?Pardon??
I repeated what I?d said, asking Claudel to pass the word along to Pierre LaManche when he called the morgue. There would be nothing for the archaeologists this time.
I returned the mike to Groulx, who?d been listening to every word. I reminded him to get a full report from the two workers. He looked like a man who?d just been sentenced to ten to twenty. He knew he wouldn?t be going anywhere for some time. I wasn?t terribly sympathetic. I wouldn?t be sleeping in Quebec City this weekend. In fact, as I drove the few short blocks to my condo, I suspected that no one would be sleeping much for a long time. As things turned out, I was right. What I couldn?t know then was the full extent of the horror we were about to face.
2
THE NEXT DAY BEGAN AS WARM AND SUNNY AS ITS PREDECESSOR, A fact that would normally draw me into high spirits. I am a woman whose moods are influenced by the weather, my outlook rising and falling with the barometer. But that day the weather would be irrelevant. By 9 A.M. I was already in autopsy room 4, the smallest of the suites at the Laboratoire de M #233;decine L #233;gale, and one that is specially outfitted for extra ventilation. I often work here since most of my cases are less than perfectly preserved. But it?s never fully effective. Nothing is. The fans and disinfectants never quite win over the smell of ripened death. The antiseptic gleam of the stainless steel never really eradicates the images of human carnage.
The remains recovered at Le Grand S #233;minaire definitely qualified for room 4. After a quick dinner the previous evening, I?d gone back to the grounds and we?d processed the site. The bones were at the morgue by 9:30 P.M. Now they lay in a body bag on a gurney to my right. Case #26704 had been discussed at the morning staff meeting. Following standard procedure, the body had been assigned to one of the five pathologists working at the lab. Since the corpse was largely skeletonized, the little soft tissue that remained far too decomposed for standard autopsy, my expertise was requested.