Touched by Death (7 page)

Had Bruce considered labor
– as in hiring a couple of young men to help with the physical
moving of the body bags? She wasn't expecting them to be heavy, but
they needed to be held together as much as possible. She'd have to remember
to ask him.

They had ninety body bags
stored under the trailer. It was anybody's guess if that was enough
or not. If the numbers were higher, and the bones completely clean,
then the surplus skeletons could be packed in boxes. She wasn't expecting
them to be that clean though.

Finally, as organized
as she could be, she stood in the trailer and surveyed her workspace.
There wasn't much. No air conditioning, no heat. No power. No running
water – that was an issue. Antiseptic smells permeated the space after
her major scrubbing session. There was no microwave or coffeepot –
even she'd been perturbed by that. Everything else was there.

This was definitely a
case of making do with what they had. What she needed now were bodies.

She walked to the front
steps and stood outside. The forecast for heavy rain hadn't come through.
Thank heavens. Things were rough enough now, but hurricanes, floods
or another earthquake would shut them down – not to mention what it
would do to the Haitians who were barely surviving now.

"Jade, they're getting
close," Meg called to her from the path.

"Coming." She
locked the trailer – without knowing why – pocketed the keys and
raced over. There were two security guards posted today, just in case
the locals decided to lodge an onsite protest. So far only Dane was
there, working.

Good. She wandered in
closer. Dane had sliced the top off the burial mound and had taken a
good ten-foot-wide chunk out at the path. He'd also gone in a solid
six feet. He waved, backed the nimble machine out, placed it over to
one side and shut it off. Opening the door, he hopped down.

Bruce walked over to Dane
and Dr. Mike joined them.

Meg nudged Jade and the
two women headed over to see what the discussion was.

Several men, locals from
the look of them, came out of the woods with shovels in their hands.

"What's up?"

"Dane says it's time
for shovels." Dr. Mike walked around the backhoe and returned with
two shovels in each hand.

Jade grinned and put her
hands behind her back. "Never did find a shovel to fit my hand,"
she explained.

"Well you could always
try one of these...however, I'm sorry to say I don't have enough to
go around." He laughed and handed out shovels to Bruce, Stephen
and Wilson. He kept one for himself. "The hired help are only here
for today to help us cut the top down. Then we're on our own."

Jade walked over to the
newly dug space. Uneasiness rested heavily on her shoulders. Her gaze
landed on the cross laid carefully off to one side until they were done.
Magrim's warning came to mind – and the grave. She shivered with an
apprehension she hadn't felt before though she'd worked morgues and
labs for years. She'd seen plenty of Death's work. Too much.

On every project there
was an initial sense of awe, a respect for the dead, that was recognized
at the moment just before starting work. This respect was healthy and
comforting.

Today was different; when
she thought about the task at hand, instead of awe, her feelings resembled
dread. She didn't know why. There was only the old witch woman's words
to blame.

"Ready?" Dr.
Mike stood beside her, surveying the rocks. The odor creeping out of
the ground told them what they would confirm within minutes.

"Sure. Why not."
She stepped off to one side. And it was then she took a close look at
the pile in front. She frowned.

Red.
Just a small amount tucked between rocks on the left.

"What's that?"
She stepped forward and bent down.

"Here, let us in.
We've got the tools." With gloves on, two men stepped forward to
move boulders, while two others used the shovels to move the smaller
stuff out of the way.

It took a good ten minutes
to open the space.

They'd found their first
set of remains.

Everyone stopped and heads
bowed for a moment of silence. Then in unspoken accord, those in the
business of identifying the dead, began their work.

The portable stretcher
stood by with an unzipped body bag on top. The red was a t-shirt holding
a set of ribs more of less in place. The rocks were removed completely
before the body was shifted. Even then the hips and leg bones separated
inside the crumbling shorts. The skull – tufts of black hair
plastered into the dirt – sat nearby. For the most part, Mother
Nature had done a decent job. Most of the bones were bare, a few ligaments
and tendons vainly tried to connect bones and the odd clump of tissue
showed.

