DEJA DEAD

Don?t let it be a dog or a deer, I thought, as my gloved hands separated the opening. My hands shook again and the plastic quivered in them. Yes, I changed my mind, let it be a dog or a deer.

Ryan, Bertrand, and LaManche pressed in as I laid back the severed plastic. Poirier stood like a headstone, rooted to the spot.

First I saw a scapula. Not much, but enough to confirm this was no hunter?s cache or family pet. I looked at Ryan. I could see pinching at the corners of his eyes and tension in his jaw muscles.

?It?s human.?

Poirier?s hand flew to his forehead for another go-around.

Ryan reached for his spiral and turned a page. ?What have we got?? he asked. His voice was as sharp as the blade I?d just used.

I gently moved the bones. ?Ribs . . . shoulder blades . . . collarbones . . . vertebrae,? I ticked off. ?Looks like they?re all thoracic.?

?Sternum,? I added, on finding the breastbone.

I probed among the bones, looking for more body parts. The others watched in silence. When I reached into the back of the bag, a large brown spider skittered across my hand and up my arm. I could see its eyes rising on stalks, tiny periscopes seeking the cause of this intrusion. Its fuzzy legs felt light and delicate, like a lace hanky brushing across my skin. I jerked back, flinging the spider into space.

?That?s it,? I said, straightening and stepping back. My knees popped in protest. ?Upper torso. No arms.? My skin was crawling, but not from the spider.

My gloved hands hung at my sides. I felt no joy in the vindication of my judgment, just a dulling numbness, like someone in shock. My emotional being had shut down, hung up a sign and gone to lunch. It?s happened again, I thought. Another human being dead. A monster is out there.

Ryan scribbled in his spiral. His neck tendons bulged.

?Now what?? Poirier?s voice was little more than a squeak.

?Now we find the rest,? I said.

Cambro

Ryan turned to Bertrand. ?Can you take over here while we check out the dog??

Bertrand nodded. His body was as rigid as the pines around us.

?Let?s bag what we?ve got, then recovery can go over this whole area. I?ll send them.?

We left Bertrand and Cambro

Three hours later I sat on a grassy strip examining the contents of four body bags. The sun was high and hot on my shoulders, but did little to warm the chill inside me. Fifteen feet away the dog lay near its handler, its head angled across enormous brown paws. It had finished a big morning.

Conditioned to respond to the smell of decomposed or decomposing body tissue, body dogs ferret out hidden corpses like infrared systems pinpoint heat. Even after its removal they detect the former resting places of decaying flesh. They are the bloodhounds of the dead. This dog had performed well, zeroing in on three more burial sites. At each strike it a

Two hours were needed to excavate, process, and bag the remains. A preliminary inventory before removal, and now a more detailed list, logging every fragment of bone.

I glanced at the dog. It looked as tired as I felt. Only its eyes moved, the chocolate orbs revolving like radar dishes. It shifted its gaze without moving its head.

The dog had a right to be exhausted, but so did I. When it finally raised its head, a long, thin tongue dropped into view and hung quivering. I kept my tongue in my mouth and turned back to the inventory.

?How many??

I hadn?t heard him approach, but I knew the voice. I braced myself.

?Bonjour, Monsieur Claudel. Comment #231;a va??

?How many?? he repeated.

?One,? I answered, never raising my eyes.

?Anything missing?

I finished writing and turned to look at him. He was standing with his feet spread, jacket hung from one arm, peeling the cellophane from a vending machine sandwich.

Like Bertrand, Claudel had chosen natural textiles, cotton for the shirt and pants, linen for the jacket. He?d stayed with the greens, however, preferring a more verdant look. The only color contrast was in the pattern of his tie. Here and there it introduced a tasteful splash of tangerine.

?Can you tell what we?ve got?? He gestured with bread and lunch meat.

?Yes.?

?Yes??

Less than thirty seconds since his arrival and I wanted to rip the sandwich from his hand and insert it forcefully up his nose, or any other orifice. Claudel did not bring out the best in me when I was relaxed and rested. This morning I was neither. Like the dog, I?d had it. I lacked the energy or the inclination to play games.

?What we have is a partial human skeleton. There?s almost no soft tissue. The body was dismembered, placed in garbage bags, and buried in four separate locations in there.? I pointed to the monastery grounds. ?I found one bag last night. The dog smelled out the other three this morning.?

He took a bite, and gazed in the direction of the trees.

?What?s missing?? The words garbled in ham and Muenster.

I stared at him without speaking, wondering why I found a routine question so a

When I didn?t answer he returned his attention to me.

?Anything missing?

?Yes.?

I put down the skeletal inventory sheet and looked him full in the eye. He squinted back, chewing. I wondered briefly why he had no sunglasses.

?The head.?

He stopped chewing.

?What??

?The head is missing.?

?Where is it??

?Monsieur Claudel, if I knew that, it wouldn?t be missing.?

I saw his jaw muscles bunch, then release, not from mastication.

?Anything else??

?Anything else what??

?Missing??

?Nothing significant.?

His mind gnawed on those facts while his teeth gnawed on the sandwich. As he chewed, his fingers crumpled the cellophane, compressing it into a tight ball. Placing the ball in his pocket, he wiped each corner of his mouth with an index finger.

?I don?t suppose you will tell me anything else?? More a statement than a question.

?When I have had time to examine the . . .?

?Yes.? He turned and walked away.

Cursing under my breath, I zipped each of the body bags. The dog?s head snapped up at the sound. Its eyes followed me as I stuffed the clipboard into my pack and crossed the street toward a morgue attendant with a waist the size of an i

Up the street, I could see Ryan and Bertrand talking with Claudel and Charbo

Forget it, Bre

The talk stopped as I neared. Their ma