2005
GRAVEYARD SHIFT
CHAPTER 13 – Enlightenment-
Did you know that:
Cockroaches can live for nine days without their heads,
at which point they die of starvation?
It was Monday night at the morgue. The lab phone was ringing as the boys ran in from the changing room. Valgaav snapped off one glove and picked it up. "Rubyeye Funeral Home and Mortuary." He listened for some time, jotting a few notes on a pad nearby. "Okay, shoot. Yeah, that was quick. Hey, thanks for letting us know. Glad to help."
What was that all about?" Lina asked. She was last to leave the dressing area but was eagerly waiting for a call to duty.
"That was one of the detectives on the case of the body you pulled from the salt tank. He said they found a car in the parking lot with blood spots and fly pupae on the seat related to those we found on the body. If the DNA testing checks out, then they found the car used to transport the corpse."
"Great? Who does the car belong to?" she asked.
"It was his car, Dilgear's. The tank was full and there was a receipt stub from a gas station dated 9 days earlier than the discovery of the body– just as we thought."
"As we had deduced from the facts," Xel corrected. "So are they running prints from the car?"
"Yep. Waiting on that, too." Valgaav was about to check the 'to do' list when the phone rang again. "Your turn, Lina."
"Rubyeye Funeral Home and Mortuary." Lina listened to the message and jotted down a few instructions. "Gotcha. I'll be there in..." she checked the wall clock before saying, "twenty minutes. Yeah, thanks." She hopped off the stool and lifted the van keys off the hook. "I'm outta here. Got a live one, er...with bug life only, that is out on Route 90."
"I'll accompany you," Xel offered. Xel pushed his hands into the cover-all's pockets, a dramatic contrast to Zelgadiss, who would never have dreamed of doing so. It would ruin the line of his clothes, even if hey were just coveralls, and he was far too innately elegant to do that.
"Aren't I supposed to start going with Lina sometime?" Zelgadiss asked.
"Yeah, not a good idea, yet. She still has procedures to learn." Valgaav shuffled through the assignment sheets. "Zelgadiss and I can take care of what there is here. Go on, Xel, but make sure you stay well off the road while you are loading. Cars speed going down that road; at least, we've gotten several accident victims delivered from there in the past."
En route to pick up body, Lina started the conversation with, "So, doesn't a guy doing Zel's job usually have to go to college to learn stuff?"
"No, but there are a few specialty schools around, I understand. The morgue attendant, like Zelgadiss, is rarely formally trained. On-the-job training seems sufficient. What Valgaav does takes more training, and with a college education he can work cases for the government, do research, or any of several choices, which is why his father isn't pushing education for him; he wants Valgaav to stay working for him in charge of the cadaver room."
"That's not fair to Val," Lina said. She hated being told what to do and figured everyone else felt the same way. "Here's the turn off for Route 90 up ahead, then it's a few miles north of that. I don't see many women hanging about Gaav's place. Or is that just the night shift?"
"No that's the way it is all over. Most are men-- a woman like Eris is a one-in-one-hundred occurrence. What's more, people in your or Zelgadiss' position tend to work at their job for decades. I think this is because management types don't know what goes on in the morgue, and would not care to mess around with its staffing come belt-tightening time, and the attendants themselves like being left alone by management, and enjoy a much greater degree of autonomy than most workers at their pay grade and level of education."
"A select bunch we are," Lina smiled.
"My own impression of the 'morgue attendant personality' is that they are somewhat secretive and cliquish, and one gets the idea that they have a lot more going on in their lives than they tend to let on. It is not uncommon for them to receive a variety of strange visitors in the morgue, some of whom have a less than savory appearance, as we saw with Eris." Xelloss smiled over at Lina, and added, "But there are exceptions."
"I see flashing lights up ahead. Yeah, that's the place." Lina pulled over behind a patrol car near an exit on Route 90, where an officer was waiting, but no wreck. It was the same investigator as before. "Hey!" Lina shouted as she hopped out of the van. "We seem to hang out at the darnedest places, eh?"
The man brightened when he recognized her. "Seems that way."
"So, where's the body for us to pick up?" Xel asked hoping to break their eye contact.
"It's off a rural road a ways. Two dirt bikers driving through a rural area just a few miles away came across a burned-out car. The spot is pretty remote. I thought meeting here at the exit would make it easier to locate. Just follow me." The officer replied to Xel, but his eyes never left Lina's.
She shrugged, and then said, "Okay."
"That officer is attracted to you, you are aware of that, aren't you?" Xel asked her when they were rolling again, this time following the patrol car into the dark.
"What? You're nuts. I've only seen him the two times over corpses, and he doesn't even know me."
"You think knowing you makes a difference?" Xel smiled. "I was crazy about you the moment I laid eyes on you."
Lina blushed like crazy. "Eh...that's enough. I'm trying to concentrate. This road's gravel and rutted and... Ugh! Full of potholes."
