Chapter One: A Body From The Past Philadelphia, 2003

"This weather is killing me!" Detective Lilly Rush rolled her head from one side to the other to work out the kinks. "It's giving me one hell of a headache."

"Don't expect me to feel sorry for you," Detective Nick Vera answered wryly. "I'm too busy coping with my own head."

"Good to know I'm not the only one," Lilly commented. She leaned back in her chair and stretched. "It's completely unpredictable whether it's gonna be fine tomorrow or not."

"It's unbelievable how concentrated we are on work today," said Nick and grinned. "If Stillman could see us now, talking about the weather, he'd probably..."

"He'd probably tell you to get back to the case as fast as your headaches allow," Stillman's voice sounded from behind.

Lilly and Nick turned around to see their boss standing behind them with his arms crossed in front of his chest But despite his angry tone, there was a glint in his eye that gave him away.

"Could you warn us next time when you're planning to sneak around?" Lilly asked.

"Could you warn me next time when you're planning to gossip about your superior?" Stillman replied in the same tone.

"Touché," Lilly conceded. "What is it, sir?"

"A couple of construction workers found something over in Deansville," Stillman said. "The local sheriff called ten minutes ago and said they needed the Homicide Squad over there."

"Why come to me?" asked Lilly.

"Because I thought you might find this interesting," Stillman replied. "It's not exactly a cold case, but it could turn out to be one, after all."

"You're making me curious," Nick cut in. "Can I come along?"

"As far as I know, Detective Vera, you have a case to solve," said Stillman wryly. "Not to mention that you're not her partner, anyway."

"Chris went to have lunch," Lilly informed her boss. "Shall I page him?"

"If you please."

Lilly went to do as instructed, and Nick turned to Stillman. "But surely you can tell me what kind of case that is?"

Stillman sighed, but he conceded and leaned against Nick's desk.

"Deansville is the most northern Philadelphia suburb," he said. "It's a rather small town, but they're planning to expand. A few miles north of the actual town, there are another four houses, and then there's only forest. "A construction company bought the land and planned to start working on it next week. This morning they started digging in the ground, and two workers found a skeleton."

"Holy cow!" Nick whistled.

"I suppose that's about the same the workers said when they made their discovery." Stillman was clearly having a good day "They called the sheriff, and he called me."

"And you thought Lilly should get the case because it happened quite obviously a couple of years ago." It was not exactly a question, and Stillman did not think it worth answering.

"I'm meeting Chris outside the building in ten minutes," Lilly announced when she returned. "Now could you please tell me what this is all about?"

XXX

"Nice area," Lilly commented when she and her partner, Chris Lassing, arrived at the scene. "A little too quiet for my taste, but definitely nice."

"Way too quiet for my taste," said Chris. "Take a look around, Lilly. There's only four houses here, and the center of the town is ten miles away. Do you really think you'd like that?"

Lilly grinned. "Not really," she admitted.

They continued their way towards the circle of yellow crime scene tape that surrounded a hole in the ground. A group of people were standing around the hole, and Lilly cleared her throat in order to draw their attention to her. A tall, dark-haired man with a long face and a rather prominent nose turned around and came towards Lilly and Chris.

"Are you Stillman's people?"

Lilly nodded. "I'm Detective Lilly Rush, this is my partner, Detective Chris Lassing. And you are..."

The man smiled and stretched out his hand. "Graham Webster. I'm the sheriff."

Lilly shook his hand and tried not to let her bewilderment show. But apparently she did not manage, for Sheriff Webster grinned. "I bet I know what you're thinking," he said. "Where the heck is his uniform?"

Lilly admitted that this was indeed what had crossed her mind.

"You see, I was on my way to the office when the two gentlemen here called me," Sheriff Webster explained. "I keep my uniform in my office, but as I never arrived there, I didn't get the chance to put it on." He looked down at his blue jeans. "But I should really get an extra star," he added. "Wouldn't that look good on my belt buckle? Ha, ha, ha!"

Lilly politely curled her lips a little. Then she pointed at the hole and the other people standing around it.

"Who are these people?" she asked. "And why are they crowding the crime scene?"

"Crime scene?" Graham Webster laughed. "My dear Detective, this poor guy has been lying in that hole for at least a decade. Do you really think it appropriate to still call it a crime scene? I mean, most likely he wasn't even killed here."

"Still it is your obligation to keep the scene as clear as possible," Lilly retorted. "No one should get there until a CSI unit has searched the whole area. There could still be some evidence left. And besides, how do we know he wasn't killed here?"

"Lilly..." said Chris. "Cool down, OK?"

"I am cool!" she snapped at him. A moment later, she lowered her eyes. "I'm sorry," she said. "It's just the weather. It's killing me."

"Nevermind." Sheriff Webster had already recovered from the shock, and so had Chris.

"So who are they?" Lilly repeated in a friendlier tone.

"From left to right: Harry Dean and Eddie Chambers, the two workers who found the skeleton; Matthew Parker, my deputy; Lucy Johnson, my assistant; Gabriel and Jordan Jarvis, who live in one of the houses, and their son Alex; Dylan McLaren, also from the neighborhood, and his sister, Sunday."

"I don't suppose that any of them works for the Prosecuting Attorney's Office?" Lilly asked ironically. "Then it would be a good idea to call them and ask them to send someone along."

"Yup, Detective," said Graham brightly and turned around to use his cell phone.

Lilly and Chris exchanged a glance and then joined the little group.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen," Lilly said and introduced herself and Chris. "Could you please step back from the police cordon? Thank you. This is a crime scene and must not be contaminated."