"Glad to see the
condition this one is in. Won't help with identification, however."

"Yeah, I didn't expect
there'd be much left by now in this climate." Bruce slipped a hard
plastic sheet under a foot in a fairly successful attempt to keep its
bones together. He moved it carefully over to the body bag and came
back for the second one. "The first one is always the worst."

"Hmmm." Jade
couldn't agree more and was relieved to know the general condition of
bodies they'd be working with. Much easier to detach emotionally, and
get on with the scientific duties when decomp was this far along.

"There, I think that
is it."

Bruce already had a second
body bag out for the next that lay directly under the first. And it
went that way for hours. Body upon body upon body. Even standing at
the open slash in the earth, Jade could see no less than seven skeletons
exposed, or partially exposed, in the open air.

There was nothing to do
but continue to dig in.

She came to a stop several
hours later when a bottle of water was shoved in her face.

Jade straightened, groaning
at her screaming muscles. "Oh, thank you."

"We have to drink
lots of liquids. We're not used to the climate here." Meg was sweating
profusely as she took a long drink of bottled water.

Jade sat down on a large
rock to unscrew the sealed top and tried to settle her queasy stomach.
She drank back half the bottle in her first drink. Wiping her mouth,
she grinned at the look on Meg's face. "I just streaked mud across
my face, didn't I?"

"Absolutely."
Meg's face shone though a layer of dust. "You look like the rest
of us."

"And we all look
like we've been playing in the sandbox."

"At least we've gotten
a good start this morning." Meg sat down beside her. "Bruce
has gone to town to pick up lunches for all of us. He's planning for
the hotel to provide bagged lunches, if possible, starting tomorrow."

Jade shrugged. "As
long as there's lots of it, I don't care where it comes from."

"You do like your
groceries, don't you?" Meg shook her head and laughed.

"Yep." Speaking
of which, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a badly melted
chocolate bar. She ripped it open and took a decent-sized bite, licking
the melted chocolate off her fingers. Meg just stared. Jade offered
the bar to her.

"No, I'm good. Besides
lunch is on its way."

"Just not fast enough."
Jade alternated chocolate with her water and by the time she reached
the bottom of both, her stomach was feeling better. She'd been fine
for the first hour; then the smells had hit. The queasiness grew after
that. Add in the heat...and she had a problem. Meg's water break had
perfect timing.

"Ready to do a bit
more?"

Jade tilted the bottle
for the last few drops and stood up. "Yes. Let's get this last
one over to the trailer. There are enough people here that we could
start in the lab this afternoon."

They walked over to the
men. Dr. Mike was zipping a body bag closed as they arrived. "Hello,
ladies. This is a small one. Can you move it?"

"Absolutely. When
you say small, are you saying a child?" Jade refused to look down
on the bag, her eyes locked on Dr. Mike's dirt-smeared face. He looked
ready for a break, too.

"Yes. The third one
so far. All three females."

Jade pursed her lips.
What ages were they looking for again? Tony had mentioned something
about it back in Seattle, but she hadn't been the most clear headed
then. "And we're looking for a six-year-old female, correct?"

Dr. Mike nodded. "Yes.
And the mother was twenty-eight and the father, thirty."

Jade tucked that information
away for later. She bent down and lifted one end of the stretcher. Meg
grabbed the other end and they headed to the reefer as the call came
that lunch had arrived.

Jade wiped the sweat from
her forehead. The sheer physicality of the job was wearing her down.
After lunch, she'd returned to the burial site to help with the excavation.
Many bodies were falling apart as the team sifted through the pile and
the most important thing was to move the exposed ones.

There were another three
to be moved before they could close off the area again. In theory, the
best approach would be to finish the bodies they already had in the
trailer before digging more.

"Another hour with
any luck." Bruce grinned at the look on her face. "I'm hoping
we don't find more spare parts at the bottom."

