Preservation

by Charles Lemoine

  Ingrid didn’t even look in its direction. She simply hooked her arm in Mariska’s and held her tight. “That’s for another time.”

  Mysteries everywhere. What Mariska wouldn’t do to have full access to Ingrid’s home. No one around to make sure she kept her hands to herself. She could spend days in the secret vault alone. So much history. So many unanswered questions.

  Ingrid pushed the sliding bookcase back into place and said, “Have you decided whether you want to call and report your accident now, or when you get home?”

  Back to reality. “I’ll call when I get home. I don’t want to take up any more of your time. I appreciate all your help.”

  “Would you like Thomas to give you a ride home? Or, I think you also mentioned a friend? A gentleman…I assume.”

  Mariska’s face flushed hot. “Yes, but we’re just friends.”

  “I see,” Ingrid said. “By his choice? Or, yours?”

  “We’ve talked about it in the past. Our friendship is so important to us that we didn’t want to risk it.”

  “Well, it’s none of my business, but that sounds like something you decided. In my experience, men don’t mind risking the friendship.” Ingrid turned and walked into the hallway entrance of the mansion.

  Mariska shook her head. This woman was more than a scientist who specialized in ancient civilizations and extinct creatures; she knew the human condition. Maybe it was age. Maybe it was a discerning eye that noticed subtle changes in body language. Either way, Ingrid was smart and knew what she was doing.

  She followed the older woman into the entryway. “Thank you for your time, Ingrid. I really appreciate it.”

  “Any time.” Ingrid smiled. “But next time, try not to break anything.”

  Mariska cringed. The blow was in jest, but well deserved. “I promise.”

  “I’ve summoned Thomas to bring the car around. He’ll take you home or wherever you want to go.”

  “Thank you, so much.”

  Ingrid gave her a hug. “I have some other business to attend to, so if you don’t mind, I must leave you now.”

  “Absolutely,” Mariska said. “I will wait for Thomas right here.”

  Ingrid turned and started walking away into the bowels of the expansive home when Mariska thought of something she’d forgotten to say. “Ingrid.” The older woman must not have heard her as she turned the corner and disappeared from view.

  An internal debate began. Tell her later or go after her now? All she wanted to ask her was for the library location where her father’s belongings were stored. There were multiple locations in L.A., and there was no telling which one had his documents on file. The archival files wouldn’t be available online to search, and she’d need to visit them in person. Getting the information now would possibly save her two or three days of searching.

  Charging up the long hallway in the direction Ingrid went, Mariska slowed to a silent crawl when she reached the end of the hallway. Something told her to peek around the corner rather than entering like a proverbial bull in a china shop. Pressed up against the wall, she stole a glance around the corner.

  Nothing. No one was there. Better try one more time, she thought. This time, when she looked around the corner, she took a bit more time. Peering around the corner, the room came into view. An expansive ornate room filled with luxurious furnishings. A set of large mammoth tusks caught her attention. They were mounted over the fireplace at the far side of the room. Mumbled voices could be heard, but were too soft for Mariska to make out with any kind of understanding. She held her breath and listened, again. Ingrid was talking to someone, but it was only her voice Mariska heard. She had to be on the phone with someone. Straining to hear, she took a small step into the opening of the doorway. Where was Ingrid? To the right of the room was another hallway. She must be in there. Mariska slipped off her heels and tiptoed across the hardwood floors in silence. The closer she got, the more she could hear. Ingrid said, “That’s not needed… No, I’m telling you, it’ll be fine… Yes, less than you, trust me.”

  Who was she talking to? Was it about, me? Mariska’s heart pounded. If she were caught eavesdropping, there’d be no plausible explanation as to why she was there.

  Ingrid continued, “Yes. I understand. As you wish. Oh, and do me a favor…run the sample, stat.”

