August 13 - More Bodies Found, and a Letter

Things had been fairly quiet in respects to investigation. After determining the identities of the bodies that had been discovered in Pearce, no one talked about it much at all. I received a note in my mailbox one day however that read as follows: "To whoever cares, there were two bodies dropped off behind the sheriff office in Tombstone last night.  Two bodies dropped off at the docs office in Pearce.  These men were approaching the area from the east so they were executed.  They carried a bit of money with them in which I confiscated.  They had some nice weapons in which i have confiscated and will sale for my services.  My motive is clear.  Its your job to figure it out.  This is not the last body you will find, there are more coming, its just a matter of time. Signed... Death."

I then spoke with Army General Suzy who told me that two bodies had been found near the church in Black Diamond. She told me that there was no blood from the bodies in Diamond so they were shot somewhere else and brought there.

Yesterday, I went to the office in Black Diamond and found that it was burned to a crisp. I investigated around the rubble and smelled the remnants of oil, leading me to believe that it was the cause of the fire. I found fingerprints left behind on the wood of the door and lifted them and preserved them to be compared with outlaw print files later.

Walking around town, hoping to find witnesses to the fire, I discovered that the sheriff's office had also been burned down and there was a similar smell of oil at that office as well. Searched for prints and found fingerprint markings left on the doorframe again. I matched the prints with the ones found at the Pinkerton office and they were indeed a match.

I then found that the bank was also burned to a crisp and there was a similar smell of oil at the bank entrance. Searched for prints and found fingerprint markings on the doorframe again. I matched them with the prints found at the other two fires and confirmed that all three fires were done by the same person.

With this new investigation underway, I took my incident report to the fort in Tombstone and talked with Suzy about the fires, though she was more focused on the bodies that had been found. Without much to work with though in either case, I sincerely hoped there would be witnesses that would come up so that I could figure out what was going on.

July 25 - Unlikely Assistance

Over the past few days, I had come down with a stomach bug of some sort so that put me out of commission as far as any investigation was to go. On Monday evening however, I got back into the action and decided to go to the dance in Pearce, considering that was where everything seemed to be happening. Going to dances without Tom was difficult, but I just had to keep remembering that he would be home soon enough. I had also received an interesting telegram from Tina who had offered to provide assistance in photographing evidence in my current investigation. 

While at the dance, I greeted people and stayed for a short time, but my curiosity was too much. I asked Tina if we could go outside and discuss her telegram and we went out to stand in front of the sheriff's office, far enough from the noise of the saloon. 

"So I got your telegram.. I was wonderin' how you'd heard about my investigation?" 

"Everyone is talkin' bout it," she stated. 

"Everyone?" 

"Mayor Wise was talkin' ta some folk on Allen Street, an' Aly asked me iffn I knew anythin'. Plus she mentioned it at Annie's a while ago." 

"Oh I see... I'll have to ask around more. Ain't really been feeling the greatest this past week so I wasn't quite going out too far. I'm startin' to feel better now though... So I thought I'd get back at this." 

"What a shame... Well iffn ya figure out any leads, please let me know." 

"Well actually I wanted to ask you about somethin'. Your name's come up in conversation." 

"Oh? How so?" She asked, looking at me curiously. 

"Well... Apparently you and Wes have been fightin' with Cas over ownership of Widow Lake?" 

"Oh it ain't a fight. We jist is banterin' an' such. Ya know a friendly squabble of sorts, Cas is practically family." 

"How did it turn out then? Is the ownership discussion settled?" 

"Not totally, but I'm shore them courts will help settle it. He put a sign engraved in stone by the lake sayin' it belongs ta Pearce." 

"Alright," I said with a nod. 

"I need ta check with the county ta see where them rights is filed. Do ya know where that is? Town hall er the court?" 

"The court? I would assume they'd discuss it in Tombstone. Ain't sure Pearce has a courthouse. What have you heard 'bout the bodies bein' found here in town?" 

"Yes, it said Cochise county. Come see what he put up.....an' he caused a hazard by burnin' him old signs down. Almost caught Goldfield on fire. Come follow me." 

