Summaries
A small town policeman is assisted by a Harvard professor when a human skeleton is found on a Massachusetts beach.
Vivian, a B-girl working at "The Grass Skirt," is being brushed off by her rich, married boyfriend. To confront him, she hijacks drunken customer Henry Shanway and his car from Boston to Cape Cod, where she strands Henry...and is never seen again. Months later, a skeleton is found (sans clothes or clues) on a lonely Cape Cod beach. Using the macabre expertise of Harvard forensic specialist Dr. McAdoo, Lt. Pete Morales must work back from bones to the victim's identity, history, and killer. Will he succeed in time to save an innocent suspect?
After a bird watcher on the beach in Cape Cod finds a skeleton on the beach, Lt. Peter Morales investigates. He and Det. Tim Sharkey deliver the remains to Dr. McAdoo at Harvard who specializes in forensics. There's not much else to go on beyond the bones: no clothes, no jewelry. McAdoo's examination reveals that the victim was a blond woman, around age 24 and that her body was dumped at the beach some three months ago. He can also estimate that she was 65 inches tall and from the shape of her foot, possibly a dancer. It leads them to Vivian Heldon, who disappeared at the right time and worked in a bar called the Grass Skirt. She was last seen leaving the bar with a drunken Henry Shanway. She took his car and dumped him on her way to visit a wayward boyfriend at the Cape. The police think they have their man in Shanway but McAdoo proves otherwise leading them to the real killer.
A human skeleton is found among the tall grass in the dunes on a Cape Cod beach. Barnstable Police Lieutenant Pete Moralas is leading the investigation, with his gut feeling being that the victim met with foul play. He is enlisting the services of Dr. McAdoo with the Legal Section of the Harvard Medical Department. Pete will use whatever forensic evidence Dr. McAdoo can uncover from the skeleton and the crime site, combined with regular police evidence, such as missing persons cases, to discover the victim's identity. With that evidence, they are able to determine that the victim is twenty-four year old Vivian Heldon, a Boston based nightclub dancer and bar girl. She had been reported missing four months earlier by Jackie Elcott, who was a neighbor in a rooming house owned and operated by Mrs. Smerrling. Jackie knew that Vivian, like herself, was all alone in the world, that being the reason Jackie felt compelled to look out for her. Dr. McAdoo also discovers that single Vivian was in the early stages of pregnancy when she died. Pete is able to track Vivian's movements on the night she was probably killed, including how she got out to Cape Cod from Boston. With that evidence, Pete is able to charge married Henry Shanway with the murder. Henry pleads his innocence, he admitting that he had met Vivian that evening at the bar where she worked, but that he was drunk, drowning his sorrows as his wife, Grace Shanway, was in the hospital just having miscarried. The evidence against Henry includes several eyewitnesses being able to identify him as being with Vivian that night, those people including the bartender where she worked, one of her casual friends, and an employee at a roadside diner in Cape Cod. Mrs. Smerrling also identified him as snooping around the rooming house immediately following. Pete has no choice but to charge him, even though there still is a nagging feeling that something is missing in the investigation. That something could be helped or hindered by one of the external parties working on his/her own agenda.
In Boston, the prostitute Vivian Heldon is pressed by Mrs. Smerrling, who is the greedy owner of the boarding house when she lives, to pay the rent of the room that is late. She calls her wealthy lover and schedules a meeting with him at "The Grass Skirt", where she works. However he never appears and Vivian hijacks the drunken client Henry Shanway and drives his car to Cape Cod. She stops at a diner and calls her lover again to meet him in a spot. When Henry awakes, Vivian lures him and leaves him on the road. When Vivian meets her lover, he kills her with a 45 mm, hides her body and dumps the car in a lake. A couple of months later, her skeleton is found near the beach. Detective Peter Morales is assigned to investigate the case without any clue; however the coroner Dr. McAdoo from Harvard gives technical support to Morales and he finds the identity of Vivian. His further investigation leads him to Henry that lied to justify the hijack of his car to his wife Grace Shanway and to the insurance company. Now Henry becomes the prime suspect and only his wife believe in his words. Will Detective Morales proceed his investigation and find the real killer?
