If She Should Die Read Online Free Page B

How soon will we get back the test results?”
    “West Virginia doesn’t do DNA testing, sir,” Wintersaid cautiously, as if not knowing what reaction to expect next. “We send most of our samples to a lab in Pittsburgh. We won’t have an answer for four to six weeks at best.”
    “That’s a damned long time. No sense in our not being able to do our own testing.” A new idea seemed to pop into Ames’s mind. “How about dental records? That would be much faster.”
    “The corpse’s teeth are missing, sir.”
    “Missing?” Ames seemed to draw back for a moment before he grasped at another straw. “Then maybe it’s the body of an old person whose teeth have been extracted.”
    “No, sir. They look as if they were smashed out, probably to prevent identification. The fingertips were cut off, too.”
    Christine flinched. Teeth bashed out? Fingertips cut off? Dear God, please let the person have been dead when those atrocities were committed, she thought.
    “Look here,” Ames began again. “You said the body’s badly decomposed. Then you tell me it’s the body of a female. Now how do you know it’s a female?”
    Winter took a deep breath. “The length of the hair. The height. The shape of the pelvis—”
    “Some boys these days have long hair,” Ames announced. “And you’re not a doctor. What do you know about the shape of a pelvis?”
    “Not much, sir. That’s why we need an autopsy.” Ames glared at the deputy as if the situation were entirely his fault. “Mr. Prince, I really don’t think we’re accomplishing much here except alarming everyone,” Winter said evenly. “If you would just agree to go to the medical examiner’s in Charleston—”
    “All right, all
right
!” Ames stormed. Then he closed his eyes and breathed deeply, as if he were counting to ten. Finally he touched Wilma’s shoulder. “Dear, I’m afraid I won’t be able to follow you home.”
    “I can get home by myself,” Wilma said shakily. “But I don’t want you driving all the way to Charleston in this rain and as upset as you are.”
    “I’ll be fine, just fine. I’m not upset. This is all just a terrible mix-up that I will have straightened out in a few hours.”
    “I can go with you, Ames,” Christine volunteered, although she dreaded an acceptance.
    “No. You have Jeremy to look after,” Ames said. “And I don’t need a nursemaid. Wilma here seems in much worse shape than I am.”
    “I’ll take you home, Mrs. Archer,” Ginger said unexpectedly.
    Wilma looked surprised. “Oh, honey, that’s not necessary.”
    “I’ll just drive behind you to make sure you get home safe and sound. You won’t have to actually sit in a car with me listening to me prattle, because I know that’s what you’re really afraid of. My dad says I could talk the ear off an elephant, and that’s a mighty big ear.”
    She ended with a wink and Wilma actually managed a weak smile. Christine could have kissed Ginger, who wasn’t always so sensitive to other people’s needs. Thank heavens she’d come through this evening, Christine thought as Ginger herded a shaking, watery-eyed Wilma out the door. Ames followed briskly, saying in an abnormally hearty voice, “Wilma, don’t go to pieces. This person
isn’t
Dara. It just isn’t. I’d know if my daughter were dead, wouldn’t I? It
isn’t
Dara.”
2
    After they left, Christine stood rooted behind the counter. Deputy Winter had made no move to leave the store. Shelooked at him, tried to smile, failed, and pushed her short hair behind her ears for the third time, a nervous gesture. She seemed cold to the bone in spite of the store’s comfortable temperature and her warm sweater. Her fingers felt sharp and icy.
    At last, Deputy Winter asked, “Do you know anything about these letters from his daughter Mr. Prince has been receiving?”
    “I know everything about them,” Christine said. Winter looked at her in mild surprise and she realized she had not explained her