Touched by Death (10 page)

They returned to the lab. "If you want to grab
those samples, I'll get to work on the next one."

"What you mean is I should go grab
you
lunch. The samples could stay here a little longer for
all you care." Meg shook her head. "As if I don't get your
ploy."

"I imagine Stephen and Wilson have to be starving,
too?"

"Not likely. You're the only one starving around
here." She looked toward the gravesite. "I suppose I should
check with them." She shook her head. "Ten years of post secondary,
another eight years of valuable experience and I'm doing lunch runs."

Jade laughed. "And just think of the wage you're
pulling in to do them."

"Good point." Meg strode down the path,
her tall slim frame disappearing quickly out of sight.

Jade turned back to her lab, wishing they had the
databases set up already. Database work was Stephen's domain. Still,
she had to write and enter each chart and she found she missed her email
access out here. The computers with Internet were at the hotel. She'd
seriously considered upgrading her electronics before leaving Portland
and then decided that the reception could be hit-or-miss on location,
so had decided not to bother.

Frowning, she stood at the door to the lab and surveyed
the long narrow room. The room would do fine for the now. Just as her
return to Haiti was working out fine.

Surprisingly.

She'd been busy enough that she hadn't had to worry
about depression or grief overwhelming her. The team had been overwhelmingly
accepting. Jade no longer worried about her placement here. She belonged.
This had been the right decision. If she'd realized a change in focus
would allow her to heal, she might not have wasted the last six months
of her life.

Jade grinned. She missed Duncan. She'd make time to
send him a long email tonight. He had to be worrying about her. She'd
come a long way toward recovery. Sure there'd been some back and forth
with emotions. They could flare at the odd times – but she was fine
right now.

He deserved to know that.

Emile had called in sick for work today and damn near
shit his pants when Dane pulled in at the gravesite. Damn good thing
he'd hidden behind the trees close to his father's cabin. This end of
the property was heavier in vegetation than the rest, being part of
the original plantation. He'd planned on just checking out the place,
seeing what they were doing.

He'd spied two men working on the grave with shovels.
He shuddered. There's no way he'd be doing that job.

Then he'd seen the tall brunette drive off, leaving
the little blonde to work all alone in a small trailer with only one
door.

Alone.
In Haiti – where the normal trappings of civilization
had been stripped clean and animal instincts laid bare by destruction.
Sure some of those trappings had been quickly replaced, but only by
some. Others had reacted wildly to the chaos – like during war times
– raping the women they could and killing others over food. Life had
gone animalistic in those first few weeks. They'd calmed down some –
actually a lot. But that didn't mean any of the men had forgotten that
feeling of being what they truly were.
Predators.

Leaving young, pretty white women alone and unprotected,
now that was asking for those predatory instincts to go on a rampage
all over again.

From what he'd seen, it looked like Dane had his eyes
on the little one. He'd watched the two of them when they were talking
outside the trailer. The little one was skittish, but Dane was making
all the right moves, moving slowly, staking his claim.

He could appreciate that. Besides Dane
was
the boss. He should have first pick.

That left the tall one for him.

He couldn't help himself; he licked his lips and watched
as she walked along the path and clambered over the rocks to where the
two men were shoveling. Both greeted her as he'd hoped. Just casually
friendly.
Good.
No sign of propriety ownership.
Idiots.
They worked beside two single women and hadn't he seen
a third the other day? He cast his mind back, sure he'd seen a darker-haired
woman with them too. Although, he didn't know that any were single.
Not that it mattered for his purposes.

Honestly, if a man couldn't protect what was his,
then he deserved to lose it.

And the woman? Well, according to his father, she
didn't get to have a say in the matter.

T
he next morning, Jade decided there was no use putting
it off any longer. She needed to work on their 'prisoner girl.' The
authorities had come, had a long talk with Dr. Mike, taken a few notes
and pictures and then left.

