“How about obstructing justice, or accessory after the fact?”

“Afterwhatfact?” I wasn’t believing this.

“Let’s start with infantalcide.” Slidel .

“The word is ‘infanticide,’ ” I snapped.

Slidel put a fist on each hip and leaned back, stretching his lower shirt buttons to their tensile limits.

“You wouldn’t have any idea as to the whereabouts of these folks, now, would you, Doc?”

“I wouldn’t tel you if I did.”

Slidel ’s hands dropped and his head came forward. We glared across my desk, baboons chal enging for first dibs at the watering hole.

“Let’s talk about this other situation,” said Rinaldi.

As if on cue, a cel phone rang. Slidel scooped his out of a pocket. “Slidel .”

He listened a moment, then stepped into the hal .

I looked Rinaldi straight in the eye.

“When I was describing what we found in that privy yesterday, something clicked for you.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Something in your eyes.”

Rinaldi tugged his shirt cuffs from underneath his jacket and smoothed them against his wrists.

“Have you completed your examination of the skul and hand bones?”

“It tops my agenda.”

The fluorescents hummed overhead. Slidel ’s voice drifted in from the hal .

“Who is this Darryl Tyree?” I asked.

“A pimp, a drug dealer, and a pornographer. Although I’m not sure that’s the order Mr. Tyree uses on his résumé. Let me know what you decide about the skul .”

Rinaldi started toward the door just as Joe Hawkins appeared in it. Both men stopped. Hawkins reached past Rinaldi and handed me a large brown envelope.

I thanked him. Hawkins withdrew.

Rinaldi did a slow turn and rol ed his eyes in his partner’s direction.

“Skinny can be a bit gruff. But he’s a good cop. Don’t worry, Dr. Brennan. We’l find the Bankses.” At that moment Slidel stuck his head through the door.

“Looks like Green Acres ain’t the crime scene for the privy vic.”

Rinaldi and I waited for him to continue.

“CSU shined a LumaLite around the place this morning.” Though Slidel smiled, the corners of his mouth stayed flat. “No blood. Dark as a mal on Christmas Day.”

When Rinaldi and Slidel had gone, I took Hawkins’s envelope to the stinky room and began popping X rays onto the light boxes.

Each film inspired a fresh title for Slidel .

Dork.

Prick.

One-syl able appel ations worked best. Unless a corner slipped and the film needed readjustment.

Asshole.

Dickhead.

Plate by plate, I worked my way through the passenger’s infrastructure. Ribs, vertebrae, pelvis, arm, leg, breast, and col arbone.

Other than massive deceleration trauma, the skeleton looked perfectly normal.

Until I popped up the last four plates.

I was staring at the passenger’s hands and feet when Larabee came up behind me. For a ful ten seconds neither of us spoke.

Larabee broke the silence.