“Want me to run and get the camera?” Ellen asked.
“Yeah, but first, tell me what is in that bin.”
Ellen lifted the sheet. “Looks like a large portion of the stomach, definitely the spleen, uh . . . . a portion of the small intestines, an eye, an ear and. . .” Her hand reached in, feeling. “I think this is a really, really tiny piece of the heart.” She pulled it out.
“Yeah it is,” Dean told her. “What do you notice about Marv?”
“Aside that he looks thinner and . . .” Ellen saw Dean’s scolding face. “All the fleshy areas are gone.”
“Exactly.” Dean said. “He wasn’t just torn to shreds and killed . . .”
“He was eaten.”
“Go get that camera so we can get some shots before we start removing the parts that are left.”
“Right away.” Ellen backed up and removed her gloves.
“And more specimen trays as well.” He heard Ellen say something as she left, but Dean was too engrossed in the breastbone, or what remained of it. Dean moved the shattered bone some, lifting it to peer into the empty cavity behind it. He could see the spine as well. Looking around at the gutted and cleaned out torso, Dean’s eyes saw the slight difference in shading and he stopped. He adjusted the light above his head. “What do we have here?” Without looking, he reached up for his tweezers and brought them, and his hand, into Marv’s body cavity. He pulled the item from its lodging in the third thoracic vertebrae. It was small, very small, but if Dean’s knowledge served him right, he knew exactly what he found, a piece of . . . a tooth. It wasn’t a very strong tooth or sturdy and it didn’t look as if it were a piece to a large tooth. But what baffled Dean at that moment wasn’t the tooth, but how something that possessed it could have done as much damage as it did, unless what did the damage wasn’t the teeth, but the being itself. Perhaps it torn apart with paws or hands. But seeing how Frank wasn’t in Beginnings, the theory of someone torn to shreds by hands was eliminated
Dean paused in his postmortem exam to laugh at his Frank thought. He set the piece of tooth in the specimen tray and decided, before going any further, he’d wait for Ellen to return. He wanted that camera present and he wanted to tell her about his amusing thought. So, alone in the room with a torn apart Marv, Dean waited.
^^^^
“Hey, Uncle Robbie.” Johnny was pouring a drink at the social hall when Robbie, seeming so down, walked in. “You O.K.?”
“Um . . . yeah..” Robbie blinked several times as if his eyes were hurting. He looked at how quickly Johnny downed his drink. “Easy.”
Johnny thought it odd for Robbie to tell him that. “O.K. easy. Any news on Marv?”
“Nothing yet.” Robbie spoke the line he had told everyone. How horrible it was that Marv had died. How much worse it was the way Marv had lost his life. Figuring he’d wait until Dean and Ellen told him more, confirming or denying what killed him.
“I stopped by the morgue,” Johnny told him, “before I came here.”
“Really? And?”
“They wouldn’t let me in.”
“Not at all?” Robbie asked.
“Nope. I hung outside the door . . . Uncle Robbie, they seemed like they were having a good time in there.”
“They love their work.”
“Hanging tonight? Wanna shoot some pool?”
“Um . . . .” Robbie’s hand slid down his face. “No, just grabbing a drink and heading home.”
“O.K.”
Robbie motioned his head behind Johnny. “Looks like you have company anyhow.”
Johnny looked over his shoulder. “God, she won’t leave me alone.”
“You’re supposed to be getting close to her anyhow. John. You told us you would.”
“Yeah I know. It just makes me feel really creepy thinking about being with her.”
“Why?” Robbie questioned.
“Um . . . um. Don’t know.” Johnny finished his drink. “Just thinking about it being her I guess.” He poured another. “Maybe I’ll go torture her.”
“Yeah, you do that. I’m just gonna sit here.” Robbie watched his nephew draw up an egotistical look and waltz over to his table with a semi -ignore Bev attitude. Pouring himself a drink, Robbie slid on the stool. He looked once over his shoulder to Johnny and Bev. How trivial Johnny must think he and Joe for having him find out what’s going on with Bev over the Dean and Ellen situation. How trivial it sounded to Robbie, but he had to keep reminding himself that the ‘Dean and Ellen’ reason was only the front story. The real reason being to hopefully eliminate or point a finger at her when it came to George.
