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Authors: Dale Mayer

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BOOK: Touched by Death
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Gathering her purse and camera, Jade paused to look
at her. "How so?"

"Because you'll find closure this time."
With that parting shot, she hopped out of the SUV and slammed the door.

Jade followed slowly. Closure would be good –
on many fronts.

***

Dane struggled to like his sister-in-law. He could
give her some leeway because she was pregnant. A little more leeway
for being upset over the current set of events with the grave, but how
much leeway did she get before she came under the heading of disgruntled
witch?

He was trying, honestly he was. He'd wanted to love
her, to feel secure about John's future with her. Right now, every minute
he spent with her, she grated on his nerves something awful. He should
move into town, give them more space. Living in the cabin at the back
of the property and having most meals with them was too close – for
everyone.

Knowing Tasha and John wouldn't notice, he grabbed
his coffee and slipped out to the patio to enjoy the cooler evening
air. The sounds of their argument followed him.

"I don't care how logical it is. I don't want
you to have anything to do with it. It's not safe. For you or for me."

"Tasha, I've gone over this several times. There's
nothing dangerous in what they're doing. It's perfectly safe."

"Waking the dead is dangerous. This isn't just
about you. You're putting me and the baby at risk – not to mention
Peppe and Emile."

John, weary but so patient that Dane had to give him
kudos for super human effort, said, "I'm also not helping them.
Dane is going to rent them a piece of equipment. That's all."

"And that's too much," she complained.

Dane turned and strolled down to his cabin. He'd heard
enough. She could argue all she wanted but he had no plans to rescind
his offer to Bruce. He understood the pain and the trauma on both sides.
That wasn't going to stop the job from happening, so he might as well
help so it could be completed faster. Then everyone would get what they
wanted.

The deal was done.

Besides, he wanted to get to know Jade better.

***

Four days of running around, trips back and forth,
problems and tech trouble… Finally, it was the day.

Jade stood off to one side and watched as Dane navigated
his smallest loader through the small spindly trees to the gravesite.
He'd wanted to be the one driving, in order to minimize the environmental
damage. He had a good crew working for him, however he insisted this
location required his delicate touch.

It took two tries to navigate one corner to avoid
having to cut down a tree. Trees were no longer an abundant resource
in Haiti and every one was precious. He backed up and wiggled the large
machine and as delicately as diapering a baby he maneuvered her to the
right angle and swung right, onto the straight path.

Nice.

Jade watched him carefully take the machine to where
the rocks met the path before shutting it down.

"Are we ready?" he asked without getting
out. "Has everything been logged, photographed and removed?"

Bruce walked over and hopped onto the machine to speak
to him. Heads bent together as they discussed the plan of attack. Jade
knew it would take the bulk of the day to remove the top layer off this
portion of the grave. At that point, Dane would open a ten-foot-wide
working space from the path side, and they'd work left to right until
they ran out of bodies. At which point they'd move into the hill to
look for the last of them.

She knew all that but it didn't settle her nerves
at this point. Four of the team were scheduled to have the day off and
no one had taken it – they'd all showed for this symbolic beginning.

Dr. Mike climbed on top of the grave, as high as he
could stand against the hillside and started work on the project with
a prayer. Everyone bowed their heads. Jade found herself repeating his
words quietly in her head.
Amen
.

Dane started the loader.

It took almost an hour for him just to get a few buckets
off the top. Meg wandered over to where Jade stood. "I'm going
to head into town for lunch. How about joining Susan and me for a girls'
afternoon of sightseeing and shopping? There's nothing we can do here.
Not today and most likely not until late tomorrow – if then."

It was a good idea. A little light relief before the
real work started tomorrow. "Now that sounds great."

With a wave of her hand to the men, Jade followed
Meg and Susan. She could really use some lightweight work clothes. She'd
forgotten how badly the heat affected her here. T-shirts and shorts
were the uniform of choice; a half dozen of each would be perfect.

The women headed to the Iron Market and the few shops
open along the way. The elegant mansions and townhomes spoke of days
gone by. Once glorious in their regal bearing and bright colors, these
buildings had taken a major knock from Mother Nature. Still, even with
the damage from the earthquake, Jacmel was a tourist destination like
no other. At least here, there were obvious revitalization attempts
happening to get the city back on its feet.

The afternoon zipped by at a rapid pace – full
of shopping, laughter and fun as the women ran from shop to shop and
stall to stall buying a few items to make their job a little brighter
and more comfortable. Jade was delighted to find several brightly colored
t-shirts and cotton pants in a beige-khaki color. They would withstand
a lot of wear and tear. At one brightly festooned stall, she found several
hair clips big enough to hold her heavy blond hair off her neck.

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

T
he 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 marks 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.

BOOK: Touched by Death
2.39Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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