On the Street Where you Live Read Online Free PDF

just been uncovered on Hayes Avenue in Spring Lake. Owner was excavating for a pool.”
    Before Osborne could continue, the phone in the squad car rang. The driver answered and handed it back to the prosecutor. “It’s Newton, sir.”
    Osborne held up the phone so that Tommy could hear what the forensics chief was saying. “You’ve got yourself a hell of a case, Elliot. There are remains of two people buried here, and from the look of it, one has been in the ground a lot longer than the other.”

five ________________
    A FTER MAKING THE 911 CALL , Emily ran outside and stood at the edge of the gaping hole and looked down at what appeared to be a human skeleton.
    As a criminal defense attorney she had seen dozens of graphic pictures of bodies. The expressions on the faces of many of them had been frozen in fear. In others she’d been sure she could detect lingering traces of pleading in their staring eyes. But nothing had ever affected her the way the sight of this victim did now.
    The body had been bound in heavy, clear plastic. The plastic was shredding but, although the flesh had crumbled, it had done a good job of keeping the bones intact. For a moment it crossed her mind that the remains of her great-great-grandaunt had been accidentally discovered.
    Then she rejected that possibility. In 1891, when Madeline Shapely disappeared, plastic had not yet been invented, so this could not be her.
    When the first police car raced up the driveway, its siren screeching, Emily returned to the house. She knew it was inevitable that the police would want to speak to her, and she felt the need to collect her wits.
    â€œCollect her wits”—her grandmother’s expression.
    The bags of food were on the kitchen counter where she had dropped them in her rush to phone. With robotlike precision she filled the kettle, placed iton the stove, turned on the flame, then sorted through the bags and put the perishables in the refrigerator. She hesitated for a moment, then began opening and closing cabinets.
    â€œI don’t remember where the groceries belong,” she said aloud, fretfully, then recognized that the stab of childish irritation was the result of shock.
    The kettle began whistling. A cup of tea, she thought. That will clear my head.
    A large window in the kitchen overlooked the grounds behind the house. Teacup in hand, Emily stood at it, observing the quiet efficiency with which the area around the excavation was being cordoned off.
    Police photographers arrived and began snapping picture after picture of the site. She knew it had to be a forensic expert who scrambled into the excavation, near the place where the skeleton was lying.
    She knew that the remains would be taken to the morgue and examined. And then a physical description would be issued, giving the sex of the victim, along with the approximate size and weight and age. Dental records and DNA would help to match the description with that of a missing person. And for some unfortunate family the agony of uncertainty would be ended, along with the forlorn hope that maybe the loved one would return.
    The bell rang.
    A GRIM-FACED T OMMY D UGGAN stood next to Elliot Osborne on the porch and waited for the door to be opened. From their whispered consultation with the forensics chief, both men were sure that the search forMartha Lawrence was over. Newton had told them that the condition of the skeletal frame wrapped in plastic indicated it was that of a young adult who, as far as he could tell, had perfect teeth. He refused to speculate on the loose human bones that he had found near the skeleton until the medical examiner could examine them in the morgue.
    Tommy glanced over his shoulder. “There are people starting to gather out there. The Lawrences are sure to hear about this.”
    â€œDr. O’Brien is going to rush the autopsy,” Osborne said crisply. “He understands that everyone in Spring Lake is going to jump to