"Careful not to break an axle."
"Shut up."
Another patrol car was at the scene, head lights providing the only illumination besides a couple of portable battery-powered electric lamps.
Xel held up his flashlight, illuminating the gloomy interior of the wreck enough for Lina to observe the situation. Inside, the glimmer of light flickered across the back seat and over the charred body grotesquely slumped in death.
"We've already surveyed the crime scene and taken the photos, so it's ready for you to remove the corpse from the car," the investigator told Lina.
"Thanks. By the way, what's your name?" Lina asked. "I'm Lina Inverse, by the way."
"Detective Zolf. Nice to meet you."
Xel had the back of the van open and was picking through a few tools stashed at the side. "Lina?"
She dragged herself away from the handsome Zolf and got busy setting up the cot. Xel, it was clear, knew what had to be done to extract the body.
Lina watched and lent a hand when she could. "Done this kind of thing before, huh?"
She'd meant it as a weak joke, but his serious reply to the affirmative left her feeling uneasy. With as few words as possible, Xel and Lina scooted a plastic sheet underneath, wrapped it protectively so as not to scrape the crisp skin on the door, and jostled the corpse onto the cot. While Lina secured it with the straps, Xel examined the backseat for any further crime evidence. He found a few 'somethings' and slipped them into zip-lock style bags.
A rumble of distant thunder was the only sound in the remote area.
"We have a tow truck on the way to haul in the car. We want to go over it back in town," the other officer said to Xel.
"Good. I was looking for fried larvae beneath the body," Xel explained as he straightened up.
"What for?" the man asked. He was older, about to retire and more than ready to just go home and call it a night.
"Snacks!" Xel said lightly, and turned only after catching the man's face blanch. "Crispy critters. Here, catch!"
The officer, expecting a handful of 'treats', threw up his hands to ward them off, missing the bagged knife, which fell to the ground at his feet. At the same moment the sky lit up with a crack of lightning, followed by a rumbling of thunder.
"Make sure they test the blood on the backseat, burned as it is, and that knife for fingerprints." Xel left the man agog in time to break up another Zolf and Lina discourse.
Zolf took a radio call while Lina and Xel locked down the cot in the van and secured their tools.
"I'll lead you out," Zolf said, trotting over to his car. "I need to direct the tow truck."
"Hope you get out before the storm hits and washes the evidence off the car," Xel said.
"Let's not waste any time," Zolf nodded, and cranked on his engine.
"Xel, what did you say to that other guy?" Lina asked Xel afterwards on the way back to the funeral home.
He told her.
"Geez, that that was gross, Xel."
"Well, Detective Rodimus, that's his name by the way, was a professional, or should have been. He had to have known what I was doing. He should have been looking there as well but was too lazy to do his work."
"So, what were you looking for?"
"Oh, I was looking for larvae, fresh or fried, like I said, but that was because after I found the knife under the seat and the dark stain on the cloth seat where the body had been I figured that the man hadn't died in a car wreck." He didn't mention the most disturbing detail he had noticed, which was the dragon-claw design carved into the hilt of the dagger.
"I noticed that the car looked pretty good, despite being burned," Lina mused. "Now that I think of it, it didn't appear to be busted up at all."
"Yeah, that should have set off a few alarms in their heads, too. You are very perceptive."
"You bet I am! So, you were saying about the larvae?"
"That's right. I figured that if he had been lying out there in the open for long, a few might have started to grow."
"Maybe the fire happened right after he was murdered, before he could have attracted flies?"
"They'll go after cooked flesh or raw, but it might help us determine a time of death back at the shop." Xel turned toward Lina, watching her profile as she drove.
Lina could feel his eyes on her, and the desire emanating from him with each breath was palpable. "Zolf's pretty nice and all," she began. "But police guys aren't my type exactly."
Xel's attention was glued to her. "Oh? They don't make enough money for your tastes?"
"Well, that, too, but I was thinking that I may have a little outlawry about me that wouldn't let something like that work out."
Xel, pleased to hear that, smiled and patted her thigh. "And here I thought you were a nice girl."
"I am a nice girl. Nice enough!" She barked out a mad-sounding laugh and drove back to work, the rain holding off for a few more minutes. "Bwah, ha, ha, ha, haaa!"
They returned to the laboratory to perform the autopsy on the blackened cadaver. Zelgadiss helped Lina move it onto the table. When he peeled back bits of the clothing, he let out a disgusted "Ugh!"
Live maggots were observed throughout the surface of the body, but when they removed the top of the skull, cooked maggots were found inside the brain. This was a significant discovery. It meant that the victim had been dead long enough for flies to leave larvae, for maggots to grow and eat away much of the decaying outer tissue and enter the braincase.
