Swamp Bones Read Online Free Page B

close to the gator. A full minute passed with only the buzz of flies and the whine of mosquitoes.
    When Yellen could take it no longer, he burst out, “Is it the same vic?”
    “The pelvic features I’m able to see are consistent with what I observed on the foot,” I said. But something else troubled me. “Would an alligator eat something that’s already dead?”
    “Yep.” Jordan answered quickly, to Lundberg’s annoyance.
    “It’s true.” Lundberg felt the need to assert scientific superiority. “And alligators will drag prey around for a long time, days even. To protect the food from other gators. And to help break it up.”
    Yellen sighed. “Mother Mary in a handcart. We’re going to need CSI. Could be body parts all over this hammock.” He walked off to make the call.
    I shifted to view the pelvis from another angle. “I’d field-estimate PMI at roughly nine days. That tracks with the remains recovered from the vulture.” Python. Whatever.
    A snuffle from the gator made me spring back and land on my ass.
    “You said it was dead.” More shrill than I’d intended.
    Jordan gave me another look that said he questioned my basic intelligence. “I said she wouldn’t hurt you. Can’t kill a gator without the Hunting and Game folks classifying it as anuisance. And this ole gal’s just out here working her turf.”
    I scooted back slowly and carefully.
    “Relax. She’s tranqed.” Jordan bounced a conspiratorial glance off Pierce.
Women
. “Dive right on in. She won’t wake for hours.”
    “You’re telling me to reach into a live gator’s mouth?” I wasn’t believing this guy.
    “Duh-uh.”
    Lundberg addressed Jordan. “Anesthesia is an imprecise science. One must know weight to calculate proper dosage.”
    Jordan regarded the biologist with an insolent stare. “If I say the dude’s out, she’s out.”
    No one moved.
    “Man.” Jordan dug into a ratty canvas pack and withdrew a Coke-can-size capsule. “Ketamine-midazolam. Eight thousand milligrams.”
    Lundberg nodded slowly. “That should do it.”
    “Should?” I looked from Jordan to Lundberg. “Should as in lost digits and phantom limbs?”
    Wordlessly, Jordan pulled on heavy leather gloves, reached down, and pried open the gator’s mouth. The pelvis rose with the upper jaw. Unperturbed, Jordan stuck a finger between the tooth row and the human flesh, and shoved downward. The pelvis dropped to the ground with a soft
thunk
.
    All eyes swung to me. The gator lay motionless, mouth held agape.
    My gaze roved the pelvis. Like the foot, it was on the small end of the range for human adults. And I could see the disturbing feature more clearly now. The unsubtle gouging and splintering left by the action of a chain saw.
    “Get me the scene bag,” I barked, emotions churning inside me.
    Lundberg jumped to respond. I withdrew gloves and a body bag, pulled on the former, then unrolled and unzipped the latter. Ready, I edged closer to the gator.
    I was right. The body part was a segment of lower torso, including a partial pelvis and portions of soft tissue from the waist and upper groin region. Dotted lines of puncture wounding crisscrossed the decomposing flesh. Bite marks left by reptilian teeth.
    Moving cautiously, I slid my hands under the torso and transferred the whole to the body bag. When finished, I checked the gator’s mouth and dentition. A glance up to make sure Jordanhad a firm grip on the jaws, then I carefully collected stray tissue and bone fragments that had detached from the main hunk. Extracting evidence from between razor-sharp teeth was like the extreme sports version of the game Operation.
    I was about to call it quits when a glint caught my eye, there, then gone.
    “Can you spread the jaws wider?” I couldn’t believe what I was asking. What I was about to do.
    Jordan widened his stance, flexed the gator’s neck backward, and did as I’d requested. Remarkably, the beast offered no resistance.
    Sunlight flashed