  Mariska heard the woman hang up the phone. I need to get out of here. She took a couple steps backward when she bumped into something. She turned just as vase sitting atop the table she’d collided with began to topple. Shit. She grabbed for the ceramic masterpiece that was probably worth more than Mariska’s life. With both hands, she scooped it up into the air, but something inside the bowl rattled loud enough to be heard in the next room.

  “Thomas? Is that you?” Ingrid said from the other room.

  Mariska placed the vase back onto the desk and snatched her shoes from the floor and ran. Headlong, she raced through the expanse and into the hallway. Just a few more meters to the front door. With one last painful lunge, she reached for the door and swung it open. Her bruised ribs screaming out at the stretch she’d put them under.

  “Dr. Stevenson?” Thomas stood in the doorway.

  “Thomas,” Mariska said, out of breath. “Are you ready for me?”

  A confused expression crossed his wrinkled, old, face. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes, thank you.” Mariska looked behind her. Ingrid stepped into the hallway and cocked her head to the side. Mariska waved, “Thank you again.”

  Ingrid waved. Mariska pulled the door closed behind her and rushed over to the limousine.

  “Dr. Stevenson, your purse is in the backseat. Is there anything else you’ll be needing before we leave?”

  “No, thank you.” Mariska swung her legs inside the vehicle as Thomas shut the door.

  Mariska couldn’t wait to get home. She had some digging to do.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Thomas pulled open the door just after he parked the car in the small lot behind Mariska’s apartment. She grabbed her purse and took his hand as he helped her out of the backseat. The adrenaline had long since left her body since the accident earlier in the day. Her back and all four limbs were stiff and sore. The bruise had begun to form on her left arm and knee. She’d have to do a more in-depth examination in the privacy of her own home.

  Accepting the offer of help out of the car, she pulled on the older man as she came up to stand. Her ankles were a little more, shaky than she’d expected them to be.

  “Thank you, Thomas.” She shook his hand. “Will you please thank Ingrid again for her time?”

  “Of course, ma’am.” He offered a nod and returned to the front seat. Seconds later, he was pulling out of her lot, and she was left all alone.

  Motivation at an all-time low, made the metal staircase leading to her second-floor apartment appear insurmountable. It might as well have been Mount Everest. And here she was without any Sherpas to help her to the summit.

  That’s when it hit her. The importance of what she’d learned and seen at Ingrid’s house. The old woman might hold the key or at least be a conduit to the key to finding La Brea Woman…or at the very least finishing her research. Energized, she took the first six stairs without a second thought. It was the final six that sent pain up the back of her legs and into her hips and low back.

  A few seconds of struggling with the tricky lock and sticky front door, she muscled the door open with her shoulder. She looked at the clock above the sink in the kitchen. She still had a few hours she could do some research before David showed up with dinner. Not to mention she was going to need to contact the police regarding the car accident. Accident? No, it was no accident.

  First things first, send Theresa a message. Mariska took out her phone and sent a text to Theresa asking if there was anything new on her end. Next, she placed a call to Detective Wulf.

  She got his voicemail and left a message. “Detective Wulf, this is Mariska Stevenson calling. I wanted to report to you
…an accident. I was driving on Mulholland Drive, right around mile marker fifteen. There’s a steep drop off at the second switchback. A dark SUV ran me off the road. So, I guess maybe it wasn’t an accident? Anyway, call me back. You have my number.”

  Mariska hung up the phone and went into her bedroom. She hurried to the dresser and bookcase and retrieved her hidden, stolen treasures. The beads and mysterious tooth. Taking them over to the bed, she opened the box and took out the pouch of beads, pouring them out onto the bedspread. Ten, in all, crudely made and of a cubic structure. At first glance, they were small, about the size of Mariska’s thumbnail and rough in texture. The beads were not made of a familiar stone, or at least, Mariska didn’t immediately recognize them. They didn’t appear to be made of similar stones found in the tar pits. They weren’t from the local area. She held them up to the lamp she turned on next to the bed. Without magnification, she saw that the beads weren’t just rough, they were carved. Or, at least that was her best guess right now. Her expertize was animals, not humans, and she had yet to find a mammoth that wore jewelry or carved their initials into their tusks before ending up in the tar pits. She would need more magnification at the very least, to further study them.

