Claire said, “I spoke with Dr. Perlmutter. She said looks like all the skulls are female. We’ve got a little multicultural mix going on here. Two of the skulls plus the head of our Jane Doe makes three white women. We also have one female of African background, one Asian, and two undetermined.”

“Their ages?”

“Approximately twenties to forties.”

“How long have the heads been in the ground?”

“It’s hard to be precise, Lindsay. But yes, they could all have been buried in the last ten years.”

Since Chandler bought the Ellsworth compound.

I hung up and called out to Conklin, asked him to join me in the pantry.

Conklin can read me like a map.

He knew that I felt pressure from Brady to work on Revenge and that at the same time, I was committed to the Ellsworth case. I wanted to do both.

I told him about my conversation with Claire.

He said to me, “I’ll work on Nicole.”

I nodded, said, “Good. While you do that, I’m going to use my famous charm on the movie star.”

Chapter 21

CONKLIN HELD THE back door open for Nicole, then followed her out to the patio. They ducked into the tent and Conklin said hello to a tech who was labeling bags of dirt.

“Got booties?” Conklin asked.

The tech handed him a carton of disposable shoe covers and Conklin took two pairs, then handed one pair to Nicole.

A brick path skirted the base of the wall, and once their feet were swaddled in plastic, Nicole and Conklin walked around the shadowy patch of garden.

Conklin focused his attention on Nicole Worley, watched her body language as she told him that she was a biologist and was hoping a teaching job would open in one of the schools within commuting distance of the Ellsworth place.

“My parents are getting older, and it’s better for them if I’m around. I keep them from killing each other — oh, I didn’t mean that literally.”

Conklin smiled, said, “I knew what you meant.”

Nicole slipped into her tour-guide role, talked about Bryce Ellsworth, his five wives and fourteen children, how the house survived the great fire of 1906. She had anecdotes about Prohibition and about Billie Holiday, the famous chanteuse, who’d sung for the Ellsworth family in their own parlor.

As Nicole and Conklin rounded the corner of the lot, Nicole indicated the four six-story houses beyond the wall.

Nicole said, “These houses are high for this area, but Bryce Ellsworth wanted them to balance the height of the main house. He liked symmetry. Notice that there are no windows facing the back garden. This is one of the interesting things about this place. I can’t even see the garden from my flat in number two.”

“What was the point of not having back-facing windows?”

“The first Mrs. Ellsworth was very private. I think it was her idea to keep the help from spying on her when she walked in the garden.”