Thursday 17th February

CSU Laboratory, Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn

Eames was content to leave Goren to make the visit to the morgue. He always found them instructive and the ME's usually found him irritating. And it would be a valuable lesson to the students he had managed to extricate from the Academy schedule. The two of them, like Goren himself, had come to NYPD with a background that must make some of the curriculum a grind or repetition of earlier training. The reason he was able to get them released from a day on the firing range they did not need.

She and John Munch concentrated on what Jimmy Antonelli had come up with.

"The clothing we cut from the smaller boy in the second crate has not been very useful so far. Only item with a label is very faded but we think it was made in Mexico"

"Not surprising if the kids originated close to the border" observed Munch.

"They almost certainly did" said Antonelli.

"And you can thank Koolkids for that piece of information. Sent them a picture of the other boy's pants when we saw the label and they were able to confirm that it was a trial design they never went into full manufacture with. Had limited distribution"

"Including Texas or New Mexico?" enquired Eames.

She was still concerned none of the agencies in the Lone Star State or New Mexico had come up with any boys missing five years or more who fit the details they had been able to send them.

"Yeah. Houston and Albuquerque. There's a full list in the file for you but we may need to look further west"

Antonelli gestured them to the bench where he had the scrap of newsprint found fixed to the leg of the fair haired victim.

"Once we got it loose and straightened out we could see the place names properly"

"Including Tucson" said Eames as Munch beside her groaned softly.

It was just visible through the staining on the paper. And if they were right that it was in contact with the body before it fully desiccated or stiffened, that would put the boy possibly in Southern Arizona close to the time of death.

"The local paper for Tucson is The Explorer" Jimmy said "And they have been able to confirm the distribution code in the margin as matching one of theirs"

Munch was studying a map "An area south of Tucson to the state line in the east and...roughly the line of the I8 to the west"

The piece of information did not make Eames feel better but it could fit. She and Goren were both of the opinion the boys had been in one container before being packed into the crates. The additional possibility of them being moved between times was perfectly feasible when you considered they ended up in a storage unit in New York City.

"When I was speaking to the paper, they did run a check on their archives for any missing boys around that time. They struck out...thought it...you know..."

"Yeah thanks Jimmy" acknowledged Eames.

He might be irritating at times but Antonelli did his best to be helpful and it would explain why there had been no urgent response from the agencies in New Mexico.

"I've still got to do analysis of any biological on the paper but here's the kicker"

As they followed him to another bench Eames glanced at Munch. The CSU people were usually great people to work with but some of them, especially the young male ones, loved to put on a finale on these occasions. Like a conjuror pulling a rabbit from a hat.

Eames went along with him and peered through the microscope to see some grey/white crystals.

"So what am I looking at Jimmy?"

"Natron" he said with a tone of triumph.

Triumph because he probably guessed right that neither Detective knew what the hell he was talking about.

Department Of The King's County ME, Winthrop St, Brooklyn

One of the best things about working Narco and Major Case was simple. Children as victims or laid out on a slab, were relatively rare. Like most cops, Goren had always had to steel himself to deal with them and today was no different. Perhaps easier, because what lay in the shallow baths, surrounded and covered by damp gauze bore little resemblance to children any more.

Wraith like in their insubstantiality with all the soft flesh shrunken away, they might have been bundles of sticks. He had only seen one similar case of a corpse stuffed into the large flue of an industrial boiler. Under the guidance of an archaeologist they were using a solution to loosen the skin and straighten them out, but it was a very disturbing sight. The limbs, slowly unfolding and stuck out at unnatural angles, making it seem like the boys were fixed in a moment of unspeakable agony.

Goren was a little relieved when Doctor Garston finished answering the questions of his curious but openly more horror struck students. She took them to a terminal where she had a number of the CT images waiting which she enlarged in turn.

"The first boy discovered is, based on average ranges and the partial eruption of the second set of dentition, between seven and nine years old. Hair and facial structure and all other indicators say Caucasian. No visible external wounds to be sure of cause but I'll come back to that. What I can tell you is he has a spiral fracture of the right humerus. Almost certainly peri-mortem"

She pointed to the twisted gap in the upper arm bone.

"Spiral fractures in pre teens are often symptomatic of abuse" said Goren "Being grabbed and dragged like so..."

Richetti did not flinch as he took her arm without warning to demonstrate. Unlike some, she had come to expect such things from Detective Goren who had an occasionally uncomfortable or embarrassing way of making a point. And she learned something else new into the bargain.

Garston nodded "Exactly. Which brings us to the second boy"

She changed the images on the screen.

"At first, like you, we expected this boy to be younger based on his size. But the eruption of second molars you can see here puts him in the same age range. That, features of the skull and other measurements makes us almost certain he is of Hispanic origin"

"Which would fit with South Texas" observed Kramer who had completed part of the training for Connecticut State Police.

"In some counties over ninety percent of the population is Hispanic"

Whether Kramer knew that before or had read up on some facts overnight, Goren was suitably impressed, if determined not to show it.

"With him...let's zoom in...we got good images of the neck..."

"Fractured hyoid bone" said Goren who had seen enough in his time.

She nodded and asked "So cause of death?"

"Strangulation" said Richotti promptly.

"That's what I would say. He's also got a small fracture of the cheek bone"

"Peri- mortem?" asked Goren.

"Yes"

"Meaning both were subject to some kind of assault around time of death" mused Richetti "And given those similarities and all the others, your money is on the other boy being strangled too?"

"I don't gamble of the cause of death of children officer" was the arch response.

"DNA?" asked Kramer.

"Running on this one...well you saw the other...needs a while before I can get at the mouth to pull one of the teeth"

Remembering the pose he was in under that damp shroud, Goren could see what she feared. Pulling the poor kid's head right off.

"About that solution you are using?" Goren began having restrained himself so far in furthering his own knowledge.

"Funny you should say that" said the medic opening a file.

"We and CSU found some pale grains in the crates, trapped in their clothes and in the limb joints. Both labs ran tests but we came out with the same thing. Sodium carbonate decahydrate...what you might have heard referred to as soda ash...sodium bicarbonate and sodium..."

"Natron" said Goren suddenly.

"...chloride" finished Garston "And yes a combination commonly referred to as natron"

"What the hell is natron?" frowned Kramer.

The medic nodded to the tall detective she already decided was no-one's fool. And, disappointingly, wearing a wedding band.

"It's a naturally formed type of salt to put it crudely. But its best known for being the substance the Ancient Egyptians used to dehydrate bodies for mummification. There's an area in the north called Wadi El Natrun. The beds of former salt lakes. Full of..."

He broke off conscious he was being stared at, looked to the floor and shuffling his feet added "Okay so I had an Egyptology phase as a kid"

"Me too" shrugged the doctor.

"Is it imported to the USA?" enquired Kramer.

"Doesn't need to be" said Goren "There are deposits as close to here as Pennsylvania"

"What about Texas or New Mexico?" the younger man went on.

"That's the interesting thing" said Garston handing Goren what looked to be a map.

"Thanks" he said his attention firmly fixed.

Totally unaware, as he had been many times before, of his companions trying to see over his shoulder and failing.

To be continued...

AN: There really are natron deposits in the USA...