  The tooth was a different story. Definitely, not human. The tiny holes on the sides made it clear it was part of the necklace, along with the ten beads. Was there a significance to the necklace? Would it help to identify who La Brea Woman was…or at least who she belonged too? The weight of the tooth wasn’t what she’d expected it to be. Usually, fossils were heavier, unless they were preserved in the tar itself. She put the tooth in her palm and compared it to a small Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth she’d found on a dig in Montana when she was in graduate school. They were of similar size, but not the same. The T-Rex tooth had turned to stone over millions of years, the minerals being slowly replaced by the surrounding soils and ultimately being turned into stone. This mystery-tooth was not like that. It was similar to the weight of a preserved tooth, not a petrified or fossilized one.

  For Mariska, it told her that the tooth was of a living, or recently deceased creature dating back to the Pleistocene Epoch, and wasn’t already a fossil dug up by the La Brea Woman before being fashioned into a necklace. The unknown creature was something that must have existed as recently as ten to fifteen thousand years ago. Just like the La Brea Woman. Finding a new Dinosaur species was cool, but still happened quite often in the paleontology world, but finding a new Megafauna species dating to the Pleistocene Era, and in America…that was rare, exciting. Something that could not only make an already good career, spectacular but also bring an added piece to the puzzle she and her predecessors slaved away at the bottom of hot, smelly pits to bring to the scientific community at large.

  Her phone chimed with an incoming text from Theresa. I haven’t come up with too much yet. I’m trying to warm up to Kathy to see if I can get any information. She’s an ice queen.

  Mariska sent a text back, Keep trying. I think she might know more than we give her credit for. We’ll also need to make a visit to the Los Angeles Library, but I’ll need a ride. What day would work for you?

  Another chime, I can pick you up tomorrow. What time?

  Perfect. How about after you get off of work? Five o’clock?

  Theresa responded almost immediately. I’ll see you at your place at five.

  Mariska put the phone down and picked up the tooth and beads, rolled them around in her hands, and closed her eyes. She normally spent time thinking and imagining times past at the Griffith Park Observatory. But she didn’t have a car to take up there. So, she laid back on the bed and tried to imagine she was in the wilds of California, fifteen thousand years ago. The smell of the huge pine and conifer trees. In the distance, an unknown animal bellowed. Probably a Bison Antiquus, a huge animal weighing over three thousand pounds, the bones told of a heavily muscled animal that had a thick skull and sharp horns. A stiff breeze blew, cooler than modern-day California, but not bitterly cold; she got a whiff of something…musky. Animal, for sure, but what kind.

  Unconsciously, Mariska rubbed the tooth between her fingers, its smooth surface ending in a point. Scrolling through a memory bank of potential creatures that would meet the needed size and classification for such a tooth, she smelled another strong odor. The sensation sent a tingle through her body that woke her from her meditation. Sitting up, she brought the tooth and beads closer to her face. Like a child, trying to feel, taste, and smell everything to gain as much information as she could from the world around her, she took a sniff. Nothing, but a faint smell of tar. The noxious, sticky substance, would continue to ooze out from the porous material, over the course of decades.

  A knock at the front door took her out of the moment. She put the tooth and beads back into their perspective hiding places and went to see who came over uninvited. Although, maybe David came early. He’d been known to do that in the past. But she thought she’d broken him of that by not answering the door until the scheduled time.

  She snuck a peek through the peephole. Definitely not David. Mariska unlocked the two deadbolts and removed the chain. Swinging the door open, she tried to affix a pleasant expression to her face.

  “Detective Wulf. I wasn’t expecting you.”

  He cocked his head to one side, “Really? You called me.”

  The car accident. “I did. You’re absolutely right.” She took a step back and said, “Would you like to come in?”