“That’s it.” Johnny slammed down his drink. “Bev, if you are going to continue to stare at me, I’m leaving. You’re undressing me with your eyes. I feel so violated.”
“You owe me.”
“Owe you what?”
Bev raised her eyebrows a few times. “For the other day.”
“Oh really.” Johnny stood up and readied to leave. “Well see, that’s the problem with you.”
“Wait. What’s the problem with me . . .” Bev scooted from her chair, hurrying her way to a leaving Johnny. “Johnny.” She caught up to him. “Johnny.”
“I’m leaving.” He walked by Robbie, laying his hand on Robbie’s back. “See ya, Uncle Robbie.”
“John.” Robbie swam in his drink.
Johnny smiling and not letting Bev see, left the social hall.
“Johnny.” She ran to catch him. “Wait.”
“What?” Johnny stopped walking.
“What did you mean, that’s the problem with me?”
“You know exactly what I mean.”
“No, I don’t.”
“You don’t. Did you just tell me in there that I owe you?”
“Yes.” Bev stood before him.
“Well, that’s not the way things are run with me. I say what goes on. Who owes who. Get it?”
“But I . . .”
“No buts.” Johnny stayed firm. “I call the shots. I say what gets done. I tell you what you do, not you tell me. If you’re up to anything, I’d better damn well know ahead of time what it is and why you’re doing it.”
“But Johnny.”
“And as far as sex goes, if I want to sleep with you, I will. No deals, and trust me babe, when I want it, I’ll find you and you’ll deliver, no problem.”
Bev folded her arms. “Really? Well I don’t think I like your attitude.”
“Oh well.” Johnny tossed his hands up.
“And you are so wrong,” she spoke snidely.
“I’m wrong? Who are you to tell me I’m wrong?”
“I will tell you you’re wrong. The only way this will work is if you own me? Let me tell you something Johnny, no one owns me.”
Johnny just watched her, nodding arrogantly.
“I say who I sleep with and when, not you or anyone!” She poked him in the chest. “I don’t even know why I chased after you in the first place. You’re cold, mean, and a complete waste of my time. I wouldn’t sleep with you now if you got on your hands and knees and begged me.”
“Baby.” Johnny placed his face close to hers. “You want me so bad, it wouldn’t take anything to get you to sleep with me anytime and anywhere.”
“You think?”
“I know.”
“Right.” Bev huffed.
“Watch.” Johnny grabbed her face and pulled Bev with a slight force up and into him. Wide and sexual, he placed his mouth over hers, pressing it hard and deeply to hers. E moved his mouth and kissed in a sweeping motions over and over, holding on to her face as he stepped her backwards.
Against everything she told him. Bev responded.
Further and further into the dark alley between the social hall and the next building, Johnny led her. Moving her and moving her until he backed her up against the social hall wall. His mouth released from her as he grabbed onto the collar of her shirt and he leaned his body in a bent manner directly against hers. “What
were you saying?”
Bev’s mouth reached for Johnny’s lips, but he kept pulling back from her.
“How bad do you want it, Bev?” Johnny’s waist moved into her and his hand glided with a firmness up her leg. “How bad?”
“Bad.” She breathed heavily, trying to kiss him.
Almost biting, Johnny laid his lips to under her ear, running them down hard to the nape of her neck. “How bad do you want me?”
“I want you, Johnny.”
“And what will you do for me?” he asked deeply, moistening her neck with his mouth, breathing hard into her ear.
“Anything.”
On her words, Johnny’s hands slid down both of her legs then back up, lifting the skirt she wore. He began to kiss her again, one hand secured under her skirt and the other undoing his own jeans. Bev’s hands went to his hair and to his neck. The moment she held his head and locked him in that kiss, was the moment Johnny braced his hands behind her thighs, lifted Bev up, drew her legs around his waist and slammed her with a sexual drive into the aluminum side of the social hall,.