At that point, the woman had been removed from the
grave as carefully as glass slivers from skin. Jade had documented every
step, taken photos at each stage. It was only right she continue the
job. She knew how to follow procedures but she wasn't a forensic anthropologist
like Dr. Mike. Someone told her he'd also worked for a dozen years as
Chief Medical Examiner in Dallas. She doubted there was much he hadn't
seen in his career.

Taking a deep breath, she pulled the cart over to
her worktable and gently unzipped the body bag. The remains had been
wrapped in something at one time – a sheet maybe. There was almost
nothing left now.

Using her brush, she cleaned off the top of the body
and was struck by the feminine bits and pieces of material that emerged.
Bits of pink ruffles, pink pleats in the skirt – stiffened and
dried – its original prettiness now a macabre imitation. She
grabbed her camera and started taking pictures while the body lay in
the bag. She'd done several at the gravesite, having been unable to
throw off the concern that this was a crime scene – maybe not a killing
site but definitely a dumping site.

She worked steadily for several hours.

"Hey." Meg walked into the room, brown bag
in her hand and a tall take-out cup in the other. "Wow, it's warm
in here. I brought food."

Jade fired a wide grin at her. "Great. I'm starved."

With an eye roll, Meg said, "See, I didn't even
make you ask for food today. Besides, Dr. Mike and Bruce are looking
at the gravesite. They're going to be here over lunch, too."

"Oh good. I have our poor prisoner girl on the
table. I'm hoping for a few more answers when I consult with Dr. Mike."

"Interesting." Meg stepped over to stare
at the skeleton. "She looks young." Pulling on gloves, Meg
bent over, then gently opened the girl's mouth to check the teeth. "Full
dentition with the wisdom just crowning in the back. She could be anywhere
from twelve to eighteen for that matter. How is the fusing of the bones?"
She took a magnifying glass to the radius. "Not fused at the bone
plate yet." Checking the cranium next, she straightened and frowned.
"Cranial sutures are still evident."

Meg glanced over at Jade. "I'm thinking a female,
a teenager approximately fifteen to seventeen years of age. Pretty rough
sutures at that."

Jade pursed her lips. "That matches my guess."

"Interesting age."

"Especially here. Girls are often married by
then."

Studying the bones, Meg asked, "Is she complete?"

"Yes. Appears to be." Jade tossed her gloves
in the garbage. She pulled a sani-wipe out of the dispenser and washed
her hands thoroughly. Then, opening her brown lunch bag, she pulled
out a container with rice, beans and vegetables. She dug in. It was
food, hot and tasty. They'd been offered sandwiches for lunch but the
team preferred to eat local fare. Turning back to Meg, she pointed out
the remnants of the clothing she'd removed from the skeleton.

Meg let out a long whistle. "Pleats. Wow. I'm
guessing it's the multiple layers of synthetic clothing that kept those
from deteriorating."

Jade shrugged. "Possibly. I can't analyze the
material properly here, however it looks that way. There's no jewelry
on the body.

"Interesting." She bent over the head area,
then reached out a finger and checked the collarbone.

"Broken and healed."

"Agreed."

Jade munched happily. When her food was gone, she
reached into the bag and pulled out a banana that she finished in six
bites. She peered into the bag again, hoping there was something else.

"I guess we need to get you a double-sized lunch
from now on." Laughter filled Meg's voice.

Catching her humorous look, Jade smirked. "Good
idea." She tucked the container back in the bag and put it by the
door.

Meg shook her head. "I'm going to work on getting
the DNA samples and might as well take the dental impression too –
unless you want to?"

"Go for it. I'm still charting."

"Right. We're hoping to take over the extra dining
room at the back of the hotel for a communication room."

"Yeah, that side of the work is backing up."
Jade motioned to her laptop, open and running, beside her. "I just
emptied my flashcard so I can take more pictures. I'll need hours to
go through the ones I've already taken."

Meg studied the small workspace Jade was bent over.
"Maybe we should have one person working in the lab in the morning
while the other does the computer work, and then switch?"