We walked towards Widow Lake where I saw the stone that had been put up by Cas, which was all charred up for some reason. That was curious, and I looked the stone over with interest but Tina kept 'goin on about the lake, so my attention was drawn back to her. 

“It's charred, an' he put up this monstrosity” 

“Cas put this up?” 

“Yes,” she said with a sigh. “As ya can see Goldfield has part of the lake as well. Are we supposed ta die from lack of water?” 

“I'm sure there ain't goin' to be a lack of water. Cas wouldn't let THAT happen.” 

“He paid good money fer this stone sign,” she said, arching her eyebrow.

“Cas cares about this town and the area around it.” 

“What's stoppin' him from doin' it? He don' care about Goldfield.” 

“Then you need to talk with him about that. But the problem is, Tina... a skeleton was dug up here in Widow Lake. And since then, two other bodies were dropped off in front of the clinic.” 

“That sounds like Cas ta me. Any idea who it was?” 

I coughed at that suggestion but then gathered myself. “I ain't got the slightest. All I can see is that the males were males between the ages of 30-45... They'd been all shot and there was evidence of strangulation. I heard Wes has been causin' trouble in Pearce... He apparently burned down the bank after Aly wouldn't let him make a withdraw there?” 

“Hmm… possible fellas that were after Myst an' Cas got jealous? Sounds like motive ta me.” 

“Does Cas seem like a serial killer to you? Cause I ain't liking that picture.” 

“He used ta be my boss back before I found the straight an' narrow path.....I wouldn' put it past him.” 

“Your boss?” I looked at her curiously. 

“Yes. Back when I was a desperado....that was ages ago.”

“Really?” I raised an eyebrow. “I don't know much about the Desperados... I know 'bout the Regulators who used to hang 'round here…” 

“Yes that was a long time ago….” 

“What can you tell me about how Cas was back then?” 

“Oh he was ruthless an' brutal.....all them bodies back then....shot an' strangled....even stabbed. I told him not ta do it...but I was jist an' underlin' I eventually left ta be a better person.” 

I blinked and then looked at her suspiciously. “And are now engaged to a man who supposedly burned up the bank not too long ago.” 

“I wasn't with him...I was rather irritated because he was late fer supper.” 

“I didn't say you were, I'm merely stating that your allegiances still run with people that are of suspicious behavior.” 

“Oh Wes has a history of bein' a lawman I'm shore it was a misunderstandin’.” 

“People change, Ms. Tina… Not everyone is the same person they were years ago.” 

“Yes but Wes is highly misunderstood.” 

I tried to stifle a laugh at that, wanting badly to bring up the fact that her fiance had held a gun to my head once, but decided against it. “Well, if there's nothing else... I s'pose we should head back to the dance.” 

“Yes and keep ya eyes peeled fer any odd behavior from Cas.” 

I nodded to her and walked back into the saloon to dance with the others again, but wasn’t sure I believed Tina’s theory. I knew that many people had left their outlaw days for the legal side of things. Besides, Cas was a teacher at the school and I really didn’t like the idea he was a serial killer. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder… It’d be a rather good coverup for him to be the one behind it, since he owned the town. But at the same time, I also remembered that Tina hadn’t talked much about what she’d heard related to the bodies found. She’d kept the discussion solely on Widow Lake. Was that just a distraction tactic, or was it a potential cover-up? I knew that my investigation was only just getting curiouser and curiouser. 

After the dance, I walked up to Cas and asked if we could chat about the argument over Widow Lake. When he replied he said, "Oh I ain't arguin' at all.. I was told some time back there was people bein' threatened by them goldfield folks.. It's on record.. My lawyer filed a cease and desist order over a month ago... I also followed the legal procedure for declaring water rights on the land I have owned and thoughtfully used since I been here... then some one decided they wanted a lake, too, I guess... I sure hope none'a them people they were threatenin' got hurt. Some of'em said they was thretened with their very life." 

I raised an eyebrow and looked at him curiously. "Really? Well that's mighty interestin'... The thing is, Cas... There's been a few strange things happenin' around these parts."

