“In the same age range as the other. With the skull characteristics, I believe mixed race. Most likely Asian and black. Two strains of my heritage as well. Again no outward sign of trauma. A clean break in the tibia, healed well.”
DeWinter moved slowly, carefully along the remains. “I see no other breaks or injuries. All of the injuries, on One and Two, show they’d healed, and none were COD or incurred near TOD.”
As DeWinter’s light shone, Eve caught a quick sparkle.
“Wait.” She crouched, peered down through the eye socket of the skull. “There’s something here.” Grabbing a tool out of her kit, she reached through, clamped the tiny glitter.
“Excellent eye, indeed,” DeWinter said. “I missed it.”
“An earring.”
“I think a nose ring, possible brow ring. It’s a very small stud, so I’d lean toward the nose. It simply dropped off and down during decomp.”
Eve slid it into an evidence bag, sealed it.
“We’ll begin drawing out DNA, starting facial reconstruction. I assume you want ID as soon as we can possibly determine.”
“You assume right.”
“Cause and time of death may take longer. I could use a detailed history of the building, when the outer wall was constructed, what its purposes were.”
“Already being accumulated.”
“Excellent. Dawson can secure these remains as well. I’ll start on them immediately, and contact you as soon as I have anything useful. I look forward to working with you, Lieutenant.”
Eve took the offered hand again, then let it go when she heard the shout.
“We’ve got another one!”
She met DeWinter’s eyes. “Looks like you’re not done here yet.”
“Nor you.”
Before they were done, they found twelve.
Eve went through the building section by section. To the south wall first, where sweepers meticulously cut out a large square of gyp board, bagging some of its dust and chunks for analysis. Inside the narrow opening, three wrapped remains were stacked. She examined them along with DeWinter.
Females, between twelve and sixteen. As with the first two, some showed older injuries, none showed overt trauma that could be determined as cause of death.
With the remains, Eve found three studs and one small silver hoop.
The rest of the main floor held a handful of partitions, two small restrooms, long since stripped of fixtures.
By the time she, along with DeWinter, climbed the open iron stairs to the second level, the sweepers had found five more.
“Again we have a mix of ethnicity,” DeWinter told her, “and again, all female, all in the same age range. Some injuries I’d suspect resulted from childhood abuse, but none that determine cause of death. Whoever did this preyed on females past puberty, but far short of adulthood. Females of this age range, some of whom most likely experienced earlier physical abuse.”
“It was, for a few years, a kind of shelter.”
Eve glanced back at Roarke as she bagged what she thought might be a toe ring.
“What kind of shelter?”
“Documentation’s spotty. It was used as a kind of shelter for children and teenagers during the Urban Wars, those who’d lost their parents. A kind of makeshift orphanage.”
“These bodies haven’t been here since the Urbans.”
“It’s possible,” DeWinter disagreed. “I’ll be able to determine how long, within a reasonable time frame, once I have the remains back in my lab.”