Death Mask (6 page)

***

During lunchtime that same afternoon, Finn was sitting at his desk nursing an egg salad sandwich when the phone rang.

“Hello, Detective Winters speaking.”

“Hi Finn, this is James, from Research. I thought you had a challenge for me instead of an eighth grade book report.”

“That’s music to my ears buddy, lay it on me.”

“Both the clown suit and the medical instruments are dated somewhere around the turn-of-the-century, making them fairly easy to research from a data standpoint.

“Good news, again. Right?” Finn asked.

“Yes, it is. First, the clown suit’s design pattern was popular starting in the 1890’s, or so, and was commonly used in circus acts, particularly in and around the New York area and, to a lesser degree, the New England states. The Internet and multiple library references are plastered full of comparable pictures and data clips. The medical tools were a little harder to place, but their unique hook shaped handles and cross diamond pattern places them, and their distributing company, in London, England, around the mid to late 1800’s. Remarkably, several sets of the similar instruments are still held in private collections by affluent collectors.”

“Thanks, James. I knew I picked the right man for the job. I’ll return the favor soon, but listen.”

Finn cupped his hand over the phone and quietly filled James in on the Lieutenant’s current view of pro-active involvement in the Death Mask case.

“Understood,” James said. “Your secret is safe with me.”

***

Andria was surprised when she saw Finn entering the front doors of the museum without having called first.

“Finn, what are you doing here?” She asked.

“I’ve got the low-down from the research department. Follow me to our “private room” and I’ll fill you in.”

Once they were both inside, Finn closed the door and posed a perplexing question to Andria. “What does a Death Mask, a New York circus clown and European medical instruments made around the turn of the century, all have in common?”

Andria returned a blank stare.
Is this a trick question?
“I don’t know?” she finally said.

“Me either, but that’s the information we’ve got to work with.”

“This is coming from your research guy down at work?” she asked.

“Yes. And to be honest, until a couple of days ago, I wasn’t sure what to believe about any of this. My best odds for a solution were still on an ill-timed hallucination or holographic joke from one of your colleagues. But now, since I’ve seen and heard that spooky thing speak with my own eyes and ears, I’ve got no choice but to believe. This new information does nothing but make the mystery more enticing.”

“Did you say a New York circus clown?” Andria asked.

“Yes. Evidently in the 1890’s, New York and several adjoining states had a popular circus tour. The style costume we uncovered from the crate was commonly used by its clowns.”

“Who knew, right?” Andria remarked.

“Right. And why would one of those costumes be wrapped around medical tools and buried beneath a couple of feet of sand…with a Death Mask?” Finn asked.

“Well, the medical tools seem like a more common keepsake or family heirloom to be handed down from previous generations, especially a family of doctors, so maybe our focus should start with the more unique artifact: the clown costume,” Andria said.

“My thoughts exactly, so before I came over I checked the 1890 and 1900 New York City archived census records for men with circus clown occupations then bumped that information against death certificate records for the same time period.”

“And?”

“And I came up with one name—John Piperr.”

Andria’s eyes went wide. “You’re kidding,” she said.

“Nope. I even know the cemetery where he was buried.”

“That’s incredible! What else do we know about this, John Piperr?”

“Unfortunately, there’s not much else to know. Apparently, there’s no record of him anywhere until he shows up on the 1890 census. There is no birth certificate, no baptism, no marriage certificate…nothing. Granted, that type of anonymity and secretiveness is odd…and suspicious, but it makes the fact that he may have had a death mask prepared even more perplexing.”

“Which, I’m guessing leads our next focus to the medical tools.”

“Right,” Finn said. “I was in too much of a hurry to get over here with this information to delve into them, but they’re number one on the radar now.”

“What do you need from me?” Andria offered.