"Well hell, there's always strange things goin' on in these parts.. that's sorta common knowledge." 

"Well sure it is... but skeletons showin' up in the very lake that's bein' argued? Bodies bein' dropped off at the clinic? When they're already dead?" 

"Seems almost like someone wanted to get rid of them to me. They just sucked at it." 

"No ideas as to who these bodies mighta belonged to? I mean, it is your town.." 

"I also leave the doors open... I guess some Ninny came to the -nearest- town they could find and unloaded their handiwork.. and it ended up in Aly's yard or whatever, and at the Doc's... we've had worse things get left behind here, trust me." 

"Well sure, you've had worse things, but I've been hired by your sheriff to find out who's leavin' these bodies behind." 

"Tina has commented more'n once on the bodies she dumped in there.. right here in front'a people.... may wanna ask her what she knows."

"Really.... funny, she didn't mention that part to me tonight," I said, looking over at Tina curiously.

"She ain't real bright when she's drinkin' ya know. We also all know the combination to her safe."

"Well, I don't like bein' lied to, Cas... And it seems like Tina might be doin' just that. She's takin' credit for the bodies, is she?"

"I didn't ask which ones they was.. I just yelled at her for pollutin' our community water supply and recreation area. Believe I even called her a Ninny to my best recollection."

"And she told ya that she put stuff there? That's rather interesting... Sounds like she just confessed to bein' an accomplice."

"I cleaned that lake out and kept it clean for 6 years. Best fishin' in the county."

"Hmm... Seems I've got a lot to think about. I've already identified the three of them and given a report to the sheriff... Question is, who put the bodies in Pearce."

"You can always speak to ol' Tully as far as the orders he's filed we're waitin' on confirmtion for."

"I'll have to hunt ol' Tully down then. Well, thank you Cas... I won't take up more of your time. You've given me a lot to think about."

"Anytime, like I said.. nothin' to hide.  I still own the land, it's just the water rights they want so they can charge money. I may just have to take back the courtesy area I left to them that's inside my stakes."

"Well they're gonna have to fight you on that some more then. We'll just have to wait to see what the courts say, eh?"

With that, I headed out of the saloon and went back home to process all that I had heard.

July 19, 1899 - Truth From the Grave

Dreams haunted my sleep as I couldn’t stop thinking about the events of the day before. Bones filled my dreams, answers that we had not yet discovered, memories from ghosts in my past. However instead of these dreams keeping me up and filling me with fear, they filled my curiosity and wonder of how those bones had landed up in Widow Lake. I wondered who had put them there, what kind of story was behind them. The possibilities were endless and I knew that this case had grabbed hold of me tightly already, even though it had only just begun. 

Taking a trip back to Pearce, I rode towards Aly and Wedge’s home and left them a telegram to meet me at the coroner’s office.

It wasn’t long before Wedge joined me at the coroner’s office. “I was wonderin’... These bodies here in front of the undertaker’s office.. I kept thinking about them last night when I went to bed…” I admitted to him. 

“Uh oh… why?” 

“Well... just curious... how long they been here?” 

“Uh… Sunday, Al and me brought them over here, someone left them on the porch of the docs office.” 

“Oh really? Seems a tad strange, don’t it? Do you know who left them there?” 

“Mmhmm. As bad as it smells, I didn’t even think about them.” 

“Maybe we should determine where they came from too... Wonder how one removes flesh from bodies so that the skeletons can be preserved and studied…” 

“They were a bit squishy,” Wedge pointed out with a noticeable wince. 

“S’pose here’s a good spot as any to air them out… Guess I’ll have to wait a while till I can actually study them…” I wanted to come back later in the evening when I had my bag of equipment with me. 

“Is there anything you can do for now?” 

“I wish there was... All I can do is ask around for anyone that mighta seen anything around the lake... Or mighta overheard talk about activity round there… Amara mentioned somethin’ bout Tina making appearances in Tombstone with a shovel... and I want to find Cas and talk to him about this fight over the property ownership…” 

“Hmm, that’s news… the shovel, that is.” 

