Val reached for the skull, inspecting the part where the teeth would have been. “It’s hard to tell. They could have been forcefully extracted. It looks like someone grabbed both the tooth and bone and pulled forward. But, it’s so broken around this area I can’t be sure. The damage is pretty bad.” She turned it around, trying to get a good look from every angle. There was quite a bit of destruction to the bone. Multiple large cracks were evident and large pieces were missing, mostly around the region where the upper teeth once were. “There are no broken roots in the sockets, though. Rocks couldn’t have caused this. I saw the same thing with Francine’s skull. No broken roots.”

Val tilted the skull and grew excited. “Look at this, the shape of the break here. The rectangular outline is obvious on these two sockets. It looks like the outline of the nose of a set of pliers.” She remembered that Francine also had this kind of damage to her upper jaw and she quickly picked up Francine’s skull, pointing out several patterns that were consistent in size and shape. “It’s identical,” she said.

“This one has to be connected to this case. It would be far too coincidental if it wasn’t,” Gwen remarked.

“I agree. A head bouncing around on some rocks could have easily caused the rest of this damage, but not in these two places. There is no rock in the world that would make such a perfect rectangular pattern or dislodge roots from the sockets,” Val said.

Jack reached for Jeanne’s skull. “There are rectangular patterns on this too.”

Val grew quiet. A unique opportunity was right in front of her and she couldn’t afford to lose it. Oh my God. Zoe told her that if she had a piece of the skull, she could test it for the drug pancuronium. Well, here they all were. Proof that they may be connected.

“If I wanted to take a piece of this bone, how could I do it in a way that Dr. Blythe wouldn’t notice?” Val asked. Jack and Gwen looked at her oddly, eyebrows raised and faces blank as if they hadn’t heard correctly. Val explained why she wanted this and they both eagerly chimed in.

“The best way to do it is to take it from an area that has a break already. That way, it’ll blend in,” Jack said.

“What do I cut it with?” she asked.

“With those.” Gwen walked over to a table that held an array of instruments. She picked up the garden loppers. “Would you like to do the honors?”

Val took the lopper. She was getting fairly acquainted with this tool, surprised by its many uses. One day she’d have to actually use one in a garden.