What to Read After FSOG: The Gemstone Collection (WTRAFSOG Book 4)

by Selena Kitt

  His grin flashed.

  Jade hadn’t noticed how personable Bruce was. That head of red hair and beard surrounded a smile that offered quick praise. A nice man. She grinned back.

  The discussion moved into logistics. As they returned to their rooms for the night, the old woman crowded her way back into Jade’s mind. What had her words meant?

  She walked over to her bags and pulled out her laptop. She turned it on and opened a word document. She realized there was something beyond prophetic about Magrim’s words. Repeating them aloud, she typed. “Danger stalks you. You sense it, but you don’t understand it. Careful. Or you will join those that have gone before.”

  Scary shit. She sat back and studied what she’d written. Just what did Magrim mean by them? There was no doubt in her mind the old woman thought she had seen a vision of some kind. Or she was a very good fake.

  What danger stalked her? And was it a coincidence that Magrim had used some of the same words that were carved on the cross at the mass grave?

  Chapter Five

  The next morning, Jade immersed herself in work in the lab trailer. She set about organizing a viable production line plan. DNA samples needed to be taken along with photos and then identifying marks needed to be charted along with measurements and dental impressions. She could hope the work on each case would be approximately two hours though it was possible twice that long would be required. There was really no way to know until she started. They’d also need help moving them from the grave site to trailer and to the reefer or from the reefer to trailer if the team became backlogged.

  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 gotte
n 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.

  The shadows lengthened around them. Jade swallowed hard, grateful she was here with Bruce and not Meg. Something about a strong male presence made her feel better. Not that she was a wimp. However, right now, tired and worn out, she felt that way. “And?”

  “Almost.” He eased away some more dirt and shifted around slightly to attack the mound from the other side. She stepped out of his way.

  “Where did everyone else go?”

  A laugh escaped him; he stared at her, his big grin splitting his dusty face. She couldn’t believe he hadn’t shaved off his thick red beard. That had to be hot as hell.

  “They’ve probably gone back to the hotel to grab all the hot water before us.”

&
nbsp; She groaned comically, happy to have an excuse to ease the tension twisting inside. “They would too, wouldn’t they?”

  “Hell yeah.” His boisterous laugh rolled across the rocks. “Hold on. Almost done…and I’m sure the hotel is equipped with enough hot water for us.”

  “I’m not so sure. If you’re wrong, you’re sacrificing your shower for me.”

  He grinned. “Like hell––” His voice cut off in shock. She heard a weird jangle and dropped down beside him to peer down at the mix of bone, cloth and…

  She went down on one knee. Her breath caught. Her mind rebelled. She whispered – barely loud enough to be heard, “Dear God. What is that?”

  “Look for yourself.”

  He pointed down where the tibia widened at the end. A few ligaments still connecting to the foot were now slightly askew inside the shoe. Bits of cloth clung to the ankle and footwear.

  Oh God. Her stomach heaved uncontrollable. Jade lurched off to one side where her lunch made a hasty exit.

  After a long moment, when she was sure there was no more to come, she spun around to face Bruce.

  He waited for her, a worried look on his face. “Are you going to be okay?”

  She glanced back down at the leg bone. She didn’t know how to answer.

  A chain lay twisted around the lower leg of the female skeleton.

  Securely attached at the ankle was a rusted iron…manacle.

  Chapter Six

  The dinner conversation rippled on around Jade as if she were a mere rock in a swiftly flowing river. That suited her. Mental exhaustion and stress had added to her physical deterioration during the day. Numbness had settled in.

  “Hey Jade, tough day? You look like you’re ready for bed.”

  With a wan smile in Susan’s direction, she couldn’t help but agree. “That’s where I’m going after this.”

  Dr. Mike studied her face in concern. “Don’t overdo it out there. You’re more valuable in the lab than doing grunt work.”

  Keeping an eye on the staff was part of his job, so Jade didn’t take his comments too close to heart. He was a compassionate man, all too willing to help out himself, if need be. “I hear you. We’ve reached the point where I’ll be in the lab from now on.”