Nora took a seat near the rear as a fellow named Lathrop was winding up a PowerPoint presentation on the facial reconstruction, using pictures of the dead man’s face.

“We employed the method outlined by Taylor and Angel in Craniofacial Identification in Forensic Medicine,” he was saying in a pretentious British accent, standing next to an image of the deceased person’s reconstructed face. “We think it gives better results than computational forensics. Wouldn’t you agree, Agent Swanson?”

Corrie nodded curtly as Lathrop continued clicking through the photos.

“We determined,” Lathrop went on, “that our man was an emaciated fellow, in his fifties, balding on top with a fringe of hair, skin weathered from years in the sun. We took all this into account as we painstakingly reconstructed the face, added wrinkles and hair and a leathery tan. We think we’ve achieved an excellent likeness, and the proof is that we already have a tentative ID.”

He looked around. “Any questions?”

Many hands went up. Lathrop picked one.

“Okay, but was it murder?”

Corrie started to answer, but Lathrop interrupted. “Nothing definitive either way,” he said. “At least from a forensic point of view.”

“But this is an official case now?” someone asked.

This time, Corrie answered. “Yes, it’s official and approved by the SAC.”

There were a few more questions about how Lathrop had reconstructed the face, what the actual process involved, which the man answered with plummy self-confidence and panache while Corrie stood next to him.

“Thank you, Dr. Lathrop,” said Corrie, rather abruptly, as the questions wound down. She took over as Lathrop nodded and retreated, resuming his seat with a satisfied smile. “Yesterday,” she said, “Sheriff Watts and I showed these photographs to some old-timers in the Socorro area, and we have a tentative identification of the victim as one James Doolin Gower. So far all we have is the name, but we’ll be confirming the ID and following up on the details of his life. Now, I want to introduce Dr. Nora Kelly, a senior curator at the Santa Fe Archaeological Institute. Dr. Kelly excavated the remains and has been studying the artifact found with the body. Dr. Kelly?”

Nora stood up and went to the podium. She had prepared a small PowerPoint presentation of her own, which she now fired up with a remote Corrie handed her. Lecturing at the Institute had become second nature to her, and any nervousness she might have felt at speaking in front of a roomful of government agents quickly fell away.

The first image appeared on the screen: a photograph of the cross, pictured against black velvet. It fairly glowed, and there was a faint murmur from the audience.

“Dr. Orlando Chavez and I have examined the cross, and we have some preliminary findings. It appears to date from the Spanish colonial period, pre–Pueblo Revolt—that is, between 1598 and 1680. It was probably made in the New World, with both the gold and gems having a New World origin.”

She went to the next slide: a close-up of the mounted turquoises.

“The turquoise has been identified as coming from the ancient Chalchihuitl mine in the Cerrillos Hills, south of Santa Fe, which was a major source of prehistoric and historic turquoise. It has a very distinctive pale green color and pattern. The other gemstones are harder to source, but the nephrite jade is probably from central Mexico. The cross is of particularly fine workmanship and was probably made by a master goldsmith in Mexico City. There’s a good chance it was carried into New Mexico by a padre as a personal holy object.”

She brought up the next slide.

“There are what appear to be some unusual assay marks on the cross, which my colleague at the Institute is now researching.”

She ended the presentation. “Finally, since you’re all law enforcement, you’ll be interested to know that there’s no documented history or provenance for this artifact. It’s not from any public or private collection that we know of, and there’s no record of a theft of any object like this. That’s all we can say about it so far, but when we identify those assay marks we will know much more. Thank you.”

Corrie stepped forward. “And thank you, Dr. Kelly. Any questions?”

A dozen hands went up.

“How much is the artifact worth?” one person asked.

“From a historical point of view, it’s very rare. There’s nothing quite like it in my experience.”

“But on the open market? Can you give us a monetary value?”

“I’d guess somewhere in the six figures.”

“What’s this Pueblo Revolt you mentioned?” asked somebody else.

Nora had wondered how much historical background the group might need. Looking around the room, she realized most of these agents probably had come from other parts of the country and knew next to nothing about local history.

“A good question,” she said. “Let me give you a little historical context. New Mexico was first settled by Europeans in 1598 by the Spanish conquistador Don Juan de O?ate and a group of European colonists, along with a number of friars. Those padres fanned out to all the subjugated Puebloan Indian settlements along the Rio Grande, where they built mission churches. These churches needed ecclesiastical goods—crosses, bells, chalices, statues of the Virgin, that sort of thing. So a lot of workshops in Mexico City began churning out holy items to supply the churches along the northern frontier. Since they had access to plenty of gold, silver, and gems pouring out of the mines, some of these religious articles were quite spectacular. They were carried up from Mexico City and distributed to the mission churches across New Mexico. That, we think, is the case with this cross. It’s heavily worn, so we assume it was carried by a padre rather than placed in a church.