Xel teased out a few of the larvae, then with tweezers moved them to a Petri dish for closer examination. "By comparing the length and weight of the maggots inside the brain with my own charts of maggot development," he said, giving his own commentary as he did the work, "I conclude...yes... that the maggots had died between 14 and 16 days after the victim himself was killed. Put that together with the maggots outside the body-- that I collected along with the knife, which I determined to be approximately 2 days old-- and we have one odd case."
"Look closely at these," Valgaav pointed out to Zelgadiss.
"Marks like cuts."
"Yeah, Xel, take a look. You agree? These look like marks on the vertebrae," Valgaav called over to his cousin.
"Yes, from all my extensive experience with stabbing victims," Xel said humorously. "He was stabbed hard. Okay, then based on this evidence, think we can reconstruct what happened. The man was murdered with one or more knife stabs, and left in the back seat. Some two weeks later the people, or person, who did it came back and set fire to the car, maybe in the hope of getting rid of the corpse, or creating the impression he had died in an automobile accident. The fire went out, and the body cooled enough for the flies to come back and lay more eggs on the burnt material."
"What did you come up with from the clothing?" Valgaav asked Lina.
She had cleaned the cot and stowed it, along with fresh supplies, back in the van. With time to kill and nothing else to do, she had agreed to shift through the burnt 'pockets' with a needle-pointed tool. "Gotcha, you little stinking piece of ID," she was grumbling. "I think it's a driver's license, but from somewhere else."
Xel bounded over. "No, not a driver's license, but something equally good. Our man was from Wolfpack Penitentiary and Asylum."
"An inmate? I didn't think anyone broke from that hell-hole."
"No one ever has, and neither did this guy. This was an employee." Xel frowned and moved to the computer. "I have a little work to do here, so if you'd all leave me alone a minute, I'd be most appreciative." As he said this, the phone began to shrill again.
"Got that!" Lina answered the ringing phone. She listened with a hand over her free ear, while Valgaav and Zelgadiss continued the autopsy. "I'll be right there. Hey, Val, since Xel's busy and it's just a private residence for another pick-up, I'll go alone, okay?"
Val didn't even look up. "Not okay. Take Zelgadiss, and change your scrubs."
Lina looked at her grubby coveralls, sighed, and left the room to change. Valgaav reviewed the rules with Zelgadiss as he also put on fresh clothes.
Fifteen minutes later, Lina located the apartment, parked, and set up the cot as Zelgadiss shut up the van and held open the door to the building. "Let me do all the talking," she insisted.
"Fine with me," he muttered through his concealing mask. He hoped the gloves, mask and scrub cap covered his unusual appearance sufficiently. He didn't want to draw unwelcome attention.
Inside, officers were present; one was bagging an empty pill bottle. Lina thought to ask for a single pill to test against whatever they might find in the deceased's stomach, and the officer complied. He labeled the evidence bag with the description on the jar before he handed it to her.
"Thanks...sir," she added for good measure.
She was glad to have Zel nearby. Adding his strength to hers was just enough to move the tall young man onto the cot. Zelgadiss remembered to place the block behind the head as Lina tightened the straps.
"Thanks," she said. "I hadn't needed to use the head block yet with my other...jobs."
Zelgadiss was unused to Lina's newly acquired professional demeanor and politeness. He replied, "You're welcome, Miss," with a sideways smile, and then ran to open the back of the van. The first rain drops were starting to fall. They were large and hissed as they dried instantly on the still-warm cement sidewalk. The day had been a scorcher, for those who had had to endure it.
"Val, can we do this one now or put it in the cooler?" Lina called out as she wheeled in the cot.
"Is it interesting?" Valgaav asked.
Lina tossed him the bagged pill. "They don't know the cause of death, yet, but he may have OD'd on this."
That was good enough for him. "Sure, you can put the cadaver on the center slab after it is cleaned. Zelgadiss, would you wheel this last guy into the keep? I tagged him. Here's the key. Lock him up, and then clean. Lina, you can start the ID process. I'll show you how we fill out the forms, tag, and file everything so nothing gets lost."
Xel, meanwhile, was still on the phone. He had been on the phone to his contact on Wolfpack Island, looking into the dead employee. She was more than willing to supply him with the latest passwords to the Asylum and penitentiary's databases. Of course, he hadn't told her exactly why. In fact, he had given her an entirely false excuse. He didn't trust anyone, and for good reasons; he didn't want his investigation getting back to his mother, being among the top two.
After looking up the information he needed, he returned to the phone to report to Detective Zolf what he had learned and what they suspected. He was going over the details leading up to their conclusions on the time and cause of death, when Zelgadiss and Lina rolled in with the next body.
From that point on, everyone worked in silence. They knew what had to be done, and didn't have time to waste.
There was one brief interruption when Valgaav called Xel over for a second opinion. They reached agreement and questioned Zelgadiss on his stomach findings.
