Touched by Death (5 page)

"Not everyone understands. My sister-in-law is
one of those, but then she's pregnant and everything appears to upset
her lately."

Meg nodded in commiseration. "And she probably
knows some of the people buried here."

"And if she's Haitian," Dr. Mike said, in
his professor voice, "her beliefs could be very strong about disturbing
the dead."

Dane grimaced at both comments. "Both of those
apply here. For myself, I understand. If my family were in here, I'd
want to take them home too."

Bruce waved his clipboard to gain everyone's attention.
"Right. Okay, everyone. I think we have a good idea of logistics.
What we need to do is plan a workspace and see if we can get that much
established." He turned to Dane. "Any idea who buried these
people here? It would be helpful if we had some idea of how far down
or in we need to go."

"If this is full, we may not have enough supplies."
Bruce jotted down a few notes.

"We can get more, if necessary. I'm concerned
about getting mobile labs. It would be less disturbing if we could work
here on site, otherwise we're going to have to look at moving the bodies
closer to town." Dr. Mike wandered the area. He studied the size
and scope of the grave.

"We've got several sites in town scoped out,
depending on our needs. And we may need to use all of them. Depends
on the number of bodies. After all this time, the skeletons
should
be clean. But we won't know for sure until we open the
grave."

Jade said, "I don't know how feasible this would
be, but one or two reefer trucks could work well. We don't want to disturb
the locals any more than we have to. The temperature can be adjusted
as needed and it's a lockable mobile storage solution. If the bones
are clean – and we won't know until we start – then storage won't
be a problem. The remains can be kept in boxes in the reefer."

Bruce considered the options. "Tony has ordered
body bags over boxes, considering the unknown state of the bodies. The
clearing is tight but not impossible. At least one truck could be backed
in there."

Body bags were more expensive but as cost wasn't an
issue, she'd be happy to have them. Honestly, she could work with either.
"Our labs could be along the same lines. ATCO trailers come to
mind."

"That's what we used in Katrina," Meg said,
her hands on her hips, considering the issue.

Bruce glanced at the clipboard in his hands. "We
do have the use of a lab trailer used by past medical teams."

Knowing she had little to do with their setup's where
and how, Jade clambered over the rock pile to read the inscription on
the cross. Her French sucked. Meg hopped up beside her and translated
it. "To those who have gone this road before," she read aloud.
"Weird."

"Different, certainly." Dane climbed across
the rocks to stand on a large boulder and survey the rubble. "You're
going to need some heavy equipment," he suggested.

"That could be fun. The town is strapped as it
is." Jade wandered past several wreaths to another cross with the
same inscription. Dane stayed where he was, but she felt his gaze on
her back as she wandered.

"True, except there's equipment available, if
you know where to look."

She glanced at him. "Like from you? I believe
you said you're in construction," she said politely.

Bruce joined them. Jade turned around to see Stephen
and Wilson, the lab techs who doubled as computer geeks and laborers,
walking back toward the path. "I think the question was lost earlier,
so I'm going to ask again. Do you know who buried these people?"
Bruce asked.

Dane fisted his hands on his hips. "Herman, a
local, ran the loader that made the trips here from the clearing and
my brother helped as well. Herman committed suicide a month later and my brother's had
a hard time ever since and refuses to talk about that time of his life.
I'd like to avoid bringing him in on this, if possible. As I mentioned
his wife is very against this project."

"Would you know how deep they buried them?"

Dane shook his head. "No. If it were me, I'd
probably start at the path and work in from the side. The original cave-in
couldn't have been too deep or big."

"That means there's probably no organization
in the grave."

Jade hunched her shoulders. The bodies would have
been tossed and crisscrossed as they landed. They could be dealing with
one, to ten at a time. "If we work in from one spot instead of
trying to expose the top of the grave, we might have better control
on how many are exposed at one time."

"Except they'd just keep coming…and we'd have
no way to know if we were gaining enough ground or if another year could
be required. In fact, I think Tony, our boss back in Seattle anticipated
some sort of organization to the burials. Men to one side, children
with mothers...that sort of thing."

"Not from the little bit of information I've
managed to get out of my brother. It was tough. The bodies were collected
throughout town by trucks – brought here, loaded in the tractor bucket
and dumped."

Jade nodded. "That's fairly typical. The town
was lucky to have those two men take on the job. It's a hard thing for
anyone to do."

Bruce put away his clipboard. "Let's head back
to town. I need to make some calls and see what we can do to get this
moving forward. Jade, what about you? Any thoughts?"

"I think, if possible, we need to leave the space
as close to the same condition we found it. It's not going to be possible
to replicate placement of the rocks and the flowers that are going to
be destroyed. If I photograph the area before we start we can replace
any items when we're done."

"Once we get into this job, everything is going
to look different. Pictures would be helpful," Meg piped up, studying
the grave.

"They are necessary actually. We always document
everything before, during and after." Bruce motioned to the grave.
"I'd appreciate it if you'd do the photography as it would save
me a job. Try to be methodical and be sure to do several panoramic pictures.
So we can lay the photos out and see everything displayed at once. We
might use the digital ones for mapping a grid even."

That made sense. Jade unpacked her Canon SLR and set
about checking the light. She'd been into photography for years. Her
hobby might help her get through the coming days.

The two team leaders left in one SUV; the others stayed
on site.

Jade lost herself in her art.
Click.
Twisting and turning.
Click.
Turning slightly again.
Click.
She regulated her movements and took shot after shot
as she systematically covered the burial site. The cross. The wreaths.
Another smaller wreath off to one side – older and mostly destroyed
by the weather.

She went closer.
Click
. Walked close enough to lean over it and took a picture
of the inscription, recognizing it as a repeat of what was on the other
one.

