Wasting in the Rain

Chapter 7: Lisa

I went back to my office after I brought Rachel her dinner. I had her paper with her sentences and new words on it and marveled at her desire to learn.

As I sat at my desk, I noticed that one of my co-workers in the quad was still at his. Mark Green hardly ever stayed over during the nights.

"Hi, Mark. What's keeping you so late?"

"That Deere case, Lisa. It's been driving at me. I've been going over the evidence to make sure we had everything and it's been yanking at me."

Mark's job on the team was to review old cases we'd gone over and new ones we'd solved to make sure we had all the pieces together.

"It has been for all of us. Twelve years, man. But she's finally here and safe. Why don't you put that one into the archives?"

"Because it doesn't make sense."

"What? I mean, the guy killed her family, took her away from home, and held her captive for twelve years. I know that doesn't make sense. Interrogations are still going on as to why he did it."

"No, it's not that."

"Then what is it?"

He came over to my desk as I pulled up my email.

"Look. I've been doing a bunch of math with the human remains that were left at the scene. NASA says that the weight of an average human hand for a one hundred and eighty-one pound man is one and a quarter pounds, or twenty ounces. Right?"

"I've never delved into it, so I'll trust that number."

"Okay. Point being: Her father, Timothy Deere, was recorded as being one hundred and fifty pounds. Given that the weight of the hand is proportional to the body that has it, his hand alone should have weighed one-point-oh-three pounds."

"Okay, so why are you delving into hands? Are you trying to sell body parts?"

"No. Hear me out. Rachel's mother, Angelica Deere, weighed one hundred and thirty pounds. Given the same calculations and same proportions as Timothy Deere, her hand should have weighed about nine-tenths of a pound."

"Mark, I know you're brilliant, but what does this have to do with anything?"

"Hold on, sister. It gets better."

"I hope so."

"Rachel's older sister, Alex, was ten at the time of the tragedy. She weighed seventy-four pounds. Following the calculations, her hand should have weighed-"

"Mark, why only a single hand? What about both?"

"I'm working on that and getting there if you'll let me. Her hand should have weighed, given the previous proportion, half a pound. Rachel's older brother, Sam, was six. He weighed forty-five pounds. His hand should have weighed about two-tenths of a pound."

"Mark, what's the point?"

"Lisa, my point is, all of the DNA evidence CSI found at the scene that day twelve years ago only amounted to just less than three pounds."

"So what?"

"That's just about the amount of DNA that would have been left if only a single hand from each person was in the house when it burned down."

"And..."

"Lisa, human flesh and bone will still weigh the same when it's been burnt to a crisp and pulverized by the weight of a burning house falling on it. We've come across this realization in recent years. Based on health records of the whole family, there should have been nearly four hundred pounds of DNA evidence left at the crime scene if everyone's bodies were there. There is simply not close to enough evidence to suggest that even Sam's body was left in tact. I've been fiddling with the numbers all day, and I realized that for us to have gotten a hit off of the DNA from everyone - which we did - and for us to have the amount of DNA left that we had, we had to have been dealing with body parts that were left behind. There may be a chance, Lisa, that her family could be alive."