"He must have swallowed the entire bottle. I counted 245 pills in his stomach; that is, if the bottle contained 250 originally."
"Really?" Xel was puzzled a moment. "Plus the three lodged in his air passage and the few fragments in his mouth. That would account for all of them."
"They couldn't have poisoned him, then. He hadn't even ingested them." Val could do the math as well.
"Let me look over that windpipe again," Xel said.
Lina had cleaned up, put away, and re-supplied the van and its contents. She helped Zelgadiss mop up and was happy to see Valgaav hang the clipboard back on its hook and announce, "That's it for tonight."
"There's probably still the stuff we had to do when we got here," Xel pointed out.
"Oh there is plenty left to do, but not time to do it."
"Vurumagen will have a fit in the morning."
"Tough. If Dad wants more done he'll have to re-consider the pick-up idea. We can't work the day shift jobs while bringing in more at night without more personnel." Valgaav ripped off his gloves and loped to the changing room.
The others were not going to complain. Going home 30 minutes early was fine with them.
As soon as Zelgadiss got home he went to his room and called Gourry. "Hey, I know it is early but I wanted to catch you before you went to work, and I know you run first."
"That's okay, Zel. I was just about to head out. What's up?"
"Can we meet somewhere? I need to talk."
"Sure. How 'bout lunch? I can take off anytime. Just need ta arrange with my co-workers for coverage."
"Yeah, and I need to sleep. 1:00 okay, or is that too late?"
"One's fine. Carmichael's burger joint?"
"Fine. Thanks."
"Okay, well...bye."
"Yeah, bye, Gourry."
That afternoon, they settled into a booth, ordered drinks, burgers and fries, and then sipped at the quickly delivered sodas. "So, what's on your mind, Zel?"
Zelgadiss shrugged. Despite the heat of the day, he wore concealing long sleeves, bicycle gloves, and his hood was pulled up over his head. He was completely uncomfortable.
Gourry wouldn't wait until his friend had finished his meal to get started. "You had something on your mind at the bowling game. This about the same thing?"
Zelgadiss nodded, and then set down his glass. He ran a finger along its outside, disrupting the condensation and sending rivulets to puddle on the table. "Yes." There was a long pause. "It's just..." There was another longer pause with more fiddling and more water collecting at the base of his glass.
Gourry moved in close so he could lower his voice to ask, "This about girls, Zel?"
Zelgadiss stared at Gourry's face as he weighed what the man had said. "I've been thinking."
Gourry leaned back again, flexing his muscular forearms. He had patience and time to wait out his dysfunctional friend. He was hoping that Zel would someday be able to adjust to his condition; he was hoping sometime he would be able to look Zel in the eye and not wonder 'Who is this guy?' "Yeah? Thinking 'bout what?" he asked.
"I wonder what works best: dating or just hanging out to get to know someone. My cousins...they both do it differently, and...I dunno."
Gourry turned as the waitress set down their plates, baskets of hot fries, and condiments. "Whoa, that sure looks nice."
"Oh, thanks...sir. I hope you like it." Zelgadiss watched as she flirted with his friend. "Will there be anything else?" she asked.
"No, thanks." Gourry returned her smile, but not her 'I'm available' signals.
Zelgadiss concentrated on squeezing a blob of ketchup onto his plate for dipping his fries. He remembered when girls flirted with him wherever he went. Not any longer. Except Sylphiel, but Sylphiel was nice to everyone. He no longer thought that she had singled him out at the game.
Surprisingly, even the arrival of a plateful of food hadn't distracted Gourry from the subject at hand. "I don't know. What works for me is a combination. Hang out for awhile to let the girl get used to you, and see if there's any connection, then ask her out on a date. The date's best for getting close."
"Yeah. Valgaav, he generally hangs out with girls. They might go someplace but they meet others and are independent, often driving separate cars. It seems low-stress, which is good. But I don't think there's much opportunity to really hold a girl's attention with all the other distractions."
"And the competition," Gourry nodded. "Yeah, if you're just hanging out together, there's the chance the girl might go home with some other guy."
"There is that risk. I guess he's okay with it. He doesn't seem unhappy or happy either for that matter. Hard to tell with him. He's withdrawn at home. On the other hand, there's Xel. He prefers to date. He likes to be in charge and exclusive."
"That's an advantage, if you like the girl, but if you find you don't, it's harder to make a smooth getaway."
"Right. If you're hanging out, you can escape a possible boring night and no one feels the worse for it. Well, at least no one gets too disappointed."
"How's it working for him?" Gourry asked cautiously. As curious as he was to know what Xel was up to, he didn't want to find out that he was taking Lina out, even though Amelia didn't think he was and there didn't seem to any opportunities for Lina and Xel to go out.
Zelgadiss set down his burger. "Did you know Valgaav and Amelia might have something going on?"
