More nodding. Then a pause. Then, “I like this.”
“Can you do what I’ve proposed?”
“I can do it.”
“When?”
“If you wait twenty minutes I will do it now.”
While Hanaoka was gone, Miller described his recent fieldwork in Jordan. Distracted by thoughts of Briel’s treachery, I took little in. But talk of archaeology reminded me of Sebastien Raines. When Miller had finished, I asked about Briel’s husband.
“Know him? Yeah, I know the weasely goat turd. Wait. That’s unfair to goats.”
“What about weasels?”
“Friendly amendment accepted. Raines is mean as a snake and a disgrace to the profession.”
“Don’t hold back.”
“The guy would dynamite Machu Picchu if someone offered cash. And write his report any way the buyer requested.” Miller’s face contorted in anger. “Raines had the cojones to apply for a position in our department. When we vetted his resume, we found he’d fabricated almost everything.”
“He has a master’s degree, right?”
“Oh, yeah. Purchased online. Raines did enroll in a legitimate program in France, but got kicked out halfway through his first year of study. The project director caught him stealing artifacts.”
“Raines is a Quebecker. Why study in France?”
“No graduate program here would accept him.”
“I’m told he’s a separatist.”
“The guy’s a fanatic. Refuses to speak English unless forced.”
“Why apply for a job at McGill?”
“U of M and UQAM bonged him.”
“Raines’s specialty is urban archaeology.”
“Yeah.” Miller snorted in disgust. “The jerk can’t score funding, so he digs anything that’s close and not nailed down. You hear about his latest scheme?”
“Body Find?”
“
I remembered an incident that occurred shortly after Briel was hired. I was eating lunch on one of the cement benches outside Wilfrid-Derome. A man was waiting by the door, smoking and looking very uptight. Briel came out and the two argued. The man stormed off and she went back inside. Barely knowing Briel, I paid little attention.
“Is Raines a tall muscular guy? Dark eyes, long black hair tied back at his neck?”
“That’s him. Thinks he’s Grizzly Adams. Here’s a story you’ll love. One time Raines-”
Hanaoka reappeared. Miller and I rose.
Apologizing for the length of his absence, our host led us to the basement, down a long narrow corridor, and through a blue door into a secure area marked
Indicating a stereomicroscope, Hanaoka asked that I locate the facet on the tub tooth. I did. At low magnification the contact point looked like a small dark spot.
The SEM system wrapped one corner of the room. Cylinder tanks, CPUs, monitors, a couple of keyboards, a gaggle of gizmos whose function eluded me. I’ll admit, I was clueless as to which part was actually the scope.
We moved to the setup. There being one chair and two men, Hanaoka insisted I sit. Or maybe he feared I’d mess with his dials.
“Do you require high-quality photos?”
“For now I’d just like to see if there’s debris in the facet. If so, I want to know if that material is consistent with the material used in the other kid’s filling.”
“Very well. If you need high-quality images later we’ll coat the surface with evaporated carbon or sputtered gold.”
Hanaoka took what appeared to be clay, positioned the tub tooth on a little platform, and inserted it into a rectangular airlock.
“This is the vacuum chamber. The process should require but a minute.”
Once vacuum was attained, Hanaoka flipped a switch to activate the electron beam. An image appeared on one screen.
The facet now looked like the Thornton Quarry. Piled in its corners and crevices were what looked like stones and pebbles.
“Wow,” I said.
“Wow,” Miller said.
Hanaoka beamed like a kid with a Kit-Kat.
After increasing magnification, Hanaoka used the screen image to focus the electron beam on a particularly impressive cluster of rocks. He continued speaking as he worked.
“I’m setting the spectrometer to collect characteristic X-rays emitting from the sample.”
When satisfied, Hanaoka indicated that I should roll my chair to a monitor at the far end of the setup. Miller clicked along behind.
A landscape materialized, green underbrush with three narrow pines spiking skyward. A two-letter code identified each tree.
“Ytterbium. Aluminum. Silicon. Does the combination mean anything to you?”
I shook my head, confused. I wasn’t a dentist, but I knew something about amalgams. I’d expected very different elements.
“That’s the spectrum for the material in the facet. I’ll make a copy for you.” Hanaoka hit a button and a printer whirred to life. “Now, on to the filling.”
Hanaoka removed the tub tooth from the airlock, inserted the Lac Saint-Jean tooth, and repeated the process.
Moments later a second landscape filled the screen.
“Wow,” Miller said.
“Holy shit,” I said.
38
THE SECOND LANDSCAPE WAS IDENTICAL TO THE FIRST.
The material in the filling was consistent with the debris in the facet. And unusual. That suggested that the tub tooth and the Lac Saint-Jean tooth erupted side by side in one child’s mouth.
Sonovabitch!