It was Tuesday so the social hall was nearly empty and quiet. Not even the juke box played for the men who just were there to relax. Perhaps that was why Robbie heard it, lifting his views from his drink and up to the noise. Actually Robbie heard it at the same time as the other seven men in the hall. All of them looked around at the steady dull metal banging that they heard.
Like a metronome, only picking up speed with each few seconds that passed. Bang-bang-bang-bang.
“What the hell?” Robbie stood up from his stool. Everyone had stopped what they were doing. “What is that?”
Cole set down his pool stick. “Sounds like it’s coming from outside. Maybe it’s Denny and Josh playing around.”
Robbie looked at his watch. “Probably. This is their hanging out hour.” He returned to his stool, picked up his drink, and shook his head at the increasing rate of the banging. “They think they’re funny. Ignore them.”
With Robbie’s reassurance that nothing was wrong, everyone went back to what they were doing. And to even show the annoying teenage boys, someone turned on the jukebox.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
September 24
Beginnings, Montana
“Sacrilegious,” Ellen stated as she set down both metal boxes on the cryo -lab counter.
“No way.” Dean shook his head, setting down two boxes as well.
“I’m telling you, Dean. That is what Joe’s word would be. Sacrilegious.”
“It’s science, El.”
“Yeah, but I don’t think he’d take to kindly to us keeping parts of Marv.”
“Ongoing investigation. In the old world, it sometimes took months to get autopsy results,” Dean justified. “However, Joe won’t say anything. He’s stepping back for a while remember? Henry’s leader.”
“I can handle Henry.” Ellen said. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Hmm.”
“And as far as Joe is concerned, bet me he still takes charge of us because we know the truth.”
“You may have a point. Let’s get these boxes unloaded into the spare freezer until the man of the hour shows up.”
“I know someone is talking about me.” Danny Hoi walked through the open cryo -lab door.
Dean motioned his hand to Danny. “Man of the hour.”
Ellen smiled. “Hi Danny. You are so punctual and quick showing up so soon after our request.”
Danny stood taller. “Want to make the best impression my first day as Head of Mechanics.”
“And you are,” Ellen said.
“So, what did you guys need?” Danny asked.
“Help.” Dean stated. “Care to follow us? We have to put these boxes away.”
“Sure.” Danny shrugged and trailed them. “What’s in the boxes?”
Dean looked back at him. “Body parts.”
Danny laughed. “You guys are funny.” He saw how serious they were as they walked into the freezer room. “You guys are joking, right? Right?”
Dean opened the freezer case. “Um, yeah, sure Danny.” He set his box inside and took the ones Ellen handed to him. “El, we’ll unpack these later.”
“O.K.”
Danny couldn’t take his eyes off the boxes Dean put away. “So uh . . . what kind of mechanical favor do you need?”
Dean closed the freezer lid. “Here, I’ll show you.” He pointed to the door in the smaller of the two back rooms. “This closet.”
Danny looked so serious as he raised one eyebrow and deepened his voice. “Is it giving you problems, Dean? I know how closets can be.”
Dean snickered as he opened the closet door. “See, it’s big.”
Danny peeked. “Yes it is.”
Shaking his head with a smile, Dean raised his eyes to Danny. “No, I want to know how cold you can make this closet for me.”
“Excuse me.” Danny looked into the empty closet. “How cold? Did you say how cold?”
“Yep.”
“Whoa.” Danny checked it out. “You mean like air-conditioning cold or freezer cold?”
“Freezer cold, refrigeration,” Dean explained.
Danny started to laugh then stopped. “You’re serious. Why would you two need walk -in refrigeration in this . . . never mind.” He whistled. “It could take some work. We’d have to seal it, add a new door, a lot of things including a separate compressor and coolant unit.”
“So you can’t do it?” Dean asked.
“No, no.” Danny held up his finger. “The word ‘never’ crossed my lips. Tell me exactly what you see for this closet.”
