It reeked from smoke and gasoline and made him cough violently. He pulled his head out and covered his nose and mouth with a handkerchief. Inside the car again, his eyes burned, but as far as he could tell, he didn’t see any smaller skeleton in the front seat. The backseat was a jumble of metal filled with soot and ashes. He sifted through the debris, felt his lungs fill up with dirt. Quickly, he surfaced for fresh air and took in a mouthful of smoky dust instead. He coughed and spat on the ground. Annie hit his back.

“Are you okay?”

“Other than breathing poison, I suppose I’ll live.” He coughed again. “Thought I gave up shit when I quit smoking.”

“What’s the verdict?”

“Backseat’s a mess. So far I didn’t find any buried baby bones. I’m going in again.”

“Hold your breath,” Annie said.

Decker nodded and went inside for a third look. He quickly sorted through the ashes, stirring up black dust, feeling for something hard and bony. He repeated the procedure a couple more times. “I hope I don’t eat my words, but I don’t think the baby was here.”

“Thank God!” Annie said.

“You want to take a look at the skull?”

Annie slipped on latex gloves. “I am now an official forensic odontologist.” In an Austrian accent, she said, “Give me room, please.”

Decker backed away. About ten minutes later, Annie stood up and coughed.

“You lasted longer than I did,” Decker said.

“Good pair of lungs.” She looked down at her chest. “Wish it were so.” She raised her brow. “I can’t tell anything definitive right now. Be able to tell you a heck of a lot more once the skull is removed from the body.”

“You’re frowning. What is it?”

“There isn’t a lot of definition. The anterior maxilla and mandible are smashed to bits. No teeth or bony structure from roughly canine to canine—just a big gaping hole.”

“The face probably got smashed when it hit the steering wheel.”

“It would take more than a steering wheel to do that kind of damage. The bone looks pulverized. Could be bits of the front teeth are mixed with all the cinders.”

Decker took out his notebook. “What about the back teeth?”

“I can’t look at them because of the way the skull is situated. You’re going to have to detach the head from the spine.”

“Let’s do it this way,” Decker said. “Let me bag all the debris in the car, and I’ll sift through it later. As soon as I’ve got the car clear of whatever evidence there might be, I’ll remove the body…at least the skull.”

“Fine.”

“From a quick glance, can you tell if the skeleton is male or female?”

“No guarantee, but from the spread of the pelvis it looks like a woman—a big woman.”