Touched by Death

by Dale Mayer

  If she'd had a little longer to prepare and pack, she'd have gotten a haircut. As it was, the clips would do for now. She could always get it cut here if she couldn't stand the heat. Meg's short curls looked perfect. And Susan's fine black bob that stopped at her chin also looked comfortable.

  "Now that has to feel better." Meg patted Jade's hair clip. "Nice. Now I almost wish I had long hair myself. Almost." She grinned and picked up several clips. "I bet my sister would love a couple."

  "Later, when it's time to go home. Too much to pack this early."

  "You're right." Meg put it back with a sigh. "Too bad though."

  As they headed back to the SUV Susan stopped at another brightly colored stall, one festooned with odd-looking handmade dolls. An old short and squat women – wearing so many necklaces, they almost obliterated the sight of her red blouse underneath – worked at the booth. The woman's black gaze latched onto Jade and never let go.

  Jade moved to the other side of Susan in an effort to get away from that piercing stare. And came too close to the weird-looking straw and cloth dolls. She noticed the papier-mâché looking ones painted in black with weird markings…and many other items she couldn't begin to recognize. "What are these things?"

  "Vodou paraphernalia."

  Jade shuddered and took several steps back. "Not for me, thanks."

  Susan shook her head vigorously. "No. You don't get it. This stuff is for good luck. Used to ward off bad spirits."

  With a second shudder, Jade moved several steps back, shaking her hands in front of her. "I still don't want one."

  Susan grinned and reached to pluck her choice off the top of the stall. "Well I do. Just what we need for the grave work."

  The transaction was done in silence. The old woman accepting the money never took her eyes off Jade. Unsettled, Jade did everything to avoid her. She wished Susan would hurry.

  Finally they were done. Jade turned to leave when the old women moved off her stool so quickly, Jade never would have believed it possible if she hadn't seen it herself. Before Jade could back away the old woman grabbed her by the arm.

  "Danger stalks you. You see it but you don't understand it. Careful. Or you will join those that have gone before." She dropped Jade's arm and returned to her stool beside her cart.

  Jade froze. So shocked and horrified by the crone's touch, she hardly understood what the old woman said.

  Meg grabbed her arm. "Come on," she hissed. "Forget about her. Let's get back to the SUV."

  Susan snagged her other arm so the three walked back linked together.

  "That was too weird," Meg said. "I'm glad you got a doll, Susan. Good luck is just what we need."

  ***

  Jade had hoped the odd event would be over once they'd left the market, only Susan mentioned it at dinner that night.

  "No way. She actually used those words?" Wilson stared at Jade curiously.

  "Yeah," Meg confirmed with a delicate shudder. "That so upped the freaky factor."

  "This old lady never said a word to me the whole time I was buying that thing, and she never looked at anyone except Jade," Susan complained.

  Dr. Mike looked over at Jade, his gray eyes serious. "She didn't bother you, did she? The Haitian culture is full of various superstitions. Their belief system is littered with them."

  "It was kinda weird, although nothing I can't handle," Jade said casually, cutting a piece of fish, hoping her nonchalance satisfied their intense looks.

  "We need to find out what that phrase means."

  Marie, the hotel night manager walked in to make sure everything was all right and to see if they needed anything. Bruce brought up the old woman and her prophecies.

  After quickly crossing herself, Marie stared at Jade. "Magrim. She is very well known. She is very wise. Very accurate. Ms. Jade, you need to be careful." Crossing herself again, she almost ran out of the dining room.

  Silence filled the room. Not a person clinked a fork or spoke. Everyone stared at Jade.

  She was compelled to break the uneasy silence. "Great. I always wanted to be famous. Hadn't planned on it happening this way."

  "Well, I don't believe in that stuff. The old woman was just trying to scare you into buying one of her dolls."

  Jade brightened at Bruce's words. That actually sounded reasonable. Everyone knew street sellers would do anything for a sale. Everyone resumed talking at once. Thankfully several different conversations took flight and the awkward moment passed.

  Dinner finished with coffee outside and an update on the day's progress at the burial site.

  "So we should be ready to get started by about ten. We have one reefer trailer set up to receive bodies already. The lab trailer is to be delivered early in the morning. If the weather is cooperative, we might be able to do some work outside. I presume you've determined a system of some sort for working through the numbers?"

  "Somewhat," Meg answered. "Although, that's going to be a work in progress."

  Susan asked, "What about DNA testing? I know we'd hoped to find a lab here––"

  Bruce shook his head. "They can't handle it here. We're going to ship the samples back to Seattle for testing."

  Sinking further into her chair, Susan winced. "I'd hoped we'd get results faster than that."

  "We can only process as fast as we can, then it's up to the lab. At least they'll go to a private lab."

  "Does Haiti have a databank of survivors' DNA on a database? Some way we can test the dead against the living?"

  Stepping in, Dr. Mike said, "No. They don't have that capability or the resources. Bruce asked the local authorities to put out the word that anyone interested in locating their loved ones needs to come and give samples. We'll have them shipped to Seattle, typed and the results entered into a database, hopefully to match with that of family members."

  "If we rebury all of them before we have the results, they may have to be dug up again. That's not good."

  Bruce nodded. "We'll give Jade's suggestion to give reefer trucks a try first. The decomp should have the skeletons down to just bones and teeth by now, but it's never that clean."

  "Even then, decomp inside the bones will continue beyond a visual examination. So we're better off with refrigeration capabilities." Jade smiled apologetically. "As a backup, an alternative burial site would be good." She took a sip of water, thinking. "Because we're processing everyone in that grave, it's going to take time. It would be much easier if we were just looking for say…an adult female and a female child. Then the others could be moved to one end of the grave as we sorted through. As we're processing everyone, well, it's going to be more complicated."

  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 ma
rks 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 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 ba
g 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."