Jade shook her head. "I
know. That last couple appeared to be a lot of puzzle pieces and not
a whole lot of cohesion. It's not going to be easy to find and match
all the corresponding pieces."

"Hmmm. We can only
do the best we can." Bruce carefully laid out another body bag
and started to place the uppermost skeleton inside the bag. "At
least this one appears complete. I think the last one is still missing
the right hand."

"We'll find it."

They worked companionably
for the next hour. Finally, they opened what should be the last body
bag of the day. At least she hoped it would be. She was more than ready
for a hot shower and something to breathe other than the smell of death.
Her back ached from the constant bending. The end of this work day couldn't
come fast enough.

Digging deeper into her
reserves, she helped Bruce pack the last exposed set of bones. The two
of them carefully lifted the ribcage and carried it to the waiting body
bag. Straightening, she couldn't hold back a slight moan.

"Long day, huh?"

She offered him a tired
smile. "Yes, but productive." Turning back to the grave, she
lifted the left leg and it separated from the knee in her hand. "Damn."

"It's been happening
all day. Most of these at the bottom don't even have connective tissue."

"Hmmm. I shouldn't
have picked it up that way. Just tired at this point." She wiped
her forehead on her sleeve, grateful for the easing of the afternoon
heat. There'd been a breeze wafting through the valley earlier but that
had long disappeared.

"To be expected.
I'll get the rest of this." Bruce motioned to the big rocks. "Sit
and take a break."

Jade dropped her head
back and stared at the blue sky. It had to be close to six o'clock.
She closed her eyes for a long moment and took several deep breaths,
hoping for a second wind.

Opening them again, she
watched as Bruce carefully retrieved each tarsal and metatarsal lying
loose on the ground.
Almost there.

God, she couldn't wait
to leave the site. She stared down the path toward the trailers. Another
fifteen, maybe twenty minutes and they would be on their way.

"There, that should
do it." She gently laid the tiny bones in the body bag and zipped
it closed.

"Hmmm. Come look
at this." Bruce looked at her. "I know you're tired. Lord
knows, so am I. Only... I'm not sure this is the last one."

Bruce was bent over the
gravesite, slightly to the left of where they'd plucked the last skeleton.

"Another one?"
She knew it made sense for another one to be exposed, considering how
many could be in here, and she knew they couldn't leave it that way.

"I think so. Only
it's a layer down."

An odd silence filled
the air. She studied the frozen look on his face. "Bruce? What's
the matter?"

"We'll see in a minute."
He stood and took a smooth stride – one she resented after the way
her body was reacting – and snatched up a shovel. He gently dug into
the ground near the foot. He didn't attempt to remove any dirt; instead
he wobbled the tool back and forth several times and gently lifted dirt
from around the foot.

The small rocks and gravel
on top fell away. The bone shifted slightly to one side in the too large,
rotted sandal. She leaned closer to get a better look and realized she
was blocking the light. She climbed around to the other side, taking
a wide path to avoid disturbing the shifting ground. "Would they
have put a layer of dirt in after they'd put in so many bodies?"

Bruce didn't look up.
"I don't know. The dirt could just as easily have fallen in on
top from the sides as the loader moved back and forth with each trip."
Bruce put the shovel in a new spot and wiggled the dirt again. "There.
Do you see what I see?"

Jade bent down and brushed
the dirt away from the skeleton with her gloved hand – her fourth
or fifth pair of gloves today.

Bruce knelt across from
her and carefully removed the dirt from his side of the foot. She did
the same on her side. She gasped, leaning closer.

"What?" she
whispered. "Is that?"

"I'm going to remove
a bit more and then we'll see for sure."

She waited and watched.
Her stomach churned. She worried her bottom lip, hating the silence
that had fallen. The breeze had whistled over and around the hill for
most of the day. And when the wind had calmed there'd been birds or
small animals rustling in the undergrowth. She stood to stretch out
the kinks and glanced around. The place was deserted. Silence had fallen
on the valley, a silence that only highlighted the sound of gentle scrapes
of spade on rock.