"You think they might do more than just hang out for a change? Wouldn't surprise me. He likes her, she likes him."
"Yeah. So I gathered. Which means that hanging may have worked for him, but only up to a point. Now he may have to turn to dating, although he hasn't said that to me."
Gourry wondered if Zelgadiss was avoiding discussion Xel's personal habits for some reason. Some bad reason. "What about...Xelloss?"
"Xel. He hasn't dated anyone that I know of. He seems to hang out with the rest of us, but hasn't made any real headway. He used to date though. He talks about it all the time." Zelgadiss was careful not to refer to Lina in particular, suspecting Gourry's relationship could be in peril but not wanting to assume that it was.
He was right to do that. Gourry's face lost all its look of worry and consternation, which it had been adding up like layers of sun screen as the conversation had proceeded. "That so? Well, maybe it's not so much the technique, but the guy."
"Could be," Zelgadiss conceded. "He's been suffering from lack of progress, which is pretty funny to watch. He completely failed to get Sylphiel to fall for him, for instance."
Inwardly, Gourry smiled. His friend had finally gotten around to what was really on his mind. "You know Sylphiel talks about you whenever she can. That's a sign, you know? Whenever a girl likes a guy, she finds a way to talk about him all the time. Have you thought about asking her out?"
"Lately, all the time," was Zel's answer.
"Hello, Breast Self-Exam Hotline! For assistance, please press one now. Now press the other one."
"Xelloss," Lina growled into the phone. "Pick up your phone before I..."
"Lina, what a pleasant surprise! What can I do for you this afternoo...?"
"Knock it off," Lina growled, but it turned to chuckles soon after. "By the way, thanks for changing the phone message."
"You like it?"
"No, but it's shorter. Say, can you meet me someplace close, right away?"
"Sure." He paused a millisecond to consider 'the where'. "Shall I just swing by and pick you up on the way to ...wherever?"
"No. Just meet me someplace walking distance. The park. You know where that is?"
"I've passed it." He never spent a moment outside if he could help it.
"Good, then I'll see you there in 15 minutes. Bye."
"Okay. Bye, now." Xelloss hung up the phone, slipped into a pair of sandals, probably Zelgadiss' since they certainly weren't his, and grabbed his keys. He wouldn't make it to the park in 15 minutes unless he drove. He couldn't imagine what was on Lina's mind, and he shook his head, amused with himself that he hadn't even thought to ask. Meeting her, pleasing her, doing her bidding without question– it troubled him slightly, causing him to wonder what was going on inside his head.
Xel hadn't been waiting long before he spied a free-spirited girl waltzing up the street toward him, and then, to his consternation, broke out in an inconvenient sweat the moment he recognized Lina's bouncing red curls. He wanted to spend what was left of the afternoon with her; he would draw it out as long as he could.
"Good, you didn't keep me waiting," she began.
"Can we sit in the shade?" he asked as he indicated a picnic bench under the tall oaks.
"You don't get much sun, do you?" Lina stated the obvious– his skin was ivory.
"No. I'm more of a night person, actually."
"So am I. Ah...so... Amelia told me something interesting this morning that I thought I'd pass by you."
"Okay." His eyes sparkled with interest. Since she chose to sit on the table with her feet resting on the bench, he did the same, after brushing off the detritus that hadn't bothered Lina a bit. They smiled at one another sitting comfortably side-by-side, hips touching.
"Apparently, her father found out where you're from. He told her it was on Wolfpack Island. That place, Xelloss, where you said that body came from-- that horrible place?"
His eyes lost their brilliance as he lowered his lids. His long black lashes in sharp contrast with his pale cheeks made his beauty appear more fragile. "You want to know if it's true?"
She nodded.
If he said the wrong thing now, he feared he could lose her, but if he wasn't honest, then he knew for a fact that Lina would have nothing to do with him. She had made it clear that she could tolerate a little mystery, but not down-right lying. Cautiously, he met her eyes in a brief glance to gauge her frame of mind so far. Her look was eager and interested, not repulsed, so he continued. "I was born there. My mother lives there and runs the funeral business on the island, the only one, and owns several more on the mainland. My father separated and moved nearer to Atlas City. I lived with him awhile when I was going to college there. Wolfpack was a strange place to grow up. That's why I often lived with relatives as a very young child. It's also very beautiful. Not all of it is a jail, you know." He opened his eyes and looked directly into hers unguarded, imploring Lina to be open-minded.
She saw into his heart, at that instant. She was flattered to think that this older man, this very intriguing older man, was seeking her approval, and was pleased that he was conceding control of the next step to her. "I don't know, but...I'd sure like to see it. Maybe you could take me there sometime? I mean, it's not the end of the world, but almost."
Xelloss was taken aback by her ready acceptance of his background and by her request. "Really?" His relief was evident in his voice. "You'd like to see it? That would be... that would be fun. I'd like to take you. There are caves and beaches to explore, but little sun. It's very foggy and stormy out there, even in summer."
