“No, sir, Johnny. I called you right away. I wouldn't touch it. Still not sure what made this thing start beeping.” He motions toward the metal detector lying on its side in the sand. “It's Bill's. Bill Baiocchi's. You know him, Johnny. From the Treasure Hunter club. He let me borrow it. It's a CZ-20.”
Ceepak nods.
“The CZ-20 is an all-weather detector,” he says. “It's leak-proof to a depth of two hundred and fifty feet, with electronics able to ignore the destabilizing effects of saltwater, making it ideal for working a wet, sandy beach.”
“That's just what Bill said. But what made it start beeping?”
Ceepak grimaces.
“Uncertain.”
The thing in the hole looks like a salad bowl. An old-fashioned Tupperware container like my mother used to have.
Ceepak carefully pries off the lid.
Now we see what might be a soccer ball wrapped in newspaper. Ceepak reaches into one of his many pockets and draws out his forceps. He uses it to work open the sheet of newsprint, which is still dry, thanks to Mr. Tupper's famous watertight seal. He peels back the paper like you'd work open a head of lettuce.
“The
He splays open the paper. Unwraps the top of the package.
It's not a soccer ball.
It's a human skull.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
I still don't understand,” says Cap'n Pete. “If it's a skull, nothing but bone, what set off the detector?”
Ceepak points to the jawbone. “I suspect that several of these teeth have fillings. Metal fillings.”
“This is horrible,” says Cap'n Pete.
A human skull wrapped in the Sports section from a twenty-eight year-old newspaper, then packed into a re-sealable salad bowl and buried three feet deep on the beach? You ask me, that's
Ceepak looks solemn.
We're about thirty feet up from the high tide line, close to the sea grass and rolled-out fencing. Fortunately, we're so far up from the ocean, no kid ever thought about building his castle on this patch of sand.
“Danny? Hold open the bag.”
He clamps onto the skull with his forceps, gripping it snugly.
I hold open one of the brown paper grocery sacks we always keep stowed in the back of the Explorer. Ceepak says paper bags are better for evidence storage; they don't sweat like plastic. The bag boys at Acme let me take as many as I want. They even gave me a stack of those double-insulated ice cream bags you don't see too much anymore.
“Danny? Focus.”
Ceepak is tonging the cranium like I've seen Homer Simpson do with a rod of radioactive uranium. Only Ceepak is much more careful. When he lowers the skull into my bag, I wince to feel its weight.
Next he uses the forceps to lift out the sheet of newsprint. It's stained. I figure dried blood. Maybe worse.
I hold open another bag to take it from him. I'm sure it's loaded with clues. Maybe DNA.
“What's that?” says Cap'n Pete.
Taking out the newspaper revealed something shiny on the bottom of the Tupperware bowl.
“Plastic baggie. Fold-down top.” Ceepak's speech patterns get clipped when things get serious. “Note card inside. Typed message. Folded paper behind note card.”
Ceepak sinks back on his haunches. He's thinking.
Cap'n Pete crouches down for a closer look.
“Captain Pete?”
“Yes, Johnny?”
“This area is about to become a very major crime scene.” This is what he's thinking about.
“Yes. I imagine it might … what with the skull and now what looks like a secret message sealed inside a plastic bag….”
“I anticipate an influx of forensic personnel from the County and State Police. Possibly the FBI.”
“Oh, yes. Of course. They'll be interested in this, that's for sure. The FBI.”
“We might be better able to perform our tasks if you were to vacate this area and return to your fishing vessel.”
“I see. Yes. Of course. You're right. Besides, I have my morning charter. Mustn't keep them waiting. They paid in advance, you know. Cash. Let me grab Bill's metal detector….”
Ceepak holds up his hand.
“Let's leave it here. We might have further use for a CZ-20.”
“Oh. Okay. But what'll I tell Bill?”
“That I will bring him his metal detector. Possibly this evening. I'm sure he'll understand. We'll also want to talk to you again.”
“Me?”
“We'll need to take a more formal statement.”
“Yes. I see. Very good, Johnny. Of course. I'll be back at the dock by noon and I don't think I head out again until two … unless of course there's walk-in traffic … sometimes I get walk-ins … no reservations….”
“We might not get to you today, Pete.”
“No. Doesn't have to be. Not today. No, sir. Whatever's good for you, Johnny. I'm flexible. Schedule's wide open….”
“Thank you. We appreciate your assistance and cooperation.”
“See you later, Pete,” I say.
“Yes. Of course. See you later, Danny.”
The guy won't leave. He leans over, takes another peek into the hole.
“Pete?” Ceepak is losing his patience, but not his courtesy. Not yet.
“Right. See you later. When you come to take my statement. We'll talk then. Should I jot down some notes? Just to make certain I remember everything? While it's still fresh. Are notes allowed?”
“Good idea. Write everything down. Do it now. And please-for the time being, do not tell anyone else what you discovered. Not even your wife or sons.”
“Of course not. Won't breathe a word. Sorry to have … you know … ruined your day.”
“We'll be fine, Pete.”
Pete does a quick sign-of-the-cross. Head, heart, chest, chest. Turns. Walks away.
Ceepak waits until he is absolutely certain Pete has crested the dune and is on his way down to the street.
“Danny? Camera.”
I hand him the digital.
Ceepak snaps a half-dozen shots of the plastic bag resting at the bottom of the bowl.
“I am now going to remove the bag from the bowl.”
I just nod. Ceepak sounds like he's narrating brain surgery for the first-year students up in the cheap seats of one of those operating rooms they always have on doctor shows.
He pulls out tweezers from another pants pocket.
“Inspecting first item. Typewritten note on 3-by-5 ruled index card.”
He holds the note card with his tweezers in one hand, fishes out his magnifying glass.
