Deadly Promises (Tracers #2.5)(75)

“Okay, spill it.” Gage rested his arm on the back of the seat. “What’s the problem?”

She blew out a sigh. “Sattler’s the problem. He’s not taking this seriously.”

“What’s to take seriously?”

“I think we’re dealing with a homicide. He should be all over this. The rest of the remains need to be recovered, and he needs to launch a murder investigation. Instead, you know what he’s doing today?”

“What?”

“Speed traps between here and I-10.”

“He told you that?”

“I overheard one of his deputies talking while I was waiting to meet with him.”

Their drinks came and they both downed half the glass in one gulp.

“How can you be sure this is a murder case?” Gage asked.

“I can’t, especially not until I have the other bones, but I definitely found signs.”

Gage lifted his eyebrows and waited.

“Tiny flecks of metal embedded in the mandible,” she said. “Probably the result of a bullet fired through the skull.”

“And you showed Sattler?”

“Whipped out my magnifying glass and everything. He wasn’t convinced.”

“So forget the cadaver dog. Why don’t you get a metal detector out there, see if you can find the bullet? If he was shot on site you might even get a shell casing.”

She leaned back against the booth and blinked at him.

“What?”

“You ever thought of becoming a cop?” she asked.

Gage glanced away. Life beyond the navy wasn’t something he talked about. But Spec Ops was a young man’s game, and he’d just turned thirty-two. He’d been doing a lot of soul-searching lately, especially since Kandahar.

Kelsey stirred her drink with a straw. “I sent the jaw off to the lab for testing. Before they run the metal, I’m going to have my friend Mia take a look at it. She’s a DNA tracer, and I’m hoping she can get something useful from the tooth pulp.”

“Don’t you need something to compare it to so you can get an ID?” Gage asked.

“There could be something already in the Missing Persons index. If there is, we’ll get his remains turned over to his family. If there isn’t, we’ll enter the DNA profile in case someone comes looking for him someday.”

Gage watched her, intrigued by the way she talked with so much emotion about a little chunk of bone. Obviously, to her, it represented a lot more than that.

Their food came and she immediately dug into her sandwich. She had an appetite, which didn’t surprise him given the amount of time she spent working outdoors. Gage had never cared much for skinny girls, but this one actually had some meat on her—in all the right places.

She caught him staring. “What?” she asked and took a slurp of Diet Coke.

“You keep saying ‘him.’ You’re sure it’s a man?”

She shrugged. “Mia can tell me for sure, but it looks that way, given the shape of the mental protuberance.”

“The who?”

She motioned him closer. He hesitated a second before resting his elbows on the table and leaning in.

“The mental protuberance.” She rubbed her index finger over his chin. “It tends to have a square edge and be thicker for males.” Her finger moved to the side of his jaw. “And the gonial angle here? In males it’s usually more flared.”

She dropped her hand away and picked up a french fry. “Anyway, we’ll know the sex for sure when Mia runs the DNA. I also found some interesting dental work.”

“Oh, yeah?” Not that he gave a damn whatsoever. Gage forked up a bite of eggs and tried to shut out the thoughts racing through his head.

“Two porcelain fillings. It goes a long way toward disproving Sattler’s theory.”

“And what’s Sattler’s theory?”

“That we’re dealing with an illegal immigrant, maybe a drug runner who got himself into trouble down near the river. It would be surprising for someone like that to have this sort of dental work.”

Kelsey checked her watch and signaled the waitress. “Do you mind if we go soon? I really want to get back before that deputy shows up.” She smiled slightly. “Robles hates idle hands. If he sees him just sitting there, he’s liable to put him on bucket duty.”

“I know all about bucket duty.”

The waitress reappeared and Gage took the check. He reached for his wallet but Kelsey deftly snatched away the bill.

“Don’t even think about it,” she said. “You slept in your truck last night. The least I can do is feed you.”

SATTLER’S DEPUTY HADN’T shown up by the time they made it back to camp, so Kelsey went ahead without him.

She cherry-picked a team of her most capable students and started them at the highway. Their skeptical expressions told her they thought she was off base, that the search should have focused on the place where the mandible had been found. But when she’d mapped the area last night, she’d decided to start with a swath of land about a hundred yards north, her logic being that whoever had brought the victim here—dead or alive—had probably come via the highway and wouldn’t have wanted to stray too far off course. Scavengers could have moved the bones, whether they’d been left in the open or buried in a shallow grave.