Shop talk was something Ellen didn’t want to be privileged to. She’d rather deal with the five remaining rabbits. “Dean, Danny, I’m just going to leave you two to this. I’ll be in the other room.” Getting a nod from Dean, Ellen walked from that room into the main cryo -lab. She stopped when she entered and spoke in such awe. “Oh wow.”
Henry was there and she couldn’t even recall the last time she saw him looking so handsome. He wasn’t in his usual blue work pants and white shirt uniform he typically wore during the work day. He wore a black tee shirt tucked into his baggy, but tailored, jeans. A wider black belt was around his waist, and to top it off, Henry was having a good hair day.
“Henry.” Ellen stepped further into the lab. “Look how good you look.”
Henry grinned with a tilted head. “Thanks, El. Joe said as Leader I should always look nice. I’m not one to wear those button down shirts, you know.”
“I like this much better.” She stepped closer to Henry. “Where did you get the pants?”
“Danny got them,” Henry stated. “Small favor slip. I asked him if he saw anything in Miles City that could be leader clothes to grab them and he did.”
“You can just tell Danny had the fashion sense in the old world.”
“Oh you know it. He has that hair thing happening.”
Ellen reached up and touched Henry’s hair. “And so do you today.”
Henry enjoyed the compliments. “But . . . do I look official.”
“Very much so.”
“Good, because I’m here on business. Where’s Dean?”
“In the closet with Danny. Don’t ask.”
With a grin Henry looked to the back. “Oh yeah? All right, we’ll do this without him. Autopsy. How’s it going?”
“Great. I mean . . . sad. I mean, going.”
“Anything conclusive?”
“Nope.” Ellen shook her head. “Not yet. Soon though.”
“I thought for sure you had results. You gave us the body back to bury.”
“We don’t need the body. We took what we need.”
“You what?” Henry asked shocked.
“I mean we took the test . . . . ran the tests we needed to run. Sometimes they take a long time to be final.”
“O.K. You’ll let me know when everything is done?”
“As soon as I know, you’ll know.”<
br />
“Good.” Henry said.
“Are we done with business?”
“Yes.”
Ellen heard Danny and Dean’s voice come into the lab. She looked over her shoulder. “Hey Dean, look who came to see me. Henry. Doesn’t he look handsome today.”
Dean gave a look as if to tell Ellen, ‘you actually want me to answer that?’. “So Henry, what brings you down here?”
“Ellen.” Henry answered.
“Figures.” Dean said. “Thought maybe you were here on official business considering it’s your first day and all.”
Henry smiled a little. “No way. I came to see El. Hey El, I’ve been working since five. You wanna take a break with me?”
“Oh sure Henry. I’d love to take a break with you. Can we walk around the community?”
“Yeah.”
“Bye Dean.” Ellen moved to Henry. “Be back.
“El, our work?” Dean asked.
“Of course it is Dean.” Ellen giggled and left the cryo lab with Henry.
“And she exits.” Dean’s hand raised and dropped.
Danny, who was being quiet--a rarity--snuck up behind Dean and whispered. “When I was in high school I used to date this girl. She dumped for this geek the moment he became class president.”
“Danny.”
“Nope.” Danny stepped back. “I’m seeing some similarities here Dean. If you need to talk.”
“Sorry, but I fail to see the similarities. This is hardly high school and she’s hardly my girlfriend Danny, she’s my wife.”
“True.” Danny grinned. “But this is Beginnings. The place that makes Payton Place look like an episode of Leave it to Beaver.”
Dean just grumbled a response and walked back to the smaller back room.
Danny snickered and followed Dean fully intending on irritating him more.
^^^^
“I woke up. I showered,” Joe explained as he walked with Hal towards distribution. “I had my coffee and cigarette and I even read that damn newspaper, which I have to admit, I’m liking. I looked at my watch and remembered, hey, you’re in distribution today. That opens two hours later.”
The Big Ten: The First Ten Books of the Beginnings Series Page 425