Touched by Death (29 page)

With a cheeky grin in his direction, Jade forked up
a large piece of French toast and popped it in her mouth. "I did.
Cindy will be happy to bring you a plate, too."

"So what happened? Who tied you up and left you
there?" Wilson picked up his coffee and took a sip. Even Jade put
down her fork and turned to watch the mixed emotions pass across Dr.
Mike's face.

"What?" she prompted.

Dr. Mike rubbed his temple. "I just feel a little
foolish that's all. I locked up the lab, and on the spur of the moment,
I decide to check out this hike. It was right around the corner, nice
and close. What could go wrong? I wasn't planning on climbing it, I
just wanted to make sure it was something we could all do." He
sighed, took a sip of tea then put his cup down and continued. "I
parked, got out, locked the SUV and went to the base of the path...and
the next thing I know, I'm on the ground, my hands tied up and this
old guy is trying to wake me up."

Gasps lit up the room.

He winced. "Now I know it was Peppe. He had a
wild look in his eyes and he smelled something terrible. At the time,
I tried to reason with him, then tried to offer him something, anything
to let me go. He hardly talked. That guy, for all his lack of size was
on a mission." He glanced around the room, a wry look on his face.
"I know. How could a small crazy old man go up against me? I've
got fifty pounds on him, am younger and stronger." He stared down
at his teacup, remnants of memories chasing across his face. "Yeah,
I'm feeling pretty stupid today."

Silence hit the table.

Bruce smacked him on the shoulder lightly. "Don't
be. You might be younger and stronger, however, you aren't insane and…you
were out for a hike – you weren't looking for an ambush."

Dr. Mike gave him a half smile. "I tried to fight
him and he whacked me over the head again." He shrugged. "I
decided to wait for a better chance. He forced me to walk up the mountain.
When it got dark, he still knew where and how to walk. I didn't. It
was just after we'd topped the rise that I made it a little further
then fell on the rocks."

He motioned to his crutches.

"I couldn't walk anymore. He actually helped
me get up and into the cave." Dr. Mike shifted uncomfortably. "I
heard voices and hobbled forward enough to see Emile and Peppe having
an all out argument. Emile saw me and my tied hands. I thought he'd
help me, instead he took off down the mountain, screaming at his father
something fierce." He shook his head. "Peppe took off after
him. Not sure what that was all about."

"We found Emile on the rocks by the gravesite.
He appeared to have fallen and hit his head. He died in hospital yesterday."

"Oh Lord," Dr. Mike whispered, shock rippling
across his face. "I'd hoped he'd gone to get help."

"He might have been coming for help when he fell."
Meg smiled gently at him.

Jade, speaking in a hushed voice, had another suggestion.
"Or Peppe might have caught up to him and attacked him."

Silence filled the room.

Everyone sat back.

"Unbelievable. If we hadn't found you..."
Stephen left the rest unsaid.

Dr. Mike grimaced. "Thanks for pointing that
out."

Jade reached over and kissed the older man on the
cheek. "Except we did find you, so all is good."

Stephen raised his eyebrows. "Except for Peppe.
He's still out there, loose. What possible reason could he have had
to kidnap Dr. Mike?"

Putting down his cup of fresh coffee, Dr. Mike said,
"He kept mumbling about a doctor. As if he or someone he knew needed
a doctor. I don't know for sure, but I wonder if he thought I could
help Tasha?"

"Oh, wow." And Jade could almost believe
that. Especially for someone in Peppe's mental state. "That almost
makes sense."

"It would mean he knew that Tasha was in trouble."
Everyone turned to stare at Dr. Mike, then at each other.

Stephen snorted. "Anyone would know that. You
only needed to look at her to know something was wrong. Jesus, I almost
admire him if that's why he did it. At least he was trying to do something
for his daughter."

That brought murmurs of agreement from the others.

"Anyone know if there's going to be a funeral
for Emile?" Meg asked.

Jade shook her head before answering. "No idea.
I doubt Dane and John have it all figured out yet either."