“Amara said that the shovel at Annie’s happened a few weeks back. That track with when the skeleton was found?” 

“I think Al found it sometime last week…? But it was in the water...so I’m guess all the clothes washed away….” 

“I would assume so,” I said with a nod. 

I spent the day working on notes for the case and getting familiar with the area of Pearce again. It had been a long time since I’d been there before yesterday. I sat by Widow Lake, writing and reflecting. Cas and Mystic rode around the lake on bicycles and I waved to them, calling to Cas that I needed to speak with him at some point. 

When the evening came, I swallowed my nerves and gathered my bag of supplies as I went to the undertaker’s office in Pearce. I went to the back room and set up two tables beside the table with the skeleton on it to prepare my investigations. I wondered how after all this time I had found myself in the very office that I had been avoiding all these years. It was true though that these bodies needed to be investigated and no one else was holding an undertaker’s position at that point and time, so it fell to me as detective to discover the truth of these victims’ stories. 

Taking a deep breath, I brought the two bodies from the coffins in front of the office back to the two empty tables. The smell was revolting but I held it together as I focused on the work in front of me. 

With gloved hands, I began to study the three victims in front of me. These remains belonged to people with names, families, jobs… And their stories had come to a grizzly end. These were the questions I needed answers for. Feeling around the bones, I let myself become familiar with them, studying the decay and bruises. Based on the surfaces of the cranium, pubic bones, and rib ends, I could see the age-related bone breakdown as I examined them with my magnifying glass. I remembered something that I had read from my textbooks as I studied the bones. Throughout a lifetime, bone makes new osteons — minute tubes containing blood vessels. Looking close at the bones with a magnifying glass, it wouldshow these changes, which can indicate adult age to within 5 to 10 years. Younger adults have fewer and larger osteons. Older adults have smaller osteons and more osteon fragments, as new ones form and disrupt older ones. 

Not only that, but I also remembered reading that the bones that enclose the brain grow together during childhood along lines called cranial sutures. During adulthood, bone "remodeling" could gradually erase these lines, at variable rates. Closure of cranial sutures gives general information about a person’s age. It is best used with additional indicators to estimate age, or when other age indicators are unavailable.

Using my magnifying glass more, I could find that each victim had been shot with bullets nicking the bones. Unfortunately, the bullets had not stayed in the bodies so they had been clean shots. That meant the bullets might be located around the lake if they buried deep enough in the water. I didn’t relish the idea of diving around Widow Lake for more evidence, but I knew that we might be able to find more things that could help us gather knowledge on what really happened. The question still remained however whether or not the other two bodies had been in Widow Lake too, or if the timing was just coincidental. 

From what I remembered in my reading, there are many ways to determine whether or not a skeleton was female or male. The pelvic cavity on the male is narrower and less roomier. The coccyx is less movable, the sacrum is long, narrow with concavity. The pelvis is heavy and thick and the joint surface is large. There is a greater, deep pelvis and the pubic arch is less than 900 whereas the female arch is more than 900. The Ischial tuberosity on the male is turned inward, where on the female it is turned outward. The pelvic inlet and outlet on the male skeleton are also smaller than on the female one. 

Based on my research of the parts of the bones that were present in the three victims in front of me, I could determine that the three victims were indeed male. I studied them some more and found evidence of drowning from the marks of strangulation and severe violence applied to the head. I also found bruising on the two bodies around the neck which show strangulation.

After all of this investigation, I knew I had discovered all I could from the three victims. I put the bodies back where they were in the coffins outside and then boxed up the skeleton bones back in the proper boxes. 

After dropping the incident report off in Aly and Wedge’s mailbox, I rode out to Black Diamond and went to the dance at the Dusty Saloon. It felt great to be there with everyone and I met a lot of new people which I later included into my notebook that consisted of my town master list. This list was invaluable as it helped keep my memory sharp on what I know about people throughout the years. 

At one point of the dance, an army soldier announced, “I thought I found some gold around Widow’s Lake… but it could be the sun playing tricks.” 