“Not sure yet, but now that we have something specific to focus on, maybe you could go back through the paperwork at the museum one more time to see if anything pops out at you until I can come up with a better lead. Armed with this new information, there may be a connection between the two that we simply didn’t see before. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

Chapter 14

This time it was Andria who was awakened out of a dead sleep by the chirping sound of a cell phone. Upon hearing the familiar sound, she instinctively rolled onto her side and haphazardly rummaged her bedside table. After a couple of tries she located the phone, clicked the talk button and placed the device to her ear. “Hello,” she said, still half asleep.

It was Mr. Gaines and he was frantic.

“Andria! You must go to the museum immediately.”

“What?” she said, sitting bolt right up in the bed. “What’s happened?”

“It’s the mask. I got a desperate phone call from the security night guard. I barely calmed him down enough to understand him, but the gist was that something horrific was going on down at the museum, again.”

“Don’t worry, sir. I’m on my way. I’ll let you know what I find as soon as I get there.”

“Thank you dear. Please hurry!”

***

Andria was out the door in two minutes and on the phone to Finn in three. After a short conversation they consented to meet in front of the museum then go inside together.

Andria arrived first. She slammed her vehicle into park and made a beeline for the front door. Although she had no intention of entering the building without Finn, she hoped a peek through the glass might reveal a hint as to what was going on. It revealed nothing.

Finn trailed less than ten minutes behind. When he reached the museum’s parking lot he slid to a stop, tires screeching, into the first empty parking space then bolted from his vehicle to meet Andria by the front door.

“Any sign of the security guard?” Finn asked, breathing hard.

“Not yet.”

“How about anything suspicious?”

“Nope,” Andria said, shaking her head.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

Once inside the museum, they beat a speedy path down the corridor. Again, it was Finn that took the lead. Halfway down the hallway Andria was breathing hard but mustered a warning to Finn. “Please be careful. I’m not sure what we’re going to find in there.”

He heard her, but didn’t bother to acknowledge.

When Finn got to within a hundred feet of the door he slowed and stopped to wait on Andria. Without his self-created commotion to distract him, he instantly heard the unmistakable sound of crying…no, not crying…sobbing coming from the mask’s room.

Andria was out nearly of breath when she made it to where Finn stood. She bent over, put her hands on her knees and took several deep breaths. The oxygen burned when it first rushed into her lungs but did its job to slow her heart rate. After a few seconds, she stood up straight and readied herself to continue. That’s when she too caught the sound of sobbing. She squinted her eyebrows together and looked at Finn. He had the same confused look and whispered, “I hear it too.”

Her heart pumped faster, again.

Finn drew his service pistol and pointed down the hall toward the Death Mask room then waved her on, signaling for her to follow.

They entered the room in a staggered formation led by Finn’s pointed gun. Inside the room was the horrific sight of the security guard, face down in a puddle of blood, in front of the mask’s pedestal. Andria instinctually let out a startled scream.

“Oh my Lord, what could have happened to him?” Andria blurted out.

“I’m not sure,” Finn said. “But my first guess would be that it has something to do with that mask. Use your phone to call 911.”

“What?” Andria asked, leaning her back against the wall for support.

“Use your cell phone to call 911. Now!” Finn barked.

Finn knew how shock affected some people and watched her for a few seconds to make sure she had mentally registered his command. When she pulled her phone from her pocket and began dialing he turned his attention to the dead man. He approached the gory scene with caution, being careful not to destroy any signs of evidence. The incessant crying had stopped amid the confusion and was now more of a low audible whimper. Moving closer to the dead body, Finn discovered the origin of the sobs—it was the mask. Finn had been so distracted by the bloody scene on the floor that he’d failed to notice the mask at all. Upon closer investigation, a steady stream of clear liquid ran down the sides of the pedestal and had collected in a puddle at its base.

Is that a puddle of tears? Finn wondered. If so, how long had the mask been crying to create such a puddle? And were they tears of remorse over the dead man or something else?

Finn glanced at Andria. She was still on the phone with 911. “Yes,” she said. “We need help at the Museum of Curiosities. There’s been an accident involving the night guard. He appears to be dead…all right. Yes, sir. Thank you.”

