Sacred Flesh

by Timothy Cavinder

  “He’s going to die then?” Eric asks.

  “No, not necessarily, as serious as it is surprisingly there is a somewhat simple cure. All we need is to implant your brother with what is called Source DNA. It has to come from the Y chromosome: the father. All we need is a DNA sample from your father and the process can be halted and reversed. Your brother will live and be fine.”

  “That’s it? I just have to get a hold of my father,” Eric asks.

  “Yes, if you can reach your father and get us a DNA sample then your brother will live. But please understand there isn’t a lot of time, this has to be done soon after a few days it will be too late.”

  “That’s easy enough I know exactly where he is. Will you go with me?” He says turning toward Jill.

  “Okay,” She says, “How far is it?”

  “Not very,” Eric says as they hurry toward the exit.

  Having hoped in Jill’s car they hurry to the highway and begin the 90 minute drive to Jim’s house. Eric nervously looks at Jill as she drives and then forward counting the mile markers as they seemingly slowly pass by.

  “I wonder why no one is answering the phone,” Eric says putting his cell phone back into his jacket pocket.

  “He must be sleeping, that’s all,” Jill tries to reassure him.

  “Will he come back with us? He doesn’t have to but do you think he will?”

  “Sure he will, to save his son’s life a father will do anything. Don’t worry, Roland will be fine, we just need to get this taken care of that’s all.”

  “I’m not used to thinking of him as our father,” Eric says.

  “I know this all must be very hard on you,” Jill says.

  “You think it is easy growing up not knowing who your father is? It’s a painful process. All this stuff is so crazy I feel that if we can put it right then maybe me, my brother and our father can have some kind of normal life together, oh it’s up here,” he says as they pull off the highway and onto the exit ramp.

  Before long they find themselves driving up the long driveway and then standing at the front door. Eric stops for a moment looking at Jill “Well, go ahead,” she tells him. He rings the bell and they wait until finally it is opened by a somber looking assistant who escorts them into the living room. There sitting on the couch they wait until Jim’s wife, looking pale, slowly walks into the room.

  “We’re here to see Jim,” Eric says standing up quickly.

  “We tried to reach you, I didn’t know where Jim had put your number,” she says.

  “What do you mean? What’s wrong?” Eric asks.

  “I’m so sorry but you’re too late. Jim passed away in his sleep the other night. He’s gone.”

  “Oh no!” Eric sits down burying his hands into his face as Jill puts her arm over his shoulder.

  “What happened?” Jill asks.

  “He’d been sick, very sick for a long while, he didn’t care to admit it. It took me forever to get him to see a doctor but by then it was too late, they couldn’t do anything for him. He was an old man, a tired worn out old man, he worked so hard I think he just worked himself to death. You’re welcome to take some of his ashes—”

  Eric bolts up, “Wait! Wait! Ashes?”

  “Yes, it was his wish to be cremated, he wanted his ashes to be spread over the lake by our cabin,” she tells him.

  Eric looks over to Jill as his jaw drops.

  “That means—.” Eric says.

  “That means no DNA sample,” Jill says.

  “That means my brother is going to die,” Eric says.

  “Maybe not,” she says.

  CHAPTER 30

  “You sure about this?” Antone asks.

  “Yeah, yeah I told you I was good. Now look at all that trash,” Belo says as they stand in the field outside the city limits.

  “Who’s place is this?”

  “An old friend, he’s out of town for awhile. I called in a favor from him.”

  “I think the driver wants you to sign for it.”

  “No, no paper trail,” Belo walks over to meet the driver: a husky looking man in his mid fifties with a pronounced beer gut.

  “Well here you are,” he says.

  “This is all the airport trash from the 27th?” Belo asks.

  “27th? No sir, the 27th load went out to the landfill yesterday this is the fresh trash that’s what you wanted isn’t it?”

  “The trash from the 27th has already gone to the landfill?” Belo asks with a shocked look upon his face.

  “Yeah, like I say this is the fresh trash, take a whiff, even smells fresh don’t it? Hey, can you sign this,” he hands him an invoice.

  “Oh no,” Belo groans as he clutches his stomach.

  “You going to be sick mister?”

  CHAPTER 31

  “Maybe not! What do you mean Maybe not? Don’t play games with me. My father who I just meet has suddenly died and my brother is on his death bed and there is nothing I can do.”

  “Wait a minute Eric think about it. To save Roland’s life we need a DNA sample from your father,” Jill says.

  “Yes,” Eric says.

  “The missing sample: it could very well be Jim Dunbar’s DNA, if so then we have our source DNA sample and a cure for your brother,” she says.

  “Yeah, that’s right. That would work.”

  “Now all we have to do is find it. We know where it was.”

  “The airport, those punks, they never caught them,” Eric says.

  “Right, but somebody has to know them,” Jill says.

  “Somebody in the hood, maybe”

  “Okay then that’s where we start. I have some contacts. I can start digging around.”

