LC 02 - Questionable Remains Read Online Free PDF Page B

sat beside her. Marilee read,
pointing to each word and pronouncing it clearly and deliberately. Lindsay was surprised and pleased that the book
was as accurate as it was simple.
    "You read very well," she told Marilee.
    "I like to read," she said, smiling up at Lindsay.
    "I'd better let you get to bed."
    Marilee shook her head. "More."
    "I think your mother made coffee "
    "Just one more page, please?"
    Lindsay relented and listened to just one more page,
which turned into two pages, after which Lindsay tucked
her in and turned out the light.
    Miles and Grace Lambert waited for Lindsay in the sitting room. Miles sat uncomfortably on the white and gold
brocade sofa, his hands gripping the seat as though he were
not in that room by choice. Grace poured coffee from a silver coffeepot that was part of a silver service sitting on the
cherry coffee table. A large manila envelope lay next to the
tray. Grace handed a white bone china cup and saucer to
Lindsay.
    Lindsay took a sip of coffee as she sat in a wingback chair
that matched the sofa.
    "We're glad you stayed," Grace said. "It's been a treat for
Marilee. She's always bubbling with questions, and we
can't always answer them."
    "She has quite a collection of things."

    "She's a little pack rat all right," said her father. "Did she
show you the piece of wood from the shipwreck?" He
seemed as proud as Marilee.
    "Yes. She said she found it on the beach," said Lindsay.
    He nodded his head. "We took our vacation back in April.
Went to Florida-bad timing, too many young people." He
shook his head. "But we had fun, didn't we, Grace?"
    "It's the first trip we'd been on since our honeymoon. We
took the kids to the beach and Disney World. Then we came
back ..." She didn't finish her sentence, but took a sip of
coffee.
    As they made light conversation, Grace eyed her husband the way one does when they want someone to bring
up an agreed upon subject. Miles set down his cup and took
a breath. Lindsay quietly sipped her coffee.
    "Dr. Lindsay," he began. "We-my wife and I-have a
question. We understand that you can tell an awful lot
about what happened to a dead person from just looking at
their bones."
    "Sometimes," Lindsay said cautiously.
    "Grace's brother, Ken, died and-"
    "No, he was killed, murdered," interrupted Grace, leaning forward. "I believe I know who did it, but I can't get
anybody to listen to me."

     

Chapter 3
    LINDSAY DIDN'T KNOW what she had expected to hear
from the Lamberts, but it wasn't this. She stared at Grace a
moment, but before she had a chance to speak, Grace began
telling her about her brother. She handed Lindsay a photograph in a silver frame of a thin, lanky young man with
handsome features leaning casually against a restored
Mustang convertible. He had brown, almost blond, hair
falling onto his forehead. As Lindsay looked at the picture,
Grace told her how much she adored him, how good he was
to her, how much he loved life.
    Lindsay had observed that people seem to feel that if they
could only make her understand how much a person was
loved-that they were a real person and not a statistic-she
would understand how important it was to do her best and
make no mistakes when she examined their bones. Above
all, she would treat them with dignity. Grace wanted
Lindsay to know her brother as she knew him.
    Miles, however, did not seem to share Grace's opinion of
Ken's good nature. When Lindsay cast glances at him during Grace's narration, he had his head down or stared out
the window lest he be called on to verify his brother-inlaw's virtues-or so Lindsay suspected.
    "The last time I saw him," Grace continued, "was the first week in January a couple of years ago. He and his wife,
Jennifer, went to Colorado to visit her folks at Christmas.
We drove up to Tennessee to see them right after they got
home. He'd had a bad skiing accident out there. He broke
his ankle and a couple of ribs, bruised up his face real bad.
He looked