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Also by Mary Bush

A Simple Lie

Dedication

For Ray — my dear friend, colleague and partner in our forensic dental team.

1

Valentina Knight stepped around the altar. She estimated its size to be about ten feet across and two feet in width. Bright lights above, set up by crime scene technicians, illuminated the bodies lying on top, making it seem like heaven was shining down and at any moment angels would come to collect them. Prayer—this was all that was left for the young mother and her son, especially after they died like that.

Three cops huddled together in stunned silence as the technicians quietly moved around the church scouring for evidence. No one had any words right now. Val couldn’t help but feel an uncomfortable stillness in the air, as if those fortunate to be alive, those spared death, were waiting to exhale in relief…This wasn’t my family. This isn’t my nightmare. Thank God.

The team had started at the altar. Now that the victims had been photographed, and a search for hair, fibers, fingerprints, completed and documented, it was up to Val to do a preliminary exam for cause and manner of death before sealing up the boy and his mother and transporting them to the morgue.

Val shivered as she looked at the odd placement of the bodies. Their heads were at either end of the altar, feet pointed together, like mirror images. Each had died in a very different way, though.

“Jesus, I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Officer Powell said, his face ashen. He held a document, which Val guessed was the missing person’s report. Computer printout photos were paper-clipped to the front. “The priest found them this morning, though he can’t say how long they’ve been here. He hasn’t been in the church since services last Sunday.” Officer Powell was the first responder and would be in charge until homicide detectives Mitchell Gavin and Alexander Warren arrived.

This was Val’s first opportunity to even get a briefing on the case from him. The lead crime scene tech, though, had provided her with a summary of the findings and also let her know that the names of the victims were Gabrielle Morgan and her son Adam.

“Sunday? That’s three days ago. There’s no way these people have been dead for three days. There isn’t enough decomposition for that,” Val said and then nodded towards the officer’s document. “Do we know how long they’d been missing for?”

“About a week. Six days to be exact.” Officer Powell handed Val the report. “This was filed on Monday.”