official detectives, not me. I just tell them how the victim died and collect any evidence during the post that might be useful. I played Sherlock Holmes when I first started doing this job, and I was quickly put in my place."

"There's nothing wrong with using your specialized knowledge to help solve a crime," commented Michelle.

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Sylvia paused and said, "I can tell you that the arm was braced up by the stick and that it was done deliberately. Beyond that, I'm out of ideas." She turned to King. "It was good to see you again, even if it was under these circumstances." She put out her hand to Michelle, who shook it.

As the woman walked off, Michelle said, "I thought you said you used to date."

"We did. It's been over a year now."

"I'm not sure she got the message."

"I really appreciate the insight. Maybe you can read my palm next. You ready to go? Or do you want to finish your run?"

"Thanks, but I've had enough stimulation for one day."

As they passed close by the body, King stopped and stared at the hand that was still pointing to the sky, his face suddenly tense.

"What is it?" Michelle asked, watching him closely.

"The watch," he said.

She glanced at it, now seeing that it was set to one o'clock and didn't appear to be running. "What about it?"

"Michelle, it's a Zodiac watch."

"Zodiac?"