Monday Mourning

“Monsieur Claudel is meeting with the Nobel committee this morning?”

Charbonneau dipped his chin, rolled his eyes up, and raised both palms.

“What? I’m not cool enough? Luc really is busy.”

“Being fitted for another Ermenegildo Zegna?”

Charbonneau looked at me as though I’d spoken Etruscan.

“They make suits,” I said.

Charbonneau suppressed a grin. “He’s going through Cyr’s tenant list.”

“Really?” My brows shot up in surprise.

“Authier phoned.”

LaManche must have spoken with the chief coroner, who then ordered Claudel to get serious about the pizza basement case.

“Not a lot of jolliness in Authier’s message?”

“Luc is viewing the comments as suggested guidelines.”

I explained Bergeron’s discovery.

“Bergeron’s convinced it’s this sealant stuff?”

“Absolutely. I believe that’s what journalists call independent corroboration.”

“So at least one of the three died in the seventies or later.”

“Carbon 14 analysis bracketed this girl’s death in the fifties or in the eighties.”

“Guess we’re talking the eighties.

“Guess we are.”

“The kid with the broken wrist?”"

"I nodded. “The skeleton wrapped in the leather shroud.”

“Son of a bitch.” Charbonneau pushed to his feet. “I’ll get her stats into the system right away.”

Charbonneau had barely cleared the door when the phone rang. It was Art Holliday, calling from Florida.

“You got the Carbon 14 report?”

“Yes, thank you. I appreciate your turning it around so quickly.”

“We aim to please. Listen, I may have something else for you.

I’d forgotten Holliday’s offer to perform additional testing.

“For prosecutorial purposes, strontium isotope analysis is still experimental. But we have applied the technique to forensic questions. In one case, we nailed the point of origin of six white-tail deer. Used the antlers. Course, we knew the animals had to have come from one of two states, so we had isotopically distinct geographic localities from which to measure control groups. That made the job easier.”

Over the years I’ve learned that it is impossible to hurry Art Holliday.

“We’re getting good results looking at immigration and settlement patterns with ancient populations.”

That rang an archaeological bell.

“Yours is the group analyzing the pueblo materials from Arizona?’

“Thirteenth- and fourteenth-century burials. Construction and occupation of some of the grander pueblos spanned many generations.