Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [506]
“Whatever you want. That’s your call.”
“I never said—” But Stolz stopped as a mass of black flies swarmed out the small opening of the barrel. “What the hell?”
“Son of a bitch.” Watermeier took a step back.
Bonzado hesitated for a second, then slammed the lid back down. “We should probably collect a few of these, right?” He looked to Maggie and then to Carl, who was already searching for a container.
“Ramona and Simon, could you give Carl a hand?”
The woman practically jumped to Carl’s side, but Simon stood there as if he hadn’t heard Bonzado.
“Simon?”
“Yeah, okay.”
Maggie watched him set the trowel and camera down so slowly it seemed as if in slow motion. Perhaps Bonzado was expecting a bit much from his students, who had imagined their careers examining clean, fleshless bones in sterile, warm and dry laboratories.
Bonzado pried at the lid again and this time Carl and Ramona held the opposite corners of a makeshift net and caught several flies. Simon held the wide-mouth container for them to shake the flies into, slapping the lid on quickly. He handed the container back to Carl and returned to his previous stance, trowel back in one hand, camera in the other.
Now Bonzado proceeded, ignoring the rest of the flies. Finally, the lid came loose, thumping to the ground. More flies were freed and so was the smell, a sour pungent odor like rotten-egg gas. Maggie watched Joe and one of Henry’s deputies hurry away. Joe didn’t make it to the trees before he began retching. Even Watermeier and Carl backed away, the sheriff’s hat now over his nose.
“Holy fucking crap,” Watermeier said, his words muffled through his hat.
Maggie climbed onto the rocks, putting some space between herself and the smell, while attempting a look down into the barrel. “Anyone have a flashlight?”
Pry bar now tossed aside, Bonzado shuffled through his toolbox, setting metal clanking. Maggie couldn’t help wondering if it was to distract attention from his nervousness. But when he reached up to hand her the penlight, she realized his sudden clumsiness was no disguise. His hand was perfectly still and he had no trouble meeting her eyes.
“How the hell would flies get inside?” Watermeier asked. “That barrel was sealed good and tight. Did they squeeze through the crack?”
“Possibly,” Maggie said. “It’s also possible the body was exposed to the elements for a while before it was stuffed inside the barrel.” Maggie shot the penlight into the black hole and wished she could see more than the spots of lights. The afternoon sun cast shadows that didn’t help matters. Swaying branches overhead created dancing shadows that almost made it look like there was movement down inside the barrel.
“But they couldn’t have lasted that long,” Watermeier insisted.
“They would have laid their larvae,” Maggie said while concentrating on the spots of light showing pieces of torn fabric, a tangle of hair, maybe a shoe.
“Blowflies are pretty quick and efficient,” Bonzado joined in. “They can sense blood from up to three miles away and be on a body before it’s even cooled, sometimes before it’s dead.”
Maggie checked faces, but the pallor from moments ago was gone, no one wincing at the gruesome details the professor described. In fact, now everyone seemed ready.
“This one’s gonna be a mess,” Bonzado said, using another flashlight to take a look for himself into the barrel. “Lots of tissue already gone.”
“Wonderful,” Stolz said, slipping on his jacket against a breeze that suddenly came out of nowhere. Despite his insistence to open the barrels and make certain they did, indeed, contain bodies, he made no attempt to look for himself. “Let’s load it up.”
“This is interesting,” Bonzado said, still examining the contents. “The back is facing up—at least I think it’s the back. There’s a strange pattern on the skin.”
“You mean a tattoo?” Stolz became interested and Maggie came in for a look, too.
Bonzado’s