For all those who have gone before.
Again. Now how weird was
that? Maybe it was a common saying over here. It wasn't one she recognized,
although it reminded her of an old
Star Trek
saying from TV. She grinned at her fanciful thought
and continued to shoot the area.

"Are you done?"

Startled, she spun around and lost her footing. She
ended on her backside, on a pile of small rocks. "Ouch."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Dane
stood above her, a large capable hand outstretched to help her to her
feet. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She scrambled up, ignoring his
hand and gave him a reassuring smile as she stepped onto another rock,
slightly further back. "Rough ground, that's all."

"Plus you were focused on your pictures. Did
you find anything interesting?"

"Another cross, although it's older than that
one." She pointed to the big one ahead. "Or made out of older
wood?" she suggested.

"True enough. Supplies being short as they were,
I'm sure everything was commissioned into use."

She watched Dane bend down and read the inscription.
"Interesting saying. I can ask Tasha, my sister-in-law, if she
knows it. It might have special meaning to the region."

"Better ask someone else. She might get a tad
upset considering it's on this grave."

Dane winced. "Her brother works for me. I'll
mention it to him."

Jade finished taking the pictures. She'd snapped her
way through several hundred without even thinking about it. Chances
were she'd only keep a couple dozen or crop out portions of some others.
Thank heavens for the digital age.

Finished, she clambered down the rocks to where Dane
and Meg were now talking. She swiped her cheeks and forehead on her
sleeve. The heat would take some adjusting to. "I think that's
got it."

"Good. Let's get to the hotel and check in. The
others left already."

"Isn't it lunchtime soon?" Jade complained,
her stomach rumbling on cue.

"Yes, and we'll need hours to set up and consider
how we want to establish a grid. We can check in, grab lunch and come
back later if need be."

"Good. Hopefully, they'll be able to find a small
loader. At least to take a layer off the top and to open one side. That's
probably the best way to start, but––"

"That's in an ideal circumstance – which this
isn't. A secondary grave is another option. I'll mention it to Dr. Mike
and Bruce."

"It would be cheaper if the numbers get out of
hand."

Dane walked beside them to the SUV. "Tell Bruce,
if he can't find a loader, I can rent him one of mine for a couple days
– to get started."

Meg smiled. "Thank you. That's very helpful."
She hopped in and closed the driver's door. Jade walked around, giving
Dane a wide berth, and opened the passenger door. As she jumped in,
she realized she'd lost her lens cap. She looked back frantically as
Meg started the SUV.

Dane held it out. "Here. You dropped this."

"Thanks." She closed her door, and reached
her hand through the window.

He dropped the cap into her palm. Their fingers brushed
together ever so slightly. Energy sparked, like a static shock.

Startled, she pulled her fingers back and stared at
him in surprise.

He grinned. "See you later."

Meg reversed the SUV and turned it around then headed
back into town.

Jade refused to look over her shoulder at him as they
drove away.

But she wanted to.

"J
ade? Hey, are you okay?" Meg poked Jade's
jean-clad leg as she drove the SUV away from Dane.

"I'm fine." Jade gave her a wan smile, hating
the tiredness sliding through her body. She needed her strength back
fully to deal with the job ahead. And she knew stress from the thought
of coming back was the root cause. Food would help. And a good night's
sleep. "I got a shock from his hand when he gave me the cap."

Meg, her gaze back on the road, gave a half snort.
"Not surprised. He couldn't take his eyes off you."

Jade snickered. "I doubt it. He was just being
polite."

"Uh, uh. No way. That man is seriously hooked
on you. His reaction was bad ass."

"Wow." Jade laughed, her spirits brightening.
"I'd expect to hear something like that from a teenager. Sounds
a little odd coming from you."

Meg relaxed slightly, the smile on her face natural
and cheerful. "That's my inner child. Actually I can probably blame
my nephews for corrupting me. They're all of thirteen and fifteen, and
are they a handful."

Sinking deeper into the SUV cushions, Jade smirked.
"Sounds about right. Kids are good for your soul."

"True enough. I'm just not ready to stop gallivanting
around the world long enough to have any of my own. What about you?"

Jade's heart froze. A question she hadn't expected
– but should have. Any one of the team might have asked this personal
question and she should have prepared an answer.

Coughing slightly to cover her pause, she tried to
joke about it. "No father to donate."

"I hear you. Who wants to be a single mother
in today's world?" She tossed a wide grin at Jade. "I'm thinking
Dane could be interested in that position."

Shaking her head, Jade let Meg ramble into a tale
about her sister's first marriage that ended in divorce.

This area of Haiti was new to her but it resembled
every other part she'd visited. The same broken buildings dotted the
landscape, the same weeds crept between fallen chunks of cement and
people navigated around as well as they could. The same poverty coated
the country, even here. So accustomed to the devastation, most people
no longer noticed the state of their lives.

Sad, but also reassuring. Life did carry on –
in spite of everything. "People are resilient, aren't they?"

Meg glanced at her curiously. "That they are.
Haiti is slowly recovering." She pointed to a group of laughing
teens standing beside a broken wall. "Look at them. They're moving
forward, finding a new normal in spite of what they've been through."

"Hmmm. I found it hard enough to deal with life
after being here last time. I came over on a mortuary team after the
big quake. I thought long and hard before taking this job."

Meg smiled in understanding. "It would have been
harder to adapt to the abrupt change from one situation to another.
Staying here day in and day out, this would have quickly become 'normal.'
For you the contrast would have been unbearably hard to deal with."

"You have so got that right. What are you, a
shrink?"

"Not really. However, understanding human psychology
is paramount in my work." Silence filled the cab for several minutes
as Meg pulled the SUV into the hotel parking lot. "Coming here
was probably one of the smarter things you've done, you know."