Today's Reading
"Sweet as."
Alexa beamed. "Then we'll extract DNA from the pulp chamber. See if it links either of the skeletons to the benefactor."
Natalie leashed Kaos and left. After a blissful cup of coffee, Alexa lugged the couch against the wall and did a twenty-minute kickboxing routine to her throwback playlist. She was psyched about the day ahead, but U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" bothered her. Shuffle, jab, cross, hook. What if she had found what she was looking for? She loved her job. And maybe Bruce as well, the detective inspector she'd been dating. Her brother, Charlie, always accused her of running away from commitment. Said it was a pattern.
Jab, cross, undercut.
She showered, dressed, packed, and drove to work where she spent a couple hours in her cubicle at Auckland Forensic Service Center finishing reports. At noon she checked in with her boss, Dan Goddard.
"Ready to fly?" he asked.
Alexa tried to stem her excitement. "I just finished that robbery report."
"If a crime case comes up, I'll need to pull you away," he warned.
Even though it was a Wednesday, she felt like a kid on a Friday afternoon.
It was a two-hour flight from Auckland on the North Island to Queenstown on the South Island. Her crime kit barely fit in the overhead compartment. She never left home without it. Alexa was glad the woman next to her was absorbed in her NZ Herald crossword. She opened her laptop and reread the email from Ana Luckenbaugh.
Kia ora Alexa,
The dig I've requested your assistance with is being funded by an elderly woman, Corrie Wong, in Guangzhou, China. Ms. Wong wants to spare no expense in repatriating her great-great-grandfather. He has been calling for her to bring him home. That's why I need your teeth expertise to see what we've got. We don't want to return the wrong remains.
My graduate assistant and I don't know why this skeleton was left behind (I will explain "left behind" when you get here). We've determined it's the remains of an adult male. I'm waiting for you to arrive before I examine the skull.
Shelby and I will pick you up at the airport. You can stay at our cottage.
—Ana
CHAPTER THREE
Wednesday Afternoon
Mountains perched in every direction, and the trees crowding the roadside, tinged with yellow and orange, reminded Alexa of fall in Raleigh, North Carolina—her home prior to moving to New Zealand. She shook her head: autumn in the month of May was topsy-turvy. "The leaves are pretty," she said.
Ana, at the wheel of the Toyota Highlander, gestured with her hand. "It's not natural, this color. Comes from non-native trees. European settlers planted them to look like home."
Alexa was glad Ana returned her hand to the wheel. The road curved, dipped, climbed, and now spanned a foaming emerald-colored river by a narrow bridge. Alexa squinted down—way down. Three red jet boats lined the bank and another took off in a blur. Her new glasses were stowed in the case. She had moderate nearsightedness, which the ophthalmologist said was common with age. Yikes.
She focused on a jagged mountain looming straight ahead. Past tree-height it turned stark and bare. She wondered how the gold miners traversed such a harsh landscape. The thought reminded her of why she was headed to Arrowtown, which Ana had said was only twenty minutes from Queenstown. She opened her mouth to ask Ana how they'd located the skeleton if the grave was unmarked, but the four-year-old singing loudly in the back seat drowned her attempt. Shelby was not the graduate student.
"Daddy shark, daddy shark, doo, doo, doo."
On repeat. Alexa had forgotten Ana had a daughter.
"Do you like my song?" she screamed from her giant car seat.
Ana, whose thick braid draped over her left shoulder, shot Alexa a look. "I've been on travel a lot lately, so I didn't want to leave Shelby behind." She had to raise her voice. "I asked Mum if she'd come with and do the child- minding. She's a freelance reporter and can work anywhere. God bless her. She's at the rental house. It's called Prospector's Cottage."
Shelby kicked the back of Alexa's seat. "Nana shark, Nana shark, doo, doo, doo."
...
