I pointed to the isolated fragments. “These are portions of jaw and pelvis. Both come from the right side of the body.” I pointed to the corresponding fragments in the partial skeleton I’d created. “These fragments are from identical locations. They also come from the right side of the body.”

“Meaning?” Her expression said she already knew the answer.

“There are two people here.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“How was Daryl identified?”

“Mostly context. It was his house. His bike was there. A neighbor heard him pull in that night, never heard him leave. Said he would have heard, since the bike was noisy as hell.”

“That was it? No dental records?”

“Daryl wasn’t big on oral hygiene. Couldn’t have afforded a dentist if he’d wanted one.”

The lights hummed. The clock ticked.

“So which one is Daryl?” King was staring at the gurney.

“Both are male,” I said.

“How do you know?”

“There’s enough detail.” I lifted the two hunks of ilia. “Both sciatic notches are deep and narrow.” I pointed to a slice of crescent that had survived on each fragment. “These rough areas are the points where these ilia articulated with their respective sacra. Neither surface is elevated; both are flush with the surrounding bone. And neither has a groove along its edge.”

“Male traits.”

“Yes.”

I noticed that Courtney had edged closer. “Would you like to see?” I asked her. She nodded. I showed her the features I’d described.

“There’s a little of the acetabulum left on each fragment. The hip socket. Eyeballing the partial diameters, I can say that one man was larger than the other.”

I got the calipers from the counter. The others watched as I took measurements to confirm my suspicion.

“Can you say anything about age?” King asked.

“A little.” I held a fragment in each hand. “Notice that the larger man’s articular surface is billowy and that the bone looks granular. That of the smaller man appears smoother and denser.” Oversimplified but close enough.

I looked up. King and Courtney were clearly baffled.

I set the fragments on the table, got the flashlight, and killed the overheads. “Watch this.”

I directed the beam horizontally across each surface. The subtle indentations appeared as transverse shadows on that of the larger man.

Courtney spotted the difference first. “The bigger guy has furrows. The smaller guy has none.”

Maybe King saw it, maybe not. “What does it mean?” she asked.

“The bigger man was younger, probably in his twenties. The smaller man was more likely in his forties. These are very rough estimates. This aging technique only allows for broad ranges, and only a portion of each surface is observable.”

“Daryl was twenty-four,” King said. “A six-footer.”

The hopping hand ticked off seconds.

“So who’s the other guy?” King spoke aloud, more to herself than to us.

I raised both palms in a “who knows” gesture.

“Can you determine race?” King asked.