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"Are you sure?"
"Yes ... I think so ... I don't ... I don't know, I don't remember."
"Did you destroy the plastic?"
Harry nodded, then put his hands behind his back and started looking at his shoes, waiting for the well-deserved reproach.
"But why ..." his father simply asked him.
"They tricked you, that model is fake. The Room of the Sun and that of Knowledge in the Sphinx are missing, and then the Chamber of the Zed is missing in the pyramid of Cheops »Harry explained to him leaving him for the umpteenth time with his mouth open. James appealed to all his inner strengths to be able to not lose patience, in a few hours his son had made him take a series of terrible fears as well as having destroyed a pair of two-hundred-dollar glasses and a three-hundred-dollar model without count the fishing rod still to be recovered. He waited a few moments; when he was sure he would be able to support the rest of the conversation without exploding, he asked him the question.
"But how can you say that?"
"I ... I know it and that's it!" Harry answered with a hint of presumption in his voice, then looked again at the confusion that reigned in the bedroom and made a displeased expression. "Dad, what's going on?" He stammered, running to take refuge in his arms for protection, and James felt helpless.
"Sorry I'm late," Larry said as he entered Helen's office. He was gasping and his belly still bobbed because of the run. He had a hem of his shirt out of his pants and was sweating profusely. Helen replied with a shrug, continuing to scratch her little finger, he wiped his neck with a handkerchief and adjusted his thinning hair in a kind of comb-over.
"Hey, what happened to your finger?" He then asked troubled, now the first phalanx was almost completely peeled and the outer surface was so livid that it seemed as if it would begin to crumble any minute now.
"I have no idea, but it's nothing serious... I think it's mycosis or psoriasis caused by stress or something like that. It started to bother me last night," she replied nervously. She was full of problems, but all of them seemed to notice only his stupid finger.
"It will be as you say a small thing, but in your place, I would put a plaster on it. This environment is very dusty and it certainly won't help you heal."
"Thanks for the advice, I'll do it later."
"Well. Why did you call me?"
"You'll see it in a minute, I hope you haven't had lunch or that you've already digested it," she said standing up.
"I don't understand," said Larry, perplexed.
"We're going to take some samples from a couple of fresh autopsy corpses," Helen explained to him as she started walking down the hallway leading to the morgue.
"Wait a minute," the chemist replied, stopping in the middle of the corridor.
"You know that for these matters we need the authorization of the judge, right?" He said taking advantage of the pause to take off his shirt, although the air conditioning was at full power, he had not yet managed to stop sweating and the fabric was annoyingly stuck to the skin. Helen nodded.
"And if the corpses are fresh from the autopsy that authorization you haven't got yet, isn't it?" He insisted. From behind the glass door of the office, Joe, who was struggling with his computer research, leaned forward to look at them. Apparently, Larry had spoken too loudly, Helen looked sheepishly at Joe and he replied with a half-smile and then turned back to his stuff. Helen took Larry by the arm and dragged him to a corner where no one would see or hear them.
"Those corpses have something strange, probably that something is the only clue we have about their death and I am convinced that you are the only person who can figure it out."
"Are you crazy? Have you forgotten that I work in a paper mill?"
"And have you forgotten that this is not the first time you are consulting us?"
"You're right," he agreed, "but I've never seen a dead body so close. It would be better if you entrusted yourself to a professional ... and then you could at least wait for the judge's authorization, what's all this haste?"
"I fear the clue may vanish before the sheets are ready ..."
"But, what's it about?"
"You'll see it with your own eyes."
"What if someone finds it out?"
"I will take all the responsibility."
"Does this mean I will work for free?" Larry guessed slightly disappointed. Helen replied with a forced smile and he looked at her indecisively. "All right," he said after a moment, continuing to walk, "but I only do it because you're my favorite sheriff!"
Helen made him sit in an empty room next to the morgue and went to make sure no one was there, then went back to call him and when they were inside she bolted the door from inside.
"Is it really necessary?" The man asked uncertainly.
"It's better if nobody knows we're here," she said, and Larry nodded unconvinced.
"You will not like what you see," she told him to prepare him, arriving in front of the cold rooms.
"Don't worry, my stomach has never betrayed me," he assured her, hoping that it wouldn't be the first time. "But let's see to hurry, I don't like this place," he added. Helen took the drawers that contained the corpses out of the cold room and removed the sheets, fixing Larry's eyes.
"My God, what reduced them like that?" He exclaimed turning to look somewhere else and instinctively taking a step back.