“Been some interesting things happening around Widow Lake lately…” I commented, wondering if anyone would know anything about the bones that had been discovered there. 

“I know who owns it now last week it was Tina now I seen a new sign,” Gunner stated. 

“Who owns it, Gunner?” DollEyes asked. 

“Not sure,” he admitted. “Was riding Sunday and the Tina sign was gone and there was a Pearce sign up.” 

“Interesting, Gunner…” I commented, wondering what that meant in the bigger picture. 

The dance continued and the subject of Widow Lake was dropped for the most part, but when I saw Wes Westland enter the saloon, I knew I had to talk to him about the disagreement between him, Tina and Cas over the ownership of the lake. We made our way to the Pinkerton office where we sat down across the table and caught up on what had been happening since we had seen each other last. 

“Ya know, seein ya again, i still feel bad about puttin that gun to your head…” 

“Feels like a lifetime ago…” I said, remembering that day with Tom in the sheriff’s office where we’d talked about trusting one another and he’d proved it by not shooting my head off in front of my husband. “I do want to talk to you about something though, and I’m hoping we can be civil about it.” 

“Oh Pinkerton, I’m always civil,” he said with a crooked smile. 

“He says after he brings up pointing a gun to my head,” I said with a chuckle. “I’ve heard talk about a fight over at Widow Lake... Over who has the rights to it?” 

Wes laughed out loud then and said, “Oh, there ain’t no fight. Half owned by Goldfield, and half owned by Pearce. Goldfield owns the clean water, Pearce owns the crap.” 

“So you’ve worked something out with Cas?” I smirked. 

He tilted his head to the side and asked, “Why would I want to do that?” 

“Sounds like a deal you just stated. Fifty percent ownership.” 

“Oh, no no, that’s who owns the property. Half of the lake is in Goldfield and the other half in Pearce.

“Oh I see. So there really isn’t much argument to be had then over it? Last I heard the three of you got in a big fight over it.” 

“Not in my mind there isn’t.  Not sure how then Pearce residence feel about it. Hmm, how how is a Pinkerton gettin involved in a lake dispute?” 

“There’s been some other things happening at Widow Lake…” I said hesitantly. I didn’t want to get into details with him as it was better to have information being shared with me rather than me sharing information on active cases. Especially not when he was a lead suspect.

“And what would that be?” He asked, looking directly in my eyes. 

“Some bones were found.” Standing I said, “I need to get back home to Natalie... Thanks for the talk, Wes.” 

“Look at that, no cuffs,” Wes said as he stood. 

“And no bullet wounds either. Have a good night, Wes.”

“You too, Pinkerton.” 

I walked out of the office and headed home, thinking about what I had learned. Maybe the tensions weren’t as big as everyone had thought they were. I would have to have a longer talk with Cas about his side of the story, but it didn’t seem like there was as much of a dispute over the lake ownership as everyone was making there out to be. 

======

OOC Information: 

Research for this blog provided by: 
http://anthropology.si.edu/writteninbone/young_old.html
http://www.majordifferences.com/2014/03/difference-between-male-and-female.html#.V4-6LpOAOko

July 18, 1899 - Bones In the Lake

Things have been quiet for the past few months around Tombstone, Arizona. While spending more time with my husband and children at home, I was enjoying the break from the numerous cases that had once plagued most of my time. Our family had even gone to California where my husband, the ever-loving history teacher, had educated our children about the gold rush. Though I had longed to stay in California and continue our vacation, I knew that work still needed me back in Tombstone. I was the only Pinkerton Detective in the area, and I had a feeling that cases might be piling up without my assistance to the local law enforcements.

I returned to our ranch just outside of Tombstone with my daughter while the boys decided to stay back in California for another month or so. It was desperately lonely back home without them and I found it difficult to go into town. I knew that if I attended dances that there would just be other families and couples that were happily enjoying each other's company while I would feel alone in a crowded room. I spent most of my time studying a new field that interested me, anthropology. There had been so many cases in Tombstone where a skeleton or bones were involved and I felt ill-equipped to study such cases with my limited knowledge in the medical field. Therefore I decided to further my education and hopefully be of more use to the field.