Andria hung up the phone and looked at Finn, who was already staring at her. He motioned a finger toward the puddle on the floor. She quickly nodded back, ticking her head upward as if encouraging him to once again lift the glass covering off the mask.

Finn swallowed hard and maneuvered his way around the night guard’s body to follow her bidding. When he lifted the glass, the mask didn’t disappoint. It immediately stopped sobbing and spat out another rhyming couplet:

“
Please, please release my soul,

Everything you need is buried in a hole.
”

Finn’s jaw went slack. “Release your soul?” he uttered.

“Yes,” the mask replied. “
Everything you need is buried in a hole.
”

“Like a grave?” Finn asked.

The mask tilted its weight forward then said:

“
Dry, dry bones are mine,

Try my bones and make a find.
”

“It’s a gravesite...
His
gravesite,” Finn said, excitedly. “That’s where we find the answers.”

A satisfied smile spread across the mask’s face and, as if on a repeating loop, it kept reciting the original couplet over and over:

“
Dry, dry bones are mine,

Try my bones and make a find.
”

“
Dry, dry bones are mine,

Try my bones and make a find.
”

Then suddenly the clear tears turned to blood. The crimson droplets first collected at the corners of the mask’s eyeholes then rolled, in smeared streaks, down its alabaster cheeks. The stark contrast of colors created an eerie image. Within seconds the red liquid also began trickling from its nose and the corners of its mouth.

Finn replaced the glass on top of the pedestal then calmly turned to Andria and asked, “Care to take another plane trip?”

“Where to?” Andria asked.

“
His
gravesite,” Finn said, pointing at the mask.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Andria said. “But first, we’re gonna need some sand to keep this thing quiet.”

***

Finn and Andria hung around to keep the area undisturbed until the paramedics and police arrived, but also to get some insight into what might have happened.

“Did you know him?” Finn asked.

“Yes,” Andria said. “His name was Juan Gonzales. He was from Ecuador. We occasionally spoke in passing or sometimes exchanged niceties in the break room. He was a really nice man.”

“I’m sorry you had to see him like that.”

“Thank you. It was upsetting, but I’ll be okay.”

“Even so, it’s a tough situation. Do you think with him being the night guard he would have seen anything suspicious these last couple of weeks that may have spurred this to happen?”

“Hmm. I hadn’t thought of that, but I guess if anyone were in position to experience anything weird related to the mask it would have been him. I could ask some of his peers to see if he’d told them anything or had been acting unusual. Come to think of it, he also has a locker on the museum’s premises to store personal items while he’s working. I could go through them to see if there’s anything that would help.”

“I’d say yes to both.”

After the crime scene was securely taped off, Andria went to her office leaving Finn and the others to do their jobs. When the opportunity was right Finn approached the on duty representative from the coroner’s office and flashed his badge.

“So, Mr. Mercer,” he asked, reading the name plate above the man’s uniform pocket. “Based on the position of the body, skin color and elasticity, blood loss, etc…what would you guess was the reason and time of death?”

“It’s hard to say without a thorough investigation, but the time of death looks to be pretty recent; probably less than six hours ago. As for the reason, that’s anyone’s guess. The only interesting things we’ve found so far are the look of extreme terror frozen on the deceased man’s face and a size 32oz. baseball bat confined underneath his body.”

The look of terror makes perfect sense, Finn thought, but a baseball bat? Now that’s weird.

“Well, if you had to venture a guess, off the record of course, what would it be?” Finn pressed.

“My initial thought, upon seeing the crime scene, was some sort of lacerations or extreme puncture trauma, but we’ve found no external wounds thus far, at least obvious ones. That only leaves interior hemorrhaging. That usually comes from blunt force trauma, but again, we’ve found nothing of the sort. Still, assuming all that blood is his, it’s an excessive amount for just one person based on my experience.”