"Art, could you explain this when we discuss results? If I want these specimens to go out with today's FedEx pickup, I have to get back to the skeletons and pull the teeth within the next thirty minutes."

"Yes, yes. Of course. We'll talk then. Tempe, this may go nowhere, but, well, you never know."

Disconnecting, I descended to the morgue, cut another plug of bone from the femur of each set of remains, replaced the bone, removed the jaw, returned to my lab, photographed the jaw, removed the right second molar from each, repacked everything, and returned the parcel to the mound of uncollected mail, thankful that I'd already had dental X-rays made.

By four-thirty, I'd resettled in my office.

Crossing my ankles on the window ledge, I sipped diet soda, nibbled my first doughnut, and forced my thoughts to subjects other than the pizza bas.e.m.e.nt girls.

Katy.

What about Katy? I had no idea what my daughter was doing at that moment. Or even her specific whereabouts. Call? I looked at my watch. She was probably out, studying at the library or in cla.s.s. Right.

Presumably, Katy was diligently attending cla.s.ses and planning her future beyond university. I was not being kept advised. Had my little girl slipped into an adulthood in which I would play only minor walk-ons?

That smiley-face thought cranked my mind back to the girls who were now skeletons.

Why no single shred of clothing? Had I missed something? Should I have used a finer mesh screen? Had the owner gathered more than b.u.t.tons? What could explain three girls buried naked in a bas.e.m.e.nt?

Diet c.o.ke. Mental right turn.

Anne.

Why the unexpected visit? What was behind the funny sound in her voice?

With the second doughnut, my mind took another go at the skeletons.

If all three girls died at the same time, why adipocere only with the third set of remains? OK. The wrapping. But why just that one burial?

Nope. New topic.

A sweater I'd seen in Ogilvy's window. A ratchety noise in my car's engine. An odd brown spot on my right shoulder.

At the end of the second doughnut, my mind made another hard run at the skeletons.

The bodies had been less than six inches down. Why so close to the surface? Native burials typically lie much deeper. So do historic graves.

What if Art really could tell me where each of the girls had been born? Would that be helpful? Or would his a.n.a.lysis merely indicate that they were locals?

Maybe LaManche had a point. Maybe I was becoming obsessed. I was jumpy and defensive. I wasn't sleeping well. The case had even entered my dreams.

My mind veered down another alley.

Could work dissatisfaction be at the root of my problem with Ryan? Were anxiety and frustration transferring to him and firing my own destruction in that arena?

Ryan.

As though triggered by some errant electron escaping that synapse, the phone rang. I swiveled and s.n.a.t.c.hed the receiver, this time nearly upsetting my drink.

"Dr. Brennan."

Susanne informed me that a detective was on his way to my office.

Claudel. Just what I needed.

Only it wasn't.

Standing six feet two, wearing khakis, fawn linen, and a tweed jacket, Ryan looked like a cross between Pierce Brosnan and the older guy in an Adidas ad. He shook his head at the Diet c.o.ke in my hand and the sugar powdering my desk blotter.

"The woman is a swirling ma.s.s of contradiction."

"I have eclectic tastes."

"Your tastes must confuse the h.e.l.l out of your pancreas."

"It's my my pancreas." pancreas."

Ryan looked surprised at the sharpness of my response.

"Catching you at a bad time, cupcake?"

"I was expecting someone else." I set down the can. "Honey bun." "Honey bun."

"I'm hearing that a lot lately."

"Honey bun?"

"That I am other than your expectations."

"I thought someone might be calling with information on a case."

"Once more I've dashed hopes of which I know nothing."

"You sound like Winston Churchill," I said, slumping back in my chair.

"That is nonsense up with which I will not put."

"A for grammar, D-minus for clarity." I pressed powdered sugar onto the tip of my finger.

"Winnie said it."

"You repeated it."

"How are things going with Claudel?" Ryan leaned against the doorjamb and crossed arms and ankles. As usual, I found my eyes drawn to his. No matter how often I experienced it, the intensity of the blue always caught me off guard.

"Claudel's running on a limited supply of brain cells. The few he has need to e-mail each other regularly to maintain contact."

"And the system is down?"

"I haven't heard from Claudel today. Actually, I'm looking forward to sharing something with him."

I licked sugar from my finger and dipped more from the blotter.

"You going to share it with Honey Bun?"

"LaManche authorized expenditure for a special test I requested."

"Without pa.s.sing it by Authier?"

I nodded.

"LaManche can be a rascal. What test?"

"Carbon 14."

"As in mummies and mastodons?"

I walked Ryan through the short course I'd given LaManche, but decided against mentioning the strontium isotope a.n.a.lysis. Too iffy.

"How far out for results?"

"Hopefully, no more than a week. LaManche suggested I move on to the third skeleton. Basically, he's telling me to forget about PMI for now."

"Not bad advice."

"It's frustrating."

"Goes with the job."

Ryan's beeper sounded. He checked the number and clipped the gizmo back on his belt.

"Granted, these kids didn't die last week, or even last month," I went on. "But I can't shake the thought that time is being wasted. I just have a bad feeling about this case."

"Why?"

I told Ryan about Mrs. Gallant/Ballant/Talent.

"What exactly did she say?"

"That she knew what had gone on in that building."

"Which was?"

"We didn't get that far."

"She could be a crackpot."

"She could be."

"You say she sounded old."

"Yes."

"It's possib-"

"I've thought of that, Ryan. But what if she is is sharp and she sharp and she is is on the level? And she on the level? And she does does know something?" know something?"

"She'll ring back."

"She hasn't."

"Are you having her call tracked?"

"Yes."

"Want me to see what I can find out?"

"I can handle it."

"What threat could an old lady pose to anybody?"

"This woman knows about our little field trip to the bas.e.m.e.nt. G.o.d knows who else read or heard about it. You saw Le Journal. Le Journal. The media were on the thing like cats on a fish wagon." The media were on the thing like cats on a fish wagon."

"Other than its age, what do you know about this building?"

"Three dead girls were buried in its bas.e.m.e.nt."

"You can be a pain in the a.s.s, Brennan."

"I work at it."

"Have dinner with me tonight?" Ryan asked.

"I'm busy."

Deafening quiet slipped across the office. Thirty seconds. A full minute.

Uncrossing his ankles, Ryan straightened from the wall. The ice blue eyes looked straight into mine. It was not a happy look.

"We need to talk."

"Yes," I said.

Adios, cowboy, I thought, watching Ryan disappear through the door.