Day of the Dead - J. A. Jance [99]
And one they could charge more for, too, Brandon thought.
Once they were finished, Sam stepped away from the Suburban, vigorously rubbing both hands on his jeans. The Indian man was clearly relieved to have the casket out of his possession, and Brandon could see why. Even without taking Tohono O’odham taboos into consideration, the idea of driving around with a corpse in the back of his vehicle wasn’t Brandon’s idea of a good time, either.
The barking dog woke Lani. She came out to the kitchen to find her mother unloading the dishwasher. She looked upset.
“What’s going on?” Lani asked.
“Somebody just dropped a dead baby off on the front porch. Your father is loading it into the Suburban.”
“A dead baby? For Dad?” Lani was mystified. “How come?”
“It’s a case Dad’s working on for TLC—a girl from the reservation who was pregnant when she was killed some thirty years ago. Dad’s hoping that modern DNA testing can shed some light on the case.”
“He really is working for that volunteer cold-case group?”
Diana nodded. “It’s been good for him—given him back a sense of purpose, but I don’t think he expected to have a casket turn up on the doorstep at six o’clock in the morning. Come to think of it, neither did I.”
After pouring three cups of coffee, Diana took hers and headed for her office. Lani and Damsel waited until Brandon came in from outside to wash his hands. Lani handed him his coffee, then, calling Damsel, she headed for the door. “Let’s sit outside in the sun,” she said. “Mom told me about the case you’re working on, but I’d like to hear it from you.”
Out on the patio, Brandon told Lani about Roseanne Orozco and what had happened to her. Lani had been the same age as Roseanne when she had lived through her own harrowing experience at the hands of Mitch Johnson. Hearing the story of another Tohono O’odham girl, one who had not survived a similarly savage attack, left Lani feeling half sick. It also explained why her father was so deeply involved.
They had drunk that first pot of coffee and the better part of a second before Diana joined them on the patio. “I’m done answering e-mail,” she said. “Can I interest anybody in breakfast?”
Brandon nodded. “Sounds good,” he said, “but first I need to call Ralph Ames and find out what he wants me to do about our early-morning guest.”
As he headed for his office, Lani turned to her mother. “You’re right,” she said. “Dad really is happy to be working again.”
Ralph Ames answered on the second ring. “You’re up and around early,” he said.
“Well,” Brandon replied, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is, I have Roseanne Orozco’s baby.”
“Good,” Ames returned. “We should be able to start the DNA testing right away. I’ve found a place here in Seattle that may be able to get results on fetal remains. What’s the bad news?”
“I’ve got the whole body,” Brandon replied. “Coffin and all. The grandmother had it dug up overnight and delivered it to my doorstep bright and early this morning.”
Ralph Ames paused for a moment. “I guess that means we don’t have to worry about going through the tribal council.”
“You could say that,” Brandon agreed. “But whoever’s doing the testing won’t want us to ship them a loaded coffin.”
“Right. Let me give them a call and get right back to you,” Ames said.
The phone rang again a few minutes later. “Here’s the deal,” Ralph told him. “The customer relations lady at Genelex tells me we’ll need heart tissue. Was the baby embalmed?”
“I asked that. The grandmother doesn’t know.”
“It’s evidently more difficult to get results from embalmed tissue,” Ralph told him. “But they’ll be glad to try. Where do you want the kit sent?”
“Kit?” Brandon asked.
“A nonstandard tissue-collection kit,” Ralph said. “They’ll FedEx it to whoever’s obtaining the sample for us.”
“I suppose that’s better than shipping a coffin across the country,” Brandon returned.
“They want the sample collection to be done by an official agency, preferably a medical examiner