  “That could take forever. We don’t have that much time.”

  “I know but this is our only option. Do you have any ideas?” Jill asks.

  “No,” Eric says.

  CHAPTER 32

  Sick, the way a dying man lays in the hospital bed: tubes, wires, hoses, all supporting life hanging on.

  “His numbers are worse. His system is shutting down. Have we heard anything from his brother?” the doctor says to the nurse as they both look at Roland in the bed.

  “No, not lately. They’re still looking for the DNA sample,” she says.

  “They better be looking pretty hard he isn’t going to last much longer.”

  CHAPTER 33

  “My regular street contacts have all panned out. No one knows these guys,” Jill says as they sit at a small round table outside a downtown café.

  “Just two bit punks holding up people at the airport,” Eric says.

  “There’s so much security at the airport. That’s not the best place to hold people up.”

  “No, it isn’t that part doesn’t make sense.”

  “Unless—,” she says.

  “Unless what?” Eric asks.

  “Unless they weren’t really punks,” she says with a mysterious look on her face.

  “What are you talking about?” Eric says.

  “It’s just a theory but what if they weren’t punks but hired guns,” Jill says.

  “What?”

  “I am thinking Tom Hanson’s daughter looks kind of fishy in this whole thing.”

  “How so?” he asks.

  “Her role in this is very odd at best. Going to London, getting engaged, her father finding the box hidden in the church, her taking it to London then back again to Boston in an effort to sell it to your mother, something’s not right.”

  “Yeah, now that you mention it,” Eric says.

  “She has her hands all over the place, why?”

  “Yes she does.”

  “I’m thinking if we get to her we’re closer to the sample.”

  “But she doesn’t have it. She was robbed.”

  “Was she really?”

  “What are you getting at?” Eric asks.

  “I’ve done my homework,” Jill says.

  “That’s one of us.”

&nbs
p; “Stacy Hanson’s fiancée is currently sitting in a London jail.”

  “Really, what for?” Eric asks.

  “He is claiming that she sit him up, that he was prepared to sell the sample to agents as of yet unidentified and that at the last moment she switched the sample with an empty box. The London police aren’t buying it but I am,” Jill says.

  “Why?”

  “If this is true then she’s playing one hell of a game double crossing her own fiancée. She’s going to a lot of trouble to get things to turn out her way. She claims to be a victim but I doubt it. I think our young lady set herself up and your mother too.”

  “How?”

  “My theory is that she was fully prepared to sell the sample to your mother but something happened, someone else appeared on the scene offering more money.”

  “Rome?”

  “Maybe, most likely, they would certainly have more money to offer. Now she has to get out of the deal with your mother and make herself look innocence, how better than to hire a couple of punks to hold her up,” Jill says.

  “Not punks, more like employees.”

  “Exactly, they were working for her.”

  “What makes you so sure?” Eric asks.

  “I don’t reveal my sources but maybe I will for you. Stacy Hanson’s fiancée had a jail mate who is free now. People often talk while in jail, usually saying more than they realize. I know some people who work there and that lead me to the jail mate. I had a feeling he would try to find Stacy so I found him. Anyway, while together he told him his predicament and the mate agreed to help. They made a jail house deal.”

  “A jail house deal.”

  “Is there ever any better? So the mate made a deal and once freed began looking for Stacy Hanson. He was there at the airport when the so called ‘robbery’ occurred. He suspected Stacy all along so he tagged the punks to find out who they really are. He got close, lost them, and then got close again, close enough to talk. Of course, they denied everything until he threatened to bring in the police then they admitted it. Stacy Hanson paid them to hold her up take the sample and then return it to her later,” Jill says.

  “Wow! What a deal maker.”

  “Yeah, she’s good.”

  CHAPTER 34

  “Well, that’s it there’s no chance that we’ll ever find it if it’s gone to the landfill,” Antone says.

  “Then we don’t have anything to worry about, no one will ever find it. Now there will never be any doubt as to the authority of our clone. We can install him as the new Pope. No one will ever know,” Belo says.

  “I guess you’re right, no one will be able to question the DNA of our clone.”

  “There’s only one problem.”

  “I know. We have to find him,” Antone says.

  “No, we’ve found him. I received a call this morning from—.”

  “Great! Let’s go get him.”

  “We can’t,” Belo says.

  “Why?” Antone asks.

  “Because he’s dying,” he answers.

  “If he’s dying then we have to get the sample because if it is His then that’s our only hope if our clone dies we will be left with nothing.”

  “All is not lost we have some hope. I think I may have found the woman who has the sample,” Belo tells him.

  “I’m amazed at what you find. How do you do it?”

  “She found us although I did make it easy for her.”

  “What do you mean?” Antone asks.