"Yeah, you're not kidding. Is the chaos over?
Obviously, we're going to have to be careful as long as Peppe is still
wandering around. But now that the police are looking for him, we might
soon have an end to that problem, too. I'll call Dane after I get a
bite to eat. We should be the ones to tell him what happened. He can
decide the best way to tell John."

Jade winced. That wasn't going to be much fun. Dane
wouldn't be impressed at the idea of Peppe being responsible for Dr.
Mike's disappearance. He'd feel guilty. He shouldn't because he'd wanted
the authorities called in to help find the old man in the first place.

Bruce changed the subject. "We should be getting
the next lot of DNA results back soon too. Seems like we've spent a
lot of time and we're still just getting started. I don't feel like
we're even close to half way. What's it been…a month now?"

The discussion turned to the job in progress.

Jade settled back, content to listen to everyone else
work things out. There was a sense of calm in her heart. She knew John
had to be going through a bad time right now and she felt sorry about
his family, still she was beyond relieved to have things approaching
normal in her world.

Now if they could just stay out of trouble for the
rest of their Haitian work term….

Monday dawned bright and clear. Everyone showed up
in good spirits, ready to make major inroads on their work –
as if the long Friday night and draining Saturday had never happened.
Of course, a relaxing Sunday had helped to revive everyone's energy
levels.

Dr. Mike had chosen to work in the lab trailer. His
ankle rested on a second stool and he worked on charts while Jade worked
on the skeletons. Stephen and Wilson worked up at the gravesite. Both
men sported decent tans after weeks of outdoor work.

Susan, in good health again, had gone into town with
Bruce to attend the clinic. There'd been a lot of discussion about closing
the clinic if no one showed.

The end result was to give it a couple of weeks and
then reassess. So far they'd only had a half dozen people turn up. None
of those wanted or could afford to have their relatives buried elsewhere.
They just wanted to locate their family members. Find closure as to
where and what had happened to them – nothing more. Tony had contacted
the media outlets throughout Haiti, to broadcast the offer, yet the
response from families was disappointing.

Jade bustled around her two new cases. She had an
adolescent male and a young adult female on her morning docket. With
Dr. Mike doing the charts, they could proceed that much faster.

Before long, they were finished. "I'm going to
go grab Stephen. We'll switch these two for two more."

Dr. Mike nodded, but his focus remained fixed on the
screens in front of him.

Jade smiled at his intensity, then headed out. While
walking up the path, she heard the men's shovels banging away on the
rocks. She wished Dane would drive up even though it was Monday and
she knew he had his own business to take care of.

He'd been at the back of her mind all morning. How
was he holding up?

They'd talked several times on Sunday but hadn't managed
to squeeze in more than a few minutes of togetherness. Again, she wished
she had a cell phone. She'd send him a text to just say 'hi' and let
him know she was thinking of him. She'd put purchase of the phone on
her list of things to do.

"Hey." She smiled at the two dust-covered
men. "Can I get one of you to come help move a bag for me? I'm
done with the first two and could use two more."

"That was fast." Stephen put down his shovel.
"I'll help."

"I might as well, too." Wilson joined them.
"We'll do the switch for you. How's Dr. Mike holding up?"

"He appears to be fine. Having him help out in
the lab is speeding things up."

The men quickly exchanged the bags leaving Jade and
Dr. Mike alone again.

"Jade? Any updates on Peppe from Dane?"

"Haven't heard anything." Jade picked up
her camera again. "Then, I haven't spoken to Dane today."

"I'm sure the authorities would let us know if
they found him anyway."

"Good thing." She replaced the camera on
her table and picked up her pen and clipboard, and wrote down a few
notes. She removed a solid gold band from a finger barely holding together.
She checked for an inscription, then laid it on a white board then picked
up the camera again. "I wonder how John is holding up," she
added as an afterthought.

Dr. Mike pointed out another consideration. "And
I'm wondering if Peppe understood the significance of the ambulance
taking both of his kids away, with only John and Dane there since. Who knows how much he saw or understood? If he realizes the truth
– there's no way to know how he's going to react now. He could blame
us. He could blame John or even Dane. They are on his property. And
his family is gone. Or he might not even comprehend what's happened."

