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“Hey,” I said “What’s up?”

“Inco,” was all she said

I was just about to ask for clarification when I heard a sharp rap onup just as A strode in, all pinstripes and power pumps

“Do you have any idea how many local, state, and federal ordinances you violated last night with your little bonfire of the vanities?”

Aeneral counsel, and she took both her job and herself quite seriously

“From the way you phrase the question,” I said, “I suspect that ‘zero’ is not the answer you’re looking for”

“It’s the answer I wish I had,” she said, “but it’s not the answer I’ve got”

“Okay, I give up,” I said “How many?”

“I don’t even know yet,” she said “For one, you didn’t have a burn per for the past ’s dry as tinder For another, you destroyed state property”

“What state property-the circle of grass we burned?”

“The Ag farm’s water truck”

Ooh I had hoped she didn’t know about the truck “Come on, Amanda,” I said “I’ve seen university presidents throw out thousands of dollars’ worth of perfectly good carpeting just because the office hadn’t been redecorated lately You’re bustingthe hood of a twenty-year-old farm truck?”

She glared “And the Federal Aviation Administration says you’re a menace to air traffic”

I couldn’t help it; I laughed “That’s like saying the candle is a menace to the moth,” I said “That plane went out of its way to co cars If anybody’s a menace, it’s that idiot of a pilot Miranda and I could have been killed Hacked to bits by the propeller Aren’t pilots supposed to keep at least five feet away from innocent bystanders and enormous fires?”

“You think this is all a joke,” she said, “but it’s not What if the truck had caught fire? What if the house on the adjoining property had burned down? What if the plane had crashed or your graduate student had been hit by that wheel? Any of those things could have happened if so And then the university would be held accountable And I’d be the one who had to clean up behind you”

“But none of the to soothe her now

“But they could have”

I was tempted to reply, But they didn’t, only I didn’t see ained by it A, like two bickering dogs, but ouldn’t have anything to show for it except sore throats and ragged nerves “Can I show you so, Amanda?” She eyed me suspiciously, as if I were about to unfastenaround to the table behind rayish white-and held it under the lamp on ht,” I said “You see these fractures? This rectangular, rectilinear pattern?” I pointed with the tip of a pencil, and she leaned in, curiosity gradually outweighing her indignation “This body was partially skeletonized e put it in the car, and the bone was already drying Now look at this one” I took another feside the first “This was green bone,” I said, “from a fresh body Lots of reen ith lots of sap in it See the difference in the fractures?” She gave it a perfunctory glance, but then her gaze sharpened and took hold of so, and her eyes darted from one bone to the other

“The fractures in the green bone aren’t as regular,” she said

“They’re more random” She peered closer “They kind of spiral or corkscrew around the shaft, don’t they? Al apart instead of just cracking”

“Very good,” I said I debated whether to play her the video clip showing the scalp peeling off the skull but decided that ood forensic anthropologist”