"What do you mean?" Helen asked, turning, and seeing the dead bodies she let out a groan. The two corpses were in the process of mummification, their faces were already dug by very deep furrows and their orbits seemed almost empty, the bones protruded overwhelmingly from beneath the skin throughout the body and the stitches of the "Y" incision on the chests were completely loose.
"There are two options, or this is a nightmare or I'm just going crazy," she murmured.
"What the hell ...?" The chemist said as soon as he caught his breath.
"I don't know ... they've been dead for two days and now it seems like a few decades have gone by. There is not a single minute to lose, "she replied, reaching for the electric panel.
"Wait, what are you going to do? I do not..."
"I have to turn off the lights."
"Are you kidding? Do you want me to shit myself?"
"It's the only way I have to show you what I have to, but I can't force you. If you don't feel up to it, we'll leave right away, I didn't expect to find this situation," she said discouraged.
Larry thought about it for a moment. "Do what you have to do, but do it as quickly as you can, I can't wait to get out of here!"
"Me too," she replied, hastening to turn off the light and, although much less intense than a few hours before, the corpses immediately began to shine.
"Do you see it?" Helen asked him, raising the switch.
"Of course I see it ... but what is it?"
"I was hoping you would tell me. Certainly, it is not radiation, it is a kind of very fine and adherent powder. That's the thing you'll have to analyze," she said, pulling a nylon bag and a pair of scissors from a pocket. "Forgive me, I'm doing this for you," she murmured approaching their bodies; she cut a few strands of hair and put them in the bag with trembling hands, then handed them to the chemist. "You have to get to work right away, the glow is already much less intense than this morning and I hope it won't disappear completely right now," he said. Larry chewed his lips in puzzlement, he had no idea what he could get out of it. "Then I have to run home and get to work right away," he replied, checking that the zipper on the bag was tightly closed and walking towards the exit.
"Larry," Helen said after she closed the door.
"Yes?" He replied annoyed, like to say: "what else now?"
"Thank you."
As soon as she returned to the office, Helen dialed the doctor's phone number. "You have to run here right now," she said without even saying goodbye as she heard the receiver pick up.
"You are out of your mind, today I've already done so many miles that I became Shell's shareholder ... what the hell happened?" He replied.
"I ... I don't know how to tell you, I'm afraid you think I'm crazy!"
"After the outburst you had this morning, there is no doubt about it. Come on, spit it out, I'm busy and I can't stay on the phone all day," he informed her.
"Fine! Is there a logical explanation to the fact those two dead bodies are already mummifying?" She then asked. The coroner took a few moments of silence and Helen feared he was about to shoot one of his usual, stupid jokes.
"Of course I do!" He answered confidently, confusing her.
"...Really?" She hesitated.
"I am sure, indeed, I am absolutely sure ... the explanation is that we are in the middle of an episode of X Files" he confirmed with his usual irony, provoking a tide of anger that she kept for herself thinking "I knew it!".
"I'm serious," she told him frustrated.
"Whether you're joking or not it doesn't change so much, now I don't have the chance, and honestly I don't even want to ride for three hours in the car to come and see it. I promise that I will be there the morning after tomorrow, when we will also have the results of the toxicological exam."
"The day after tomorrow? But it's an eternity!"
"I know, but I'm not just following your case ... I'm really sorry," he replied. Helen told herself that in two days, going ahead at that speed, corpses would remain nothing but dust. On the other hand, even if the coroner came back and found that a mummification process was in progress, without the lab reports and the results of the analyzes written by Larry, they would still not know what to do.
"All right, I'll wait for the day after tomorrow. But don't blow it off, I don't know where to hit the head anymore."
"You can count on me, I'm dying from curiosity," he assured her, using a tone that once again didn't convince her at all.
"Mom's coming!" Harry said happily as he heard Eve's car roar. Immediately after he ran out because he had a mad desire to hug her and show her the new glasses and the model. And then he wanted to make peace with Toby and play with him as always. James looked out on the patio, Harry reached Eve and dived into her arms, then peered inside the car without being able to see his beloved dog.
"Mom, where is Toby?" He asked, moving away from Eve, she put her hands on his shoulders and bent to look him straight in the eye to prepare him for the news. "Love, a very bad thing happened to Toby ..."
"Where is Toby? I want Toby! Where's my Toby?" Harry began repeating around Eve's Voyager, she chased him and grabbed him by his shoulders again. "Love you must be strong," she whispered in his ear.