Lina smiled. He was like a little kid jabbering excitedly about his homeland. She figured he had never had the opportunity before. She posed questions, and he answered for a few more minutes. No jokes or subterfuge. For awhile. He didn't remain serious for long, not when she gave him the perfect opportunity to joke around.
"So, isn't a pathologist a kind of doctor? You're not an MD, right? What's the difference?" Lina asked him.
"I can tell you the difference between an internist, a surgeon and a pathologist." He grinned and at that moment Lina knew that she just set herself up for one of Xel's jokes. "An internist knows everything, but actually does nothing; a surgeon knows nothing, but, as it turns out, does everything; a pathologist knows everything and does everything, but, sadly, too late."
Lina burst out into laughter, delighting Xelloss to no end. Whether it was love or not, Xel realized that making Lina happy and hearing her laugh aloud again was his goal from that moment on.
"I have a story related to that, if you are interested?" he smiled, eyes glittering.
"Sure, knock yourself out, Xel."
"I call it the Doc Hunters." He paused long enough to get the story straight in his mind, and hold Lina's attention. "Okay, so a group of doctors went out duck hunting. They hadn't been waiting very long before a bird flew toward their blind. You know what a 'blind' is, don't you? A camouflaged spot from which they observe their quarry."
"Yes, Xel, I know that. I hunt, ya know. Go on," she urged.
"Well, the general practitioner got ready to shoot, but then turned to the others and said, 'It's what I've heard a duck should look like, but I'm not sure. You specialists have more experience with this -- what do you think?'
"But by that time the bird had flown over and was out of range. Soon another bird flew toward the doctors. The internist, an internal medicine specialist, just to clarify for the purpose of this story, prepared to shoot, but then hesitated, thinking 'It's probably a duck, but I should do some tests to rule out whether it's a goose or pigeon or seagull.'
"By which time that bird, too, had flown over and was gone. A bit later, another bird approached. Showing no hesitation, the surgeon stood up and blast several rounds with his shotgun. The bird plummeted into the marsh some distance from the hunting party. The surgeon turned to the pathologist, asking, 'What are you waiting for? Get out there and find out what the f#&k that was.'"
Lina laughed along with him. "That was awful. Where do you come up with your material?"
"Mostly the bathroom walls at med school. It was the only place I ever read for enjoyment. The rest of the time it was all course material."
"Bathroom walls, huh? Speaking of 'coarse' material..." Lina nudged him with an elbow, while he groaned at her pun. "Hey, as fun as this is, I gotta hit the street."
He hopped off the table, and then handed her a rock by his foot. "Can I walk you back? It's only a stone's throw away."
"Ha, ha!" Lina smiled, but shook her head. "Nah, I gotta do some things. Later!"
"Okay," he said quietly, then added quickly before she escaped, "I promise to take you to Wolfpack before the summer is over." He wanted her to always have him, and doing something with him, on her mind.
"I'll hold ya to it!" she said with a cute wink, and dashed off without another word, knowing they would see each other at work in an hour. Aside from the minor contact of their legs as they sat, Xelloss never touched her, and yet he had stirred something deep inside her for the first time. She didn't want to analyze her feelings right now, or ever maybe, so she stuffed it to the back of her mind and cemented it in place with her meal plans.
Neither one of them realized it yet, but their relationship had made a small adjustment, altering the way they would relate to one another in the future.
A day later, Valgaav was observing Zelgadiss prepare a cadaver for autopsy when the phone rang.
"Rubyeye Mortuary and Funeral Home," Lina answered. "Yes, it is. Oh, hi, Detective Zolf."
Xel's back stiffened and he looked up from his table.
Lina continued talking. "Is that so? He's sitting right here. I'll put him on for you." She tossed the phone to Xel with a smile. "He was excited by your info."
Xel returned the smile and took the phone. He listened and spoke in a low voice before he passed it back to Lina to hang up. "Thank you. Well, I was able to trace the burned stab victim's ID card to his work records."
"You wouldn't mind telling us how you managed that, would you?" Val asked with a frown.
"I used the computer, but that's not the point," Xel evaded. "The victim failed to show up for work one morning, and he was listed but not reported missing by his employer, which isn't any real surprise. Then 18 days later, the two dirt bikers came across his burned-out car, and then we were called. I passed the dead man's name to the investigation team with the results of our investigative work the other day. They were very grateful."
"So, who was the guy?" Val asked irritated by Xel's pleasure in drawing out the tale for his own amusement.
"Joe. I told them that if they look hard enough they will find evidence to link Joe to Dilgear's death, say fingerprints on Dilgear's car. I faxed Detective Zolf a copy of Joe's prints on record at the penitentiary. They keep records of many things there, dental records too."