Jade walked around the small space as she considered
the options. There weren't many. "The thing is, I'm not sure anyone
should be left alone out here for long periods. I'm not worried about
being alone, but it's just common sense to stay together. And if we're
in pairs, we need to make them useful working pairs."

Meg cast a glance through the open door. "And I'm
not sure we should work alone either. Sometimes it's like I'm being
watched. It's a weird feeling."

Jade glanced up at her then at the open door. She
shrugged. "It could be the locals watching what we're doing."

"True enough." Meg reached for her tools.

The afternoon passed quickly as they worked out a
rhythm to sharing space.

Working on 'prisoner girl' took longer as they needed
to use tweezers, brushes and magnifying glasses most of the time. They
needed to make sure they collected all the evidence there was to collect.
Once completed, they replaced her carefully in the same bag – after
they'd upended it in case they'd missed anything. The bag had been empty
and Jade made a note of that on the chart. The two women then moved
her to the reefer trailer.

Jade stood and studied the layout. It was anyone's
guess if they had enough space for the contents of the grave.

At the sound of an engine, they both walked outside.
"Looks like Dane's here again. What's he have in the back?"

Dane, driving a full-sized black pickup, backed toward
the lab trailer kicking dust everywhere.

The women retreated slightly. Jade coughed once then
took a drink from her water bottle. "Oh my gosh. He mentioned something
about exchanging our small stairs for a big deck he had at another site.
We were discussing the lack of natural light in the trailer and how
nice it would be to do some of the work outside. Fresh air and all that."
She tried to make sense of the jumble of wood in the truck's bed.

Meg dropped her gloves on the table. "And it
looks like he's a man of his word. Got to love that."

"And he's not alone."

The two women waited until the truck stopped, before
walking over to see who'd come with him. Dane hopped out, looking devastating
in jeans and snug t-shirt rippling across his chest. He smiled. "As
you can see, I didn't forget."

"Thank you. I'd forgotten about it." Jade
smiled at the silent Haitian by his side. He was smaller than Dane,
dustier and with dark skin. "Hi."

He inclined his head, but stayed silent. His black
eyes watched her closely. She walked over to Dane.

Dane shot her a look. "I hadn't." He walked
around to the back of the truck and dropped the tailgate. "They're
in several interlocking pieces." He studied the set currently on
her trailer. "Emile, give me a hand moving these out of the way."

The girls stepped back to stand in the doorway while
the two men lifted the old set of stairs and moved it off to one side.
Unloading the largest piece of the new set first, they butted it up
against the trailer. They then grabbed the second half and lowered it
into position. Large squares of decking were laid down on top.

And just like that she had a small porch. Jade bounced
on her toes. "Is it safe to stand on?"

"Absolutely."

Dane watched Jade run up and down the stairs like
a kid at a new playground. And all because of such a simple thing. Her
lab coat bounced as she moved. She had to be dying in the heat with
jeans and a t-shirt underneath. But then, in her place, he'd also want
an extra layer or two between him and the skeletons she worked on every
day.

She laughed.

He grinned. Good. She was way too serious. If something
like this gave her a kick then he was all for it. Meg followed Jade
up to stand on the little deck. It appeared bigger with the two women
on it.

"Will that work for you?"

Jade smiled and her eyes gleamed. "Thank you.
This will work nicely. If I do nothing more than stand here and grab
fresh air and sunshine for five minutes at a time, it's a help."

"Good." Motioning to Emile, they lifted
the small set of stairs and loaded it into the back of the truck. Dane
walked to the front of the cab and opened the door to retrieve something.
He turned around, a big grin on his face and his hands full.

"And speaking of coffee..." He held out
two large take out cups. Steam rose from the small opening in the top
of the lid.

"Ohhhh." Delight lit up their faces.

He grinned as the women almost danced in place. "See,
I keep my promises."

"And that makes you a very special soul."
Jade accepted a cup and sniffed the small vent. "Wow. What is this?"