Island of Bones(113)

The man was cradling it gently, respectfully.

Louis watched the man take the bag down to a waiting patrol boat and carefully hand it over to another man. It had begun to rain again, just a light drizzle, and in the flat light the green of the trees and the yellow of the cops’s rain slickers seemed to jump with color.

Louis watched the men in the patrol boat for a moment, then came down off the porch and headed to the fence.

He went through the open gate and walked slowly up the path. There was no one in the compound when he got there, but the yellow tape was still draped around the house and cabins. He crossed the compound and headed down the path on the far side, following the path as it sloped downward toward the mangroves.

Ahead of him, he could hear the thud of shovels against dirt, and a murmur of voices.

He came to the cemetery and stopped behind the yellow tape. It looked like a small camp. A canvas canopy had been erected over most of the cemetery, with a second smaller one off to one side. There was a portable aluminum table under the small canopy, and a man in a blue windbreaker was bent over some equipment, looking at something with a magnifier.

There were two men working on the graves. One was digging with a small shovel and pouring small amounts of the dirt onto a screen held by the second man, who then sifted through it. They worked slowly, searching for small bones.

A flash drew Louis’s attention to his left. Another man in a raincoat was photographing the process and the site.

Louis heard one of the men say something about a blanket. He looked back to see the man with the small shovel carefully extracting a piece of cloth from the dirt. When he held it in his latex-gloved hand, Louis could see it —- black with mold but with its satin edging still intact.

The man put the cloth in an evidence bag. Then he carefully reached into the hole and lifted out a tan object, like a tiny bowl. Louis felt a small kick in his heart.

It was a piece of skull.

The man put it in an evidence bag. The technician working behind the table stepped away, ducking under the tape. He stopped under an oak tree and lit a cigarette, cupping his hand over the match against the drizzle.

Louis went over to the aluminum table, stopping outside the tape. He looked down. There were two plastic evidence bags, both about twelve by fifteen inches, sealed and signed. Both bags seemed to be filled with what looked to be just old rags.

Louis bent closer. Inside one bag, he could see some bones in the cloth. They were stained brown from the tannin that had seeped in from the mangroves.

Louis reached out and touched one through the plastic.

Tiny. They were so tiny.

His throat tightened, and for several seconds, he stood perfectly still, the sound of the rain on the canopy in his ears.

“Hey, get away from there.”

Louis drew his hand back and looked up. The man who had stepped out to smoke was staring at him. He tossed down his butt, crushed it out in the mud, and came over.

“You got any authority to be here?” he asked.

Louis shook his head.

“Well, get moving. We’ve got work to do here and you’re in the way.”

Louis stepped out from under the canopy. He stood there for a moment in the rain. Then he wiped his face with the heel of his hand and went back up the path.





CHAPTER 52




Someone was out on the porch, banging on the screen door. Louis dropped his armload of dirty laundry on the bed and started out to the living room. When he saw Pierre standing behind the screen, he tried to duck back in the bedroom before he was seen.

“Louis!” Pierre called out. “I know you are in there! Let me in!”

Louis let out a sigh and went and unlatcehd the screen door.

“Why did you lock it?” Pierre asked, coming in. “You never lock your door.”

“What do you want, Pierre?” Louis asked, going to the kitchen. He jerked open the refrigerator.

“The pool needs skimming,” Pierre said.

Louis popped the top on a Dr Pepper and took a swig. “I told you I’d get to it.”

“When? For a month you do nothing around here,” Pierre said. “If you don’t start pushing your weight around here, I will have to charge you rent and —-”

The phone rang and Louis went to the bedroom, picking it up.

“Louis, it’s Mel.”

“Hey,” Louis said. “Where you been hiding for the last two days? I thought maybe you went back to Miami or something without saying good-bye.”

“Nah, not yet.” Landeta paused. “Listen, how about meeting me for lunch at O’Sullivan’s? I got some news on the case you might want to know about.”

Louis glanced back at Pierre standing at the bedroom door. “Sure, give me a half hour.”

He hung up and started out the door.