The skull lay at the edge of the rock pile, half-covered with small stones and dirt. The nose area and below had collapsed and filled with soil.
Choco again pawed the ground and barked.
Sara bent again to pull him aside. “Oh!” she said, jumping back. Two long bones lay impacted in the soil beneath his feet. Choco sniffed and looked up at her again.
Isidoro saw the bones too. “Everybody back,” he said and immediately began snapping photos.
Johanna bent down to take a look and then straightened and reached for her radio. “We"d better get the spade brigade out here.”
Everyone needed to vacate the area in order to preserve what little evidence may have worked its way to the surface. As Esmerelda turned to leave, she said, “Thank heaven. That"s not my Orson. He went missing in Placerville.
