Part 6 (2/2)
After a few minutes, Mara opened her mouth, about to fill the uncomfortable silence, when her mother placed a hand on her arm and lifted a finger to her lips.
Seconds later Ned opened his eyes. ”If you'll let me take the piece, I can work on it in the morning, maybe have it ready Monday evening. The copper should clean up easily. The little crystals appear to be azurite. It looks like all but one of those were oxidized in the fire. They will have to be replaced if you want to restore it. The center stone, the sunstone, should polish up okay. I have some azurite I can cut to match these and then set the replacements. It shouldn't be that difficult to fix this up and make it look new,” he said, starting to add something but stopped himself.
”What is it?” Diana asked.
”I don't know. I feel oddly awestruck by this object, like it's too significant for me to be fiddling with. Sorta like how I would feel if you gave me a bucket of paint and asked me to restore the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Isn't that strange?”
”I'd suggest you take it with you and sleep on it,” Diana said. ”If you have concerns in the morning, you can let us know. You think that would work, Mara?”
”Of course. Any help is appreciated.”
CHAPTER 10.
BOHANNON DIDN'T UNDERSTAND what the big deal was. The guy sat on the floor, next to a chrome table, crouched over a white ball, rocking back and forth. He, Suter and two doctors, one older and one younger, looked through a window into what seemed to be an examination room at Westside Hospital, all white tile and silver fixtures.
Suter looked at each of the doctors and said, ”I understand you have a problem with a...” He checked his notebook. ”Mr. Peter Newsome. What I don't understand is why you called the police.”
”You see that thing he's hugging?” the younger doctor asked.
”Yeah.”
”That came out of him.”
”What?”
”It came out of him. We think it's an egg or something. He took off his pants, squatted down and laid it, right there in that room.”
Bohannon started to laugh but caught himself when he realized the doctors weren't joking. He glanced over at Suter, who rolled an eye and looked at the floor. To Bohannon, the FBI agent seemed more inconvenienced than surprised.
”Okay, I'm still not sure what I can do to help,” Suter said. ”You're the doctors. Examine him and see what's wrong.”
”He won't let us near him, or, I should say, he won't let us near it. He appears to be highly protective of it and quite dangerous,” the older doctor said. ”See that examination table leg there?” He pointed into the room at the metal table behind Newsome. The indicated leg had melted, the wall behind it burned. ”He spat at me, and his saliva did that. It melted the metal, as if it was splashed with a highly corrosive acid.”
”Can't you give him a sedative or something?”
”We can't risk sending someone in there. He could blind or even kill someone if he spits on them.”
A twitch fluttered under Suter's eye. He rubbed it with a finger. ”What do you want us to do?”
”If you guys can subdue him somehow, we'll give him something to knock him out.”
”I'm not going in there,” Suter said, looking at Bohannon, who also shook his head.
”We could call animal control. They might be able to shoot him with a tranquilizer gun,” Bohannon said. ”I'm not sure how willing they would be to do it.”
”If they have an empty dart, we could probably fill it with something more appropriate for a human,” the younger doctor said.
It took forty-five minutes to get someone at animal control on the phone and another twenty to convince them that the call was not a joke. The a.s.sistant superintendent agreed to send someone over but only under the condition that both a law enforcement officer and a doctor sign a release stipulating they had authorized the shooting of a person with a tranquilizer gun.
Half an hour later, a burly man in an animal control uniform arrived at the hospital with a light rifle and a doc.u.ment needing signatures. Suter and the older doctor signed the doc.u.ment while the younger doctor filled the dart.
”You know, it doesn't matter how many pieces of paper you guys sign. If it gets out that I shot a dart into a guy in the hospital, we're all going to the pokey. You guys know that, right?” the animal control man asked.
Everyone shrugged, nodded. He walked over to the door of the examination room, looked back at the other men for a final go-ahead, got a couple nods, cracked open the door and poked the rifle barrel into the room, trying not to expose himself. Without formally aiming the weapon, he pointed it in Newsome's general direction, pulled the trigger, withdrew and slammed the door closed.
A dart hit Newsome in the right shoulder.
He spewed a thick stream of spit across the room, striking the door. The trail of saliva smoldered and sizzled as it oozed down to the floor. Newsome raised his face to the ceiling and screeched, rattling the window through which the men stared. The angry wail reminded Bohannon of a dinosaur's cry in Jura.s.sic Park.
The detective s.h.i.+vered.
”I hope what he's got ain't catching,” the animal control guy said on his way out.
Newsome hissed and whimpered, hugging the egg.
After two minutes, he slumped over.
”I want out,” Bohannon said as soon as they were on the road to the hangar.
”I don't understand.”
”The man laid an egg, dude. I want out of this weird-a.s.s case. What these people are going through isn't the result of a plane crash. That's for d.a.m.n sure.”
”Calm down. We don't know it's an egg.”
”Who cares? It came out of him. That ain't right.”
”We don't even know if what's going on with Newsome is related to the accident. You're reading too much into this.”
”I'm calling my lieutenant as soon as I get done with you guys today.”
Suter turned crimson. ”You're not going anywhere. You're stuck with this case until it's done.”
As if someone had flipped a switch, sweat dripped down Suter's forehead, flew off his brow as his head twitched several times. His cheeks inflated, deflated. His jaw jutted out, looking nearly unhinged. He c.o.c.ked his head at a forty-five-degree angle, causing an audible bony crackle. He looked at Bohannon, gritted his teeth and said, ”You don't walk away from a case like this. We will ruin you. If you dump on us, you can kiss that s.h.i.+ny new badge good-bye, Detective.”
They drove in silence for fifteen minutes.
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