"What did you do to him? He didn't bite me on purpose, he didn't bite me on purpose! Why did you hurt him, he didn't bite me on purpose!"
"Honey, I didn't hurt him! When we left the clinic he ran to the middle of the road chasing a cat, and a car could not stop in time ... it hit him," Eve explained to him, but Harry shook his head struggling to repel the tears.
"I don't believe you!" He shouted, showing his fists.
"Harry ... honey ..." the woman tried to calm him.
"Leave me alone!" Harry repeated, then ran into the house and went to lock himself in his room. Eve and James followed him up the stairs and waited ten good minutes at the door calling him, but he didn't show up.
"He's able to stay in there for two days, it's better if we go back downstairs," suggested Eve to James. She went down to the kitchen and started fumbling with the microwave to warm up the dinner. James remained still for a while, leaning against the handrail, staring at the door of Harry's bedroom with his arms folded, then decided to join her.
"What happened to Toby?" He asked, helping her set the table.
"I've already told you, he ran in the middle of the road and ended up under a passing car, the driver couldn't brake in time. Luckily no other cars passed by, otherwise, someone would have been hurt."
"It shouldn't happen," said James. "But even if it is ugly to say, I must admit that after his behavior of last night I feel almost relieved because this incident has taken away from us a big problem," he added, ashamed of himself for his petty statement.
"Yeah," she agreed, continuing to slice the tomatoes.
"But you should have brought him home, didn't you think Harry wanted to bury him here in our garden?"
"Of course I thought about it, but if I had brought him back, Harry would have liked to see him and it wasn't really the case ... that poor beast was torn to shreds," Eve replied without turning around. "He said he would think about it ..." She added, but cut off short the sentence there because she did not want to discuss it again.
"Let me guess ... Dr. Parker, isn't it?"
"That's right," she replied, ignoring his provocation, then placed the tray with the chicken nuggets and chips on the table. She distributed them in three plates and covered Harry's with another upside-down plate, then sat down and began to eat. James drowned the fries in the ketchup and began fiddling with a fork against a croquette, continuing to turn it over thoughtfully without putting anything in his mouth.
"Don't you eat?"
"A lot of strange things happened around here today," he informed her.
"For example?"
James told her about the helicopter and Harry's crisis, about the bleeding and the strange movements in the woods, about the dart that made him lose consciousness and finally about the pranotherapy his son had given him, but all the time Eve continued looking at him skeptically.
"You do not believe me? Look here, I still have the sign," he said, turning to show his neck.
"In my opinion, your poisoned dart seems only the sting of an insect, there is still the sting," Eve minimized. "Wait till I take it off, stand still for a moment ... that's it," she said. James groaned because of the pinch, then looked at Eve undecided whether to be happy or upset because all his assumptions had been dismantled piece by piece within a minute. No one came to his home to kidnap his son, no one shut him a narcotic dart.
"You're still shaken by what happened to Harry," suggested Eve.
"Oh yes? And what about our son's behavior?"
"And what's so strange about him?"
"What's strange about him? I felt he was not alone in his room, that he was talking to someone. You know he never opens the window because he is afraid of spiders, and instead I found it completely wide open. And then my headache ... "
"Suggestion," she said. Immediately after she gave him a tender look as she hadn't done for a long time, she shook her head slightly and dropped the fork on the plate to caress the back of his hand. He was confused by her attitude, but he returned her affectionate gaze anyway. Although sometimes it seemed that it was the entire Chinese Wall that divided them, Eve still needed so little to take hold of him. He saw that she was going to speak and he arranged to listen to her.
"What happened yesterday proved to us all, much more than we thought."
"You mean I'm ranting?"
"No, I just want to say that maybe we need a little break-off. We could try to spend next weekend out together, maybe it could help us forget more quickly what happened."
James looked at her more and more astonished because in the last few years she had always shown herself reluctant to leave the narrow margins of the country, and even on the rare occasions that they had planned something, an unexpected last-minute event had always occurred forcing them to give up. And often the unexpected had something to do with her work or even with Dr. Parker himself. Those facts, along with so many other small signs, had almost led him to suspect that she had some particular reason to be holed up in that anonymous town, so much that she sabotages their holidays.
"I have no intention of forgetting, I want to understand," he pointed out with his usual air, abruptly changing his expression. "I want to understand why our son seemed to have become another person, and if necessary I want someone to visit him."
"Oh yes? And who would be to visit him, maybe an exorcist?" She taunted him, her sarcasm broke in an instant the idyll that James created in his mind.