Heavy silence filled the small room as they worked.

"Any idea when his wife passed away?" Dr.
Mike asked.

"I don't think I ever heard. He's probably done
a slow decline since then." Jade looked at him.

"Hmmm."

"What are you thinking?"

"Someone mentioned about ten years ago. Just
looking to confirm. That's within my time estimate of how long the two
oldest skeletons have been in the grave. Eight to twelve years is my
informed guess at this point."

Jade straightened, a dawning understanding filtering
in. "The timeframe puts Peppe as a potential suspect, doesn't it?
If his wife died anywhere around then, it could have set him on that
path?"

He studied the chart in his hand. "I will admit
my thinking is colored by Peppe trying to drag me over the mountain…but
the proximity, the timing, the means…all fit. He could have caught
any young woman and dragged her over that hill into his cabin and who'd
have known? Of course motive is still an issue."

Jade put her camera down slowly. It was either that
or drop it. "Does anyone, twisted enough to imprison women, need
a motive? Seriously. That's a horrible thought. "

"Don't worry about it. Probably nothing to it
and it was just the coincidence of being a prisoner myself for that
short time period that brought it to mind." He pushed his glasses
up. "Then again any one of these bodies could have been buried
somewhere else then brought here as a better hiding place. Mixed in
with all the others, no one would know. Even the dirt layer could have
been added in between. Enough to hide the new arrivals before the loader
came back with the next load. It's not like there was any security here
at the time."

"And wrapped in sheets, the chains wouldn't have
been visible anyway."

Dr. Mike sighed. "No one cared. This grave was
the solution to their major problem. Imagine the chaos at the time.
We've found bodies that had been wrapped in sheets, plastic, some taped
shut and others just tossed."

The image he'd painted turned her stomach. "So
what you're really saying is that there is little means to find the
truth." She spun around in the direction of the reefer truck. "Do
you think the kidnapper is in the grave himself?"

"Could be."

She winced as she glanced down at the adult male on
her table. "Or even here?"

He grinned. "Absolutely. The thing is we may
never know. We can turn over the evidence to the authorities but––"

"It will be up to them to follow up on it."

Dr. Mike nodded. "I don't think a few more dead
bodies in a mass grave are going to bother them much."

"These women were murdered, weren't they?"

"Yes. The first one we found could have been
a captive at the time and killed by the earthquake. Or the kidnapper
might have decided it was time to get rid of her."

"And had a perfect grave readymade for him. Nice.
Not."

"And Peppe could also have walked across his
property and thrown her in, between tractor trips."

They stared at each other.

"Just sayin'," said Dr. Mike.

So that's how he'd worked his way around to thinking
John's Haitian family could be involved? Jade pondered the information.
"Which also makes Emile a suspect based on that thinking. Physically
stronger, also in close proximity, also devastated by the loss of his
mother? And with Emile dead and Peppe and Tasha off their rockers –
chances are good we'll never know."

Straightening his back, Dr Mike grimaced. "Exactly.
The only thing we can do is our job. And hope that even if the authorities
here don't do anything, that a higher power will."

Jade hated that some creep could have been kidnapping
and killing women, possibly for years without paying the price for their
crimes.

She slammed down her clipboard and glared at Dr. Mike.
A higher power nothing; she wanted justice. "I'm hoping the bastard's
already dead. And that it wasn't an easy death. Pinned down and dying
without water and food…for days in a deserted empty house… Now that
sounds about right."

"Exactly." Dr. Mike smiled. "I'm not
all about sugar and spice."

At the end of the day, Jade really wanted to stop
in and see Dane on the way home. She did not want to see John though.
She'd stayed later, hoping Dane might show up – only he hadn't. On
top of that, the trailer was hot and she was tired. She sighed.

"Okay, what gives Miss Lovelorn?" Meg's
perky voice showed she was back to normal after the difficult weekend.