Zelgadiss stopped what he was doing and asked, "Why would you link this Joe guy to Dilgear?"
"Something seemed fishy with him."
"That wasn't an answer." Zelgadiss gave a snort and returned to work.
"I have a nose for trouble?"
"He's not going to tell us," Val growled. "And if it has anything to do with that Wolfpack place, you don't really want to know. You'll be safer not knowing."
"Now I'm curious," Lina cut in.
"Sorry, but...it's a secret," Xel said, then turned back to the phone to begin a new conversation.
"Yeah, well not all of it," Lina stalked up to Xel and stuck her finger in his face. "Zolf was most excited that you pointed out the importance of some mark on the knife. Tell me about that, and don't think you can wriggle out of it."
Valgaav became interested. "The knife was special, wasn't it? As in a ceremonial one."
Xel hung up the phone. "Yes, Val, it was a Cepheid Clan dagger embossed with the sign of the dragon claw. Now you know all what the police know. Let it rest."
Xel knew the details of Val's background. He knew Val's mother had been part of the Cephied Clan, while Gaav certainly was not. By mentioning the dagger, this particular one, he knew it would incense his cousin to be deprived of the whole story behind it. Besides, he had a way of getting under Val's skin like no other person could. They had a kind of rivalry and a friendship that was hard to define. Val idolized his older cousin for his independence, success, and charm, and despised him for those same qualities-- and Xel knew it. They hadn't out-grown their childhood roles, just elaborated on them. Xel was a sporting fellow, and when he saw a chance to rile his younger cousin, he would. He was not disappointed, either.
Val was on the smaller man in an instant, grasping Xel by the collar and practically snarling in his face. "You know more. You know why Dilgear was killed, don't you? DON'T YOU!"
"Xel, if you know something, tell us!" Lina agreed.
"It may be a clue to what happened to me!" Zel implored.
Xel did not want to be evasive, but he had no intention of telling them more that night. Valgaav's threats did not bother him, and his other two friends were safer ignorant. He was saved by the telephone. "Excuse me, guys..."
Val released his hold and allowed Xel to pickup the call. "Hello, Rubyeye Mortuary and Funeral Home. May I help you?" His eyes caught Lina's. "Yes, where did you say the deceased is? Yes, thank you. Goodnight." Xel hung up and side-stepped Val. "Sorry, but it's time to roll. Zelgadiss, you are up to your elbows in embalming, so I guess that means it's just you and me, babe." He winked at Lina, exuding charm.
"Go, but we will discuss this later," Valgaav assured him.
But the later wouldn't come that night. He and Zelgadiss had a long night's worth of work to do, while Xel and Lina delivered three additional bodies-- two from private residences and one from a retirement home. None of the new incoming corpses were 'intriguing' enough to displace the ones already slated to be embalmed that night, so they were 'processed', tagged, and stored in the cadaver keep for the morning shift. By the end of the shift, the four friends were beat. All they wanted to do was go home, bathe, and sleep. Xelloss-bashing would have to wait.
It was the late afternoon when Xelloss received a call from an investigating official. He hung up and called out to Zelgadiss. "Guess what?"
Both Xel and Zelgadiss were in the kitchen.
"I couldn't possibly." He was wholly occupied stacking cubes of sugar into fascinating towers, and had been ignoring all of Xel's efforts to get him out of the house to shop for food before they had to go to work again that night.
Valgaav was out climbing walls. He had invited Sylphiel along to 'show her the ropes', he had said, since she was into 'that kind of thing'– whatever that had meant. Zelgadiss had been welcome to go with them, but had declined this time. "Maybe next time," he had said.
"We are being hauled into court."
"WHAT!"
Xel smiled. That had gotten Zelgadiss to react. It was a very satisfactory sensation, stirring things up a bit. "That body we brought in and autopsied? It's part of an ongoing investigation and we are being called in to testify. We are not always in the lab. Sometimes we, and forensic pathologists in particular, are called to testify in court or at inquests as expert witnesses."
"Great. Who is included in that 'we'? Not me, surely. I don't know anything of value."
"Of course you do, Zelgadiss. But that's not the point. I need you to back me up, to make certain I don't leave anything out on the stand."
Zelgadiss knocked over his sugar wall, "Fine. Another shot day." He picked up his kitten, Chimera, and smoothed its fur, comforting them both.
"It's part of work, so that means we will have the night off, and we'll just blow off Friday, too, while we're at it, giving us a long weekend. Valgaav mentioned taking you to Atlas City."
"So what? Don't we have that play to do, not to mention another bowling tournament?"
"Not until Sunday late. Better busy than bored," Xel said with a smile. He had dismissed the Saturday play practice entirely. "We'll pull the notes from that examination, and get prepared tonight."
The phone rang again. "Hello?" Xel asked. "Hold on. I'll see if he can make a break from his building project. It's for you," he whispered to Zelgadiss, "And it's a girl."
