Page 48 of The Bone Code

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“Old Whaling Company. What are you reading?”

“Tess of the d’Urbervilles.”

“Why?”

“It’s a classic.”

I couldn’t disagree.

“The dig went smoothly?” Ryan switched topics. “No surprises?”

“Actually, there was one.”

I told him about the object I’d pulled from LSJML-41208.

“How did a prayer card get into her nose?” Ryan asked.

“I put it there.”

Ryan’s brows shot up.

“Not in her nose,” I corrected myself. “On top of her skull. Just before the burial.”

“How could it slip into a nostril?”

“Seriously? That’s your first question?”

Ryan shrugged.

“It was some sort of miniature. Maybe meant for a key or a neck chain.”

Ryan said nothing.

“The plastic coating helped. Still, the image was almost destroyed.”

“Image of who?”

“Whom.” Ryan and I love to catch each using incorrect grammar.

“Point for your side.”

“Mother Mary MacKillop. She’s depicted wearing an old-fashioned nun’s habit.”

“Why her?”

“It’s a long story.”

“I’ve got all night.” Ryan Groucho waggled his brows. “Perhaps you’d prefer to—”

“There was a mourner at the burial back in 2010, a parishioner named Ariel something from a nearby church. She said one member of her devotional group attends every anonymous interment.”

“Committed to giving the nameless a send-off.”

I nodded

“A very kind gesture.”

“It is. Was. I’m not sure they still do it.”

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