  Wulf gave a nod and stepped past her into the entryway.

  “Honestly, I thought you would have just called me back. I didn’t know you would come to my home.” Mariska closed the door behind them and walked through the kitchen toward the living room, with Wulf following.

  “We had a couple calls come in regarding an accident on Mulholland. One, call said they saw a black Cadillac Escalade push a small BMW off the side of the cliff,” Wulf said, before taking a seat where Mariska had shown to him. He lowered himself onto the sofa, and she sat across from him in a high back leather chair. “When you left me a voicemail, the police were digging through your glove box and reported back your name and address. Clearly, this wasn’t an accident.”

  “So, you came to take my report? Or…?”

  “That’s how it’s done,” Wulf said. “Before we go any further, I’m telling this for your own good. Never leave the scene of an accident again. It’s against the law and I have every right to arrest you for this.” He gave her side-eye. “I’m not going to this time, but don’t let it happen again. And while I’m lecturing you, have you called your insurance company?”

  She shook her head. “I will as soon as you leave.”

  He cleared his throat. “Now, we’ve taken paint samples from your car. They also took swabs of the blood, when we thought we were going to need to identify the victim. Although we will be sure to match them to you…since we’ve collected them, might as well test them.”

  “Of course.” Mariska looked down for a moment and then said, “Would you care for something to drink?”

  “No, thank you. I’m on duty.”

  Mariska chuckled, “I was thinking water. Bottled, but non-alcoholic.”

  “Oh.” He fidgeted a bit with his tie. “Still, I’m fine, but thank you.”

  So, he’s uncomfortable now, she thought. Good to know. “Do you have any leads?”

  “It’s far too early to have any leads, but it’s good to see you’re doing okay. Have you been to the hospital to get checked out?”

  “Nah, I didn’t hit my head. Nothing’s broken. I’m good.” Mariska looked down and saw her skirt was torn on the side and stained with blood. “I mean, I’ve looked better, but I’m physically doing, okay.”

  “It would be better to be checked out by a doctor…to make sure.”

  “You don’t know me very well, Detective. I’m not one to run to the hospital or the police for help when I need it.” She gave a short laugh. “I’ve been told I’m stubborn.”

  “Oh, yes.
I remember.”

  “You, remember?” Mariska’s smile disappeared. “You’re acting like you know me, or something.”

  He cleared his throat and looked away for a split second. “I…I’m referring to our encounter at the hospital. You were being pretty darn stubborn. If, I remember correctly.”

  Mariska narrowed her stare. Who was Detective Wulf? The tingle in her gut told her there was more to him that he let on.

  She broke eye contact as he said, “What can you tell me about the person who ran you off the road?”

  “Not, much. Once, I climbed up the rocky embankment to the street; I saw a man watching me from the SUV. He wasn’t the driver, so there were at least two of them. He was too far away to see anything really, but…”

  “But?” Wulf scooted to the end of his seat.

  “I took a picture. Wait here.” She ran into her bedroom and retrieved her phone. Scrolling through her apps, she continued, “I don’t think it’s a detailed picture by any stretch of the imagination, but it might be of help.”

  She turned the phone, so Wulf could take a look at the picture.

  “May I?” Wulf said, asking to touch the phone so he could get a closer look.

  Mariska handed him the phone and sat back into the chair.

  Wulf squinted and put the phone up close to his face. He zoomed in on the photograph to get a better look. “You’re right. It’s not a good picture.”

  Mariska rolled her eyes but smiled.

  “It’s better than nothing. I’d like you to text me that picture please.” Wulf handed her back the phone.

  “Sure,” she said, sending him the picture while he waited.

  His phone beeped with the incoming text message.

  “Anything else?” he asked.

  “Nope, that’s about it. It looks like someone tried to kill me twice now.”

  He shook his head. “I would say your luck has been anything, but good. At this point, there’s no way to tell if these two incidents are related…you know, other than they both happened to you.”