As it so happened, my studies would not be unused. This afternoon while walking into town, since I felt brave enough to go out on my own, US Army Lieutenant Amara approached me and informed me of some strange happenings over in Pearce. She explained that a skeleton had been recovered from Widow Lake, close to where I once had lived in Pearce. I knew the lake well; I had often sat in a tree near the water and worked on case files there. It was a peaceful place, and I didn't like the idea of one of my favorite locations being tainted with such grizzly activity.

Amara and I headed to Pearce as she explained, "Aly found human bones in Widow Lake and put them in the coroner's office in Pearce." She was talking of course about the Pearce Sheriff, and my long-time friend.

"Any idea who it was? Or how they got there? I'll have to see if she needs my help then."

"No, I was hoping you would come back and take a look at them."

"I can head over to Pearce, sure. Ain't terribly good with bones but I can do my best."

"Well I can tell you something else..." she said then.

"I'm listening."

"Tina came to Annie's one night a few weeks back carrying a shovel. And she had dirt all over her clothes."

"Oh yeah? She say what she needed it for?"

"No, and she acted like her and wes were hiding something."

"Hmm... Heard they were together now."

"Yes and no hide nor hair from her husband Lex," Amara said, mentioning Tina's former husband.

"Always liked him," I said with a frown. Anything else I should know before I head over to Pearce, Amara? Thank you for telling me bout this."

"Well there was a huge right over the rights to Widow Lake."

"A fight? Between whom?"

"Cas and Tina and Wes."

"Oh Cas was involved eh? That's rare. Must be really serious then." I tried to remember the last time that Castion had been involved in a town argument. I couldn't think of any instances, as the man was generally found spinning records at the saloons, teaching kids at the school, or doing performances at the Birdcage Theatre. "I'll see what I can get out of him and Aly.... And I'll ask Paisley about Tina comin' to Annie's too. How long ago was that?"

"A few weeks back now," she replied as we reached Widow Lake.

We looked around the lake and Amara told me that the bones had been found when Aly was waist deep in the water. She pointed to the area and I asked how many bones were found. We went over to the town and walked to the undertaker's office where US Army Brigadier General Wedge soon joined us. He informed us that his wife had moved the skeleton to her desk in the sheriff's office and we headed over there to take a look.

As soon as I saw the skeleton on the desk, I blinked and had to step back a bit from the shock. It had been a long time since I'd seen a real skeleton or dead body in front of me. Memories flooded my mind back to a certain undertaker's office in a town I used to reside where the place smelled like opium and glass jars filled with human body parts sat on shelves as if on display. I swallowed back the memories and tried to focus on the present.

"Any bullet holes?" Amara asked.

"Good question," I said with a nod.

"I don't know. I haven't gotten close to it," Wedge put in.

"What can you tell me about how she found it?" I looked between them, wanting more information.

"She was at the lake and something caught her eye, if I recall correctly," Wedge replied.

They informed me that Wes had burned down the bank not long ago either and that he clearly had a grudge against the people of Pearce for some reason. Wedge explained that Wes had wanted to make a withdrawal, but Aly had neglected him the ability. We talked about how there was tension between Cas, Tina and Wes over the ownership of the lake and Wedge wondered if we would be getting more bodies piling up soon in Pearce.

Knowing that I should examine the bones more fully when I had my equipment on me, I suggested that we catalog the bones and put them somewhere more secure so that they weren't so out in the open. As Amara continued on with her patrol, Wedge and I boxed and catalogued the bones and put the boxes in the back room of the undertaker's office. I had to clear my mind of the memories once again and focused on the present task. I explained to Wedge about how I had been studying anthropology more deeply and how I was grateful now for the education I'd learned. It would appear that my timing couldn't have been more perfect.

After an evening of catching up with Aly and Wedge at their new home in Pearce, I went home to my daughter feeling renewed and excited. It felt good to be hot on the trail of a case again, and I knew that this investigation was only just beginning.