Zelgadiss felt his ear tips burn. "Give that to me," he hissed. "Hello? Oh, yeah. Building? No, that was my roommate being funny, or at least trying to. I thought you were rock climbing with Valgaav."
"I was, or am, but he and I were talking and something he said and something I just learned about you don't fit quite right and so he said I should call you," Sylphiel told him. "We're on our way to your place. I've got my car so I'll show you what I found when I drop Valgaav off, okay? You'll still be there?"
"Yeah." Zel was confused about whatever obtuse thing she was trying to get across, but he understood that last part at least. It meant time for the cover-up to go back into play. "We all go into work together. Ah... the play...and..."
Zelgadiss was momentarily flummoxed as Xel started dancing with the cats in the front room. Ever since Xel had seen a coffee table book called Dancing with Cats, he had been determined to get one of the brood interested in reproducing his stretches and leaps. His antics amused the kittens. A couple tried to catch his hair strands as he rolled on the carpet. To the unfamiliar, Xel appeared half-witted; to Zelgadiss he seemed seriously demented.
"...a-and..." Zelgadiss stuttered as he tried to get his work story back on track.
"It's okay, Zelgadiss," she said softly. "Valgaav told me what you guys really do. We all know now. I'm impressed, though, with how you guys are working at night and are really in a play, too! We're here at your house! See you in a second."
Valgaav opened the door with a tired sigh, and then led the way into the room, Sylphiel at his heels. "Zelgadiss!"
He stepped over Xel, and Sylphiel circled around, greeting Xel with a friendly, "Hi! Playing with your little kitties? How cute!"
"Heeeeello," Xel said. He lay flat on his back, letting the cats crawl over him and tickle his bare chest with their whiskers.
"What is it?" Zelgadiss asked.
Sylphiel handed him a paper. "Look at this."
On it she had written some names and dates, which he scanned immediately. "This is my birth date," Zelgadiss said. "That's my father's name. I don't know this name but it's close to my mother's. What's this about?"
"When I was at work today, I was looking up some records and filing updates, including yours. I...I was curious about you and read a few things."
She looked at Zelgadiss who wore a scowl on his face and had folded his arms across his chest defensively. "I maybe should have asked your permission first, but... That was information taken off your birth certificate. D.S. Dolphin was listed as your mother's name and Wolfpack Island was your birth place." She could tell this was news to him as his expression changes and arms dropped to his sides. "It wasn't what you'd put on the form they had you fill out at the hospital."
Xel inhaled loudly.
Zelgadiss turned to Xel, Valgaav's eyes tracking him. "My mother's maiden name was not Dolphin. What the hell kind of a name is that anyway? Xel, what do you think? Is this D.S. Dolphin possibly the same person as your aunt? Dolphinia...like my mother's name but different."
Xel just stared at him.
"Why would this be on a copy of my birth certificate?"
Xel said nothing, but Sylphiel did. "It looked like a real birth certificate, Zelly. It had all kinds of official-looking seals and stamps and all the right signatures and stuff."
Valgaav put in, "Your parents aren't around, right?"
"No," Zelgadiss answered. "I can e-mail and ask them."
"Or ask Rezo. Your grandfather should know."
"He won't tell Zelgadiss anything, Val. Of that I can be certain. I've been trying to discover the missing parts of the family tree linking Zelgadiss here to us, but Rezo was not forthcoming."
"Then...let's call your Aunt Dolphinia. Didn't you say she ran a golf course?" Zelgadiss asked with a creeping note of desperation in his voice.
"That was Aunty Dolphinia's money-losing, combination golf course/graveyard, the Golfatorium. Ah..." Xel began to explain, and then left off, hesitating to reveal more information than was necessary. He had his own business interests and secrets to conceal and protect.
"She's dead, Zelgadiss," Val told him. "Has been for some time."
"Dead?" Zelgadiss paled. He was trying to get his mind around having a different birth place and possibly a different birth mother than he had known, and now he had to contend with her death as well.
"I have some suspicions that some dark secret is being kept from us all." Xel scooted the kittens aside, and then stood up. "I believe it's time for me to pay Wolfpack Island a visit."
"I want to go with you," Zelgadiss said.
"I'll think about it," Xel said. "It may be more valuable for you to stay here and check on other information for me. Ahhh, it's time to go to work and I need to change into a shirt, so if you all will excuse me..."
"I'm sorry, Zelly. I didn't mean to mess things up like this."
"It's okay, Sylphiel," Zelgadiss said and meant it. "I'm glad you did." He was beyond traumatized, and was without words to say more. When she rushed over to give him a reassuring hug, he returned it thankfully.
The burnt body in the car story was taken from Bones: a Forensic Detective's Casebook, by Dr. Douglas Ubelaker and Henry Scammell.
End Graveyard Shift Chapter 13.