“I want you to x-ray every bone.” I kept my voice calm. “First Beck.” I pointed to the partial skeleton. “Then the other man.” I pointed to the pile containing the chunk of ilia, the femur, and the tibia. “Then those.” I pointed to the cranial fragments and the unassigned humerus. “Do them separately. Do not mix them up. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“Start with Beck.” I removed Beck’s jaw fragment and placed his other bones on the tray.

When Courtney had gone, I phoned King. She picked up right away.

“The older vic was shot,” I said.

“No way.”

“There was lead snowstorm on the X-ray of his jaw.”

Silence.

“Very fine particles dispersed as a result of a high-velocity rifle round passing through the body,” I explained.

“Like a hunting rifle?”

“That’s my thinking,” I said.

“Got a few thousand of those babies around here. What about Beck?”

“We’re doing a full-body series. I’m also checking the bones I shifted to the older vic. You finding anything?”

“I pulled Beck’s death certificate. DOD is March fourth, 2008. I checked MP reports for that entire year, moving forward from that date. No one fits your profile.”

“The older guy had root canals on a couple of his lower molars, probably the second and third. We should run the film past a forensic odontologist, get it right before coding the dentals into CPIC.”

“You got one on your speed dial?”

“I do. But he’s in Montreal, and it’s the middle of the night there.” And flexibility was not one of Marc Bergeron’s attributes. I didn’t say it.

“Beck’s been dead a while,” King said. “He can wait a while longer.”

Using my iPhone, I took photos of the older man’s dental work, then e-mailed them to Bergeron. He’d have them when I called in the morning.

I looked at my watch. Twelve-ten. It was morning.

Figuring Ollie was tied up with Scar’s murder investigation, I called Ryan. He and Rainwater were at a bar on Highway 4, following another lead on Unka. I could hear music in the background, the noise of a lot of people in a small space.

“Rainwater thinks we’re being played.” Ryan sounded as tired as I felt. “He’s ordered a sweep, plans to sweat whoever gets caught in the net.”

I told Ryan about the commingled remains and the lead scatter.

“Both were capped?”

“I’ll know soon. The older vic had a couple of root canals.”

“You plan to call Bergeron?”

“Tomorrow. I’ve sent him pics.”

“Good thinking.”

“Keep me in the loop,” I said.

“Ditto.”

Courtney returned as I was disconnecting. While she x-rayed the rest of the older man, I viewed Beck’s postcranial films.

His femur and pelvic fragment were blizzard all the way. That answered one question. But generated more.

Had Beck and the older man both been murdered? If so, why?