“Okay, I think we’ve got enough.” Justin was squatting over the body, his hands dangling between his knees, lost in concentration. “I need to clear the gun.”
“Do it,” said Jacobs.
Gingerly, Justin took the.22 from Mariah’s grip. With gloved hands he emptied the bullets from the revolver and dropped them into a paper bag. The gun itself went into a separate paper bag. “Can you initial these?” he asked Cameryn.
Cameryn wrote C.M. on the yellow tags.
“Ready to flip the body,” said Jacobs. “I want to get a look at this kid. Deputy, on the count of three.”
“One, two, three!” The two men gently pushed Mariah over, and Justin pulled the hair away from her eyes. If Cameryn had any doubts before, they disappeared when she saw the face. In death the features were even more doll-like, with her pale, wide-set eyes, the freckles looking not so much like honey now but like rust against the too-white skin. Mariah had already stiffened up, from the cold or rigor or both. Her right hand stayed in position, her fingers still cocked against the side of her head, while her left arm remained rigid at her side. Pale blue eyes had already begun to cloud, as though the irises had been infused with milk.
“Cammie, do you have any idea how long she’s been dead?” Jacobs asked.
Both Jacobs and Justin were looking at her, expecting answers. She took a series of short, deep breaths and commanded herself to think clinically. Crouching near Mariah’s head, Cameryn placed one hand on the cheekbones and the other on Mariah’s chin. She tried to pull the jaw apart, but it barely moved. She then moved it side to side, trying not to notice the tiny serrations on the edge of Mariah’s teeth and the blank way she stared at Cameryn.
“What are you doing that for? ” Jacobs asked, peering at her over his glasses.
It was important she mirror her father’s impassive face, his air of professionalism. Other feelings must be shoved underground. In what she hoped was a commanding voice she said, “There’s not much tissue on the jaw, so rigor shows up here pretty fast. She’s been dead about two hours. More or less.”
“ Crowley, check her backpack to see if you can find any ID. I’ll pat down her pockets and search her coat.”
It was then that the thought, so obvious, slammed against her. How could she have been so stupid? Her mother’s wallet would be inside that backpack, or maybe tucked inside a pocket of the blue coat. There it would be, a clear direct piece of evidence linking the two. Like a drum, the thought beat through Cameryn: If they got to Hannah first, she would tell the story about Cameryn and the chase and they would all realize that she, Cameryn Mahoney, Assistant Coroner, had lied about knowing Mariah. That might be enough to make her lose her job. It was now or never.
“Justin!” she cried.
“What the-?” Justin looked inside the backpack. He peered closer, pulling the flap as far as it would go, angling it beneath the lights.
“You got something?” Jacobs asked. “’Cause her pockets came up clean. No ID. You got anything that can tell us who this girl is?”
“Wait, Justin-” Cameryn broke in. “I-”
“Hold on.” Justin held up his hand. “I couldn’t find a wallet, but I found something else. Sheriff Jacobs, could you come here?” His forehead wrinkled as he stared inside the backpack, as if he couldn’t comprehend.
Jacobs clomped over to where Justin stood. The mouth of the backpack gaped open, and Cameryn saw a flash of metal inside. “What is it, Deputy?”
“Look at this.” From the depths of the backpack Justin withdrew a pair of scissors. The blades were long, silver, and old-fashioned, with a pattern etched on the handle in a delicate engraving.
“So? Scissors don’t mean much.”
“Yeah, but check this out.” And then, with latex-gloved fingers, Justin removed a three-foot-long braid of strawberry-blonde hair. It hung, swinging like a rope. “Cutting off a girl’s hair can be an act of vengeance,” he told the sheriff.
Jacobs inclined his head. “How’s that?”
It was so quiet in the alleyway that Cameryn was afraid they might hear the pounding of her heart.
“Haircutting can be a sign of retribution,” explained Justin, his voice eager now. “When a crime is girl-on-girl, the perpetrator sometimes cuts off the victim’s hair.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, you just made a giant leap there, Deputy. As far as I can tell, there is no retribution and there is no perpetrator. This girl put a bullet in her own head.” Jacobs squinted at Justin while Justin, still holding the braid, stared back.
Finally, Justin said, “Maybe you’re right. But there’s a psychological aspect to the cutting.”
“And you know this… how?” the sheriff asked.
“From the police academy. And, like Cameryn, I’ve read books on the criminal mind.”
The sheriff rubbed the back of his neck and let a small stream of air escape between his teeth. “We’re just a small town, Deputy. What I’ve learned is when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.”
Cameryn stood frozen. She watched as Justin held out the braid, which now hung limp from his hand. “You’re right, Sheriff-this might be a garden-variety suicide. But sometimes the hoofbeats do belong to the zebra.”
“What are you saying, Deputy?”
“I’m saying we might be looking at a murder.”
Chapter Six
“YOU WANT TO tell me what you’re thinking? I keep trying to bring up interesting subjects, but you haven’t said three words. I might as well be talking to Baby Doe. That’s what I’m calling our vic-Baby Doe instead of Jane Doe, since she’s so young,” her father said as he downshifted their station wagon. They had already descended the Million Dollar Highway and were now driving past Hermosa, a small town located on the outskirts of Durango. From the road, the town glittered with bright lights, like jewels against velvet. Cameryn watched it twinkle and wondered about the living that went on inside those houses. In those homes, people were serving dinner and helping their kids with homework, fighting and making up, oblivious to the cargo the Mahoneys carried. Death glided past life, unnoticed in the darkness.
“It’s… nothing,” she sighed. “Just a long day.”
“You can say that again. It’s like a bloody war zone.”
“I know,” she said, distracted. “I’m sorry, I’m just… thinking.” With her head pressed against the glass, she turned Justin’s words over in her mind for the hundredth time. Murder, murder, murder. If that were true, then she, by not telling what she knew, was withholding evidence of a crime. Suicide was one thing-there was no point dragging Hannah into a mess if she didn’t have to. But murder? At this point she’d already gone too far. A plunging, hopeless feeling settled inside as she watched the full moon touch the top of the mountain, balancing on a jagged peak like a golden ball.
“Well, let me take a stab at this since you’re not talking. Are you worried that Dr. Moore’s going to give you grief for being the lead coroner on this one?”
In spite of herself, Cameryn smiled. The “guessing game” was one of her father’s strategies to get her to talk when she didn’t want to.
“No.”
“Are you worried that you haven’t finished your application for that forensic guru?”
“No. She’s supposed to e-mail me today.”
“Okay,” he went on, jutting out a thoughtful lower lip, “are you worried about what Justin said-that this is a murder and not a suicide?”
It was enough to wake her from her trance. Pulling away from the glass, she turned to look at him. “What did you say?”
“Bingo!” he said happily. “If you’re concerned whether you covered procedure well enough if the case goes to trial, don’t be. First of all, you did a fine job-everything by the book. Are you worried about a trial?”
She nodded, thankful for the excuse.