Murmuring, the little group took a few steps backward.

"Mr. Dean and Mr. Chambers, would you please join us?" Lilly looked at the two construction workers. "We have a few questions we must ask you."

The two men looked shy and awkward. Harry Dean, who was tall and a little overweight, was the first to speak.

"Yes, ma'am." He followed Lilly and Chris, and Eddie Chambers quickly caught up with his colleague.

When they were out of earshot, Lilly turned to the two men.

"Let's do the preliminaries first," she said and smiled bracingly. "This is routine procedure. Would you please tell me your names and occupation first and then sum up what led to the situation at hand?"

Her calm, confident tone seemed to calm down the two a little.

"Harry Millhouse Dean, construction worker for Skyline Ltd.," murmured Harry.

"Edward Frederick Chambers, construction worker for Skyline Ltd.," murmured Eddie.

"Go ahead," said Chris friendly as they both stopped and looked expectantly at the detectives.

"Well," said Harry, "we were supposed to test the ground, like, you know, loosen the earth and take samples and all that sort of stuff. Do the dirty work first."

There was slight edge in his voice, and Lilly wondered whether he was secretly angry at his boss for not letting him do the "actual" work.

"So we come here this morning at seven with just a few spades and a jackhammer," Harry continued. "And we start, well, digging. And then we, like, notice something odd in the ground."

"Something odd?" Lilly echoed. "What do you mean?"

"Uhm, the spade hits something hard, and we think it's a stone or something, so we go on a little more carefully. And then Eddie says, Harry, he says, there's something wrong here. That ain't no stone there. And we take closer look, and I think that's only a little bit of limestone or whatever, but that's a weird form, so I switch on the flashlight, and then I see that it's actually a hand. Geez!"

"Yes, go ahead," said Lilly as Harry paused again. "You're doing fine."

"Well, I say, Eddie, I say, you're right, that ain't no stone. That looks like a goddamn hand. And then we wonder what to do, and I say, let's just make sure it's not some cat that them kids buried here like in that movie with them zombies. And so we dig a little deeper, and there it is. Holy shit!"

"What did you do then?"

"Get the hell outta that hole, ma'am. I say to Eddie, we're not supposed to touch anything, and someone's gotta stay with that poor guy there. I know that a body shouldn't be left alone when it's found. I saw that on TV the other night. And Eddie says, he doesn't wanna stay with him, so I stay and Eddie goes to get the sheriff."

"Where did you reach the sheriff, Mr. Chambers? Eddie?" Lilly tried her best not to seem too keen, although she could barely hide her impatience.

"Well..." Eddie blushed and stared on the ground. "I go over to them houses there and wanna ask if I can use the phone coz I don't have a cell phone, and I just wanna ring the doorbell when this lady opens the door and says, what do you want, she says, and I say, I gotta call the sheriff, and she says, well, she says, he lives two houses down the street, and there he is getting in his car, so I run after him and call, Sheriff, I say, Harry and I found something in the ground there, and he comes along and takes a look and says he gotta call the police of Philadelphia and get a few detectives from Homicide coz this is too big for him... I mean... he's not, like, an inspector or something..." Eddie trailed off.

Lilly cast a side glance at Chris and noticed that he was struggling to suppress a laugh.

"Thank you, Eddie," she said, helping Eddie out of his dilemma. "You acted correctly."

"Thanks, ma'am," said Harry. "I was hoping I would. You know, I love them crime shows on TV. This CFI thing, and that one with the blonde hottie that catches them killers coz she creeps in their heads and sees pictures..."

"Very good," said Lilly, interrupting him. "Now would you please tell Detective Lassing your addresses and be prepared for another conversation with us. We may have to contact you again about the matter."

"But ma'am, we ain't no suspects or anything, are we?" Harry's voice sounded skeptic. Lilly now had also trouble not to laugh.

"Don't worry," she said. "This poor guy has been lying here for quite a while. No one's going to suspect you. But you're important witnesses."

"Ah. Alright. Sure." Harry and Eddie dictated their addresses to Chris, who wrote them down. Then they said goodbye and returned to the group of people, who had been watching the detectives during the interrogation.

"CFI?" said Chris with a wide grin as soon as they were out of earshot. "I didn't know that there was a crime show starring the Court of First Instance of the European Union."

"Wow, Chris, you really did your homework," Lilly teased, but she was grinning, too. "And what was that thing about a blonde creeping in the heads of killers and seeing pictures...?"

"My guess would be he was talking about Profiler." Chris was almost an expert on TV series. "And he's right, the female lead really is a hottie."

"Uh-huh." Lilly did not want to talk about hot TV stars. "So what do we have till now?"

"Not much." Chris sighed. "A skeleton buried in a meadow in a Philadelphia suburb. Two slightly dim guys..."

"Chris!"
"Sorry. Two not too intelligent guys who are harmless. And a very small neighborhood."

"That's at least a point where we can begin," Lilly concluded. "If someone from this neighborhood killed him and buried him here, then it might be possible that the neighbors saw something. At least they might have heard an argument or something."

"Or they all know everything, but no one tells." Chris was playing devil's advocate.

"Let's assume that this is not the case," said Lilly. "It will be difficult enough without your conspiracy theories. We'd better wait for the District Attorney to arrive before we order the CSI and the pathologist. So what can we do in the meantime?"

"Oh, that's the two hundred and fifty thousand dollar question, right?" Chris smirked. "How about we talk to the audience?"