  “I knew the sample was out there somewhere and that the Elite probably were looking for it too. My man behind the scenes informed me that the Elite clone mother was in the market for it so we tagged her closely and soon found her source: a young woman greedy and confused enough to accept a more lucrative offer which she did of course, but she had to get out of her deal with Elite Clone mother which apparently she did because she claims to have the sample.”

  “Great, now we are set.”

  “Yes, but there’s only one thing that causes me concern,” Belo says.

  “What’s that?”

  “She is asking for the money up front.”

  “Really? So she thinks she has us does she?” Antone says.

  “She has us no question about that and I’m not in the mood to play games. We have no choice but to trust her,” Belo says.

  “What if she double crosses us?”

  “We just can’t think like that: faith brother faith.”

  “I didn’t know we could use faith for such matters,” Antone says.

  “I’m going to give her the money,” Belo tells him.

  “Where?”

  “This is what I meant about playing games I don’t know why she just doesn’t do the deal. She must have people looking for her, nevertheless – the money in cash is to be delivered to three different Post Office Boxes in different locations all within a thirty three mile radius of each other. I guess she figures no one can watch all three at the same time.”

  “Sounds as if she’s thought this out,” Antone says.

  “Yes, she’s certainly a planning little devil isn’t she? So, she receives the money and then she notifies us of the location of the sample – somewhere nearby. Oh, my stomach hurts,” Belo clutches his mid section.

  “The pains again?” Antone asks.

  “Yes,” Belo nods.

  CHAPTER 35

  “She’s rented an apartment, that’s why we’re here to look around,” Jill says.

  “Breaking and entering,” Eric says while sitting in Jill’s car.

  “The doctor called this morning, Roland is getting worse quickly.”

  “Then let’s go,” Eric says.

  “Wait a second,” she says.

  “What?”

  “That’s her car pulling out lets follow and see what she’s up to now.”

  They follow her to a local post office with death for Roland lingering in the wings they fear she may just be on a stamp run. “My brother is dying and she’s out there getting stamps this is a waste can’t you get a search warrant or something?”

  “It may not be such a waste I have a feeling she’s not just getting stamps.”

  “How so?” Eric asks.

  “Well, look there she is coming out with a package, that isn’t just stamps.”

  “Cookies from her Aunt.”

  “I doubt it, my sixth sense is sending up some red flags,” she says.

  “Why?’

  “She’s receiving a package for what? An exchange, an exchange but for what? The sample maybe. This could very well mean we’re too late. She’s sold the sample already,” Jill says.

  “This is useless. We should just go back and see Roland before he dies.”

  CHAPTER 36

  “We have it!” Belo says, feeling better having recovered from the recent onslaught of stomach pain and returned to the hotel room. He walks around quickly, having always prided himself that despite having turned grey and bald early in life he can still conjure up a quick and resourceful spring in his step.

  “We do?” Antone asks.

  “Well, almost, it’s as good as ours the DNA sacred flesh sample of the Lord Himself!”

  “She came through then?”

  “Yes, she has all of her money and she has left us instructions as to the location of the sample. It’s ours finally. We just have to pick it up,” Belo says.

  “If it’s there and if it’s really His.”

  “Sure it’s there, of course it’s there, it has to be there.”

  “Where exactly is there?”

  “According to her instructions the sacred flesh sample is in a location within a three mile radius downtown,” Belo tells him.

  “Oh that’s easy enough.”

  “No, wait there’s more.”

  “More?” Antone asks.

  “Yes, a location within a three mile radius where we will find it above time and to the right of the cross,” Belo says.

  “Well, let’s get going.”
r />   CHAPTER 37

  Jill and Eric decide to drive around downtown. Jill tells him it helps her think, she used to do it all the time when she worked for the FBI and had a difficult case.

  “This is awful. There’s no hope here we’ve lost it. The game is up now what am I going to do?” Eric says.

  “I can talk to some people and bring her in for questioning,” Jill says.

  “That’s just grabbing at straws she’s not going to admit to anything. We have no proof of anything anyway. It’s gone, the whole thing is gone,” Eric says.

  “I can at least try,” she says.

  “Do what you want. I’m going back to the hospital.”

  “The hospital is right here downtown,” she says.

  “Before I go up to see my brother and say goodbye I’m going to stop by the chapel downstairs, it seems appropriate to pray at a time like this.”

  “Yes, I guess it does,” she says while pulling the car into the hospital parking lot.

  CHAPTER 38

  “Above time and to the right of the cross, that’s got to be a church and there’s no churches within a three mile radius downtown. She lied to you. Can’t you see that? She took the money and still has the sample. She’s going to sell it to the Elite and collect both ways,” Antone says while sitting in the passenger seat of the car Belo rented.

  “Not so fast, you jump to conclusions too rapidly,” Belo says.

  “What are you talking about?’ he asks.

  “I could be wrong about this but I’ve been to that hospital chapel and if they haven’t changed things around there was one wall that had a clock and a cross on it,” Belo answers.