He nodded. “In my past, I did a lot of necropsies on marine life. Not just mammals. Sharks. I was with a company that did all kinds of work on sharks. They rarely get sick, and cancer is especially rare. Ely thinks—and I tend to agree with him—that research into the shark immune system will transform medicine.”
“But you were with Blackwood and Martinez, too,” Lara reminded him.
He nodded. “Taggerly is encouraging the others to invest in this new line of research with him. I guess he figured he’d wow us all at once—them with predictions of huge profits and me with the huge salary he offered—and we’d all fall into line.”
“But you really didn’t accept?” Lara asked.
He stared at her, irritated. “If I’d accepted, I’d have turned in my resignation already.”
“Was the salary really that huge?” she asked.
“My God, you’re nosy. Must be from hanging around with the FBI all day,” he muttered.
He looked at her squarely. “I have to admit, I was tempted. But I’ve had jobs in that kind of research before. I’ve analyzed enzymes, cells, brains, blood systems... I’ve tried to measure the effects of naturally occurring chemicals, how certain animals live so long, why others die so young. Truth is, I like it here. I like Grady. I love the dolphins and all our other animals. But the dolphins most of all. Their intelligence is virtually unmatched in the animal kingdom, and yet they still love interacting with people. Look at how much Cocoa loves to work with you! It’s fascinating. So yes, I turned down the job. And I never said anything to anyone here because I turned it down. I’m here, and I’m staying here. Poor but happy, instead of rich but miserable.”
Lara smiled at him. “That’s great,” she said.
“Poor is great?”
“As long as it comes with happy,” she said. She stood, hesitated, then said, “And by the way, I’m sorry for being so nosy about the salary.”
“It’s all right. I’ll be nosy myself soon enough. As I said, I’ve been fascinated with Cocoa’s determination to win your approval.”
“Is that what she’s doing? Trying to win my approval?”
“Yes.”
“I thought she was just trying to be friends.”
He grinned. “Same thing, I guess. But dolphins are like people in a way. When they like someone, they want to please that person. Cocoa’s determined to please you. I think it’s important, and something to be studied. As is her ability to find and bring you things in the water other than objects you’ve specifically asked her to locate.”
“Body parts,” Lara said.
He nodded gravely. “Body parts,” he repeated, and shivered. “Let’s hope the cops get this guy—and quickly.”
“Amen,” she murmured.
She thanked him and headed out of the office. No, she couldn’t believe that he had left a butchered doll on her desk. Look how honest he’d been with her.
Then again, was she truly capable of knowing?
She left the building via the classroom. She waved to Myles and Cathy, then felt them watching her as she kept walking.
Of course. She’d interrupted their class. And she’d gone to see Dr. Amory. Maybe they were wondering what she’d talked to him about.
And maybe she was just being paranoid.
No, she wasn’t.
Someone had warned her to keep out of the water. To stay out of the Miami zombie case.
As she walked back to her office, she caught various bits of conversation coming from the crowd.
No, they hadn’t abandoned Sea Life in horror.
But they were talking about body parts in the water.
And zombies.
*
This time, when the questions flew, when the medical examiner arrived, when crime scene techs flooded the place, Brett had no trouble believing that Geneva Diaz had absolutely no idea how a corpse had ended up in their embalming room—the corpse of the man who’d had her key.
When Jonathan Douglas and Richard Diaz arrived, both of them now eager to help with any investigation, Geneva cried and confessed what she’d done to both men. Oddly, the truth seemed to make things easier for everyone at the mortuary.
Phil Kinny told them that he would know more details postautopsy, but he was quite certain that Jose Acervo was truly dead.
He wouldn’t be coming back to life to usher anyone else into heaven or, in his case, hell.
“I’m guessing that cause of death will turn out to be stabbing,” Kinny told them after his initial on-site examination of the remains. “You can see that he was stabbed several times. I won’t know the order of the wounds until autopsy, but they were to the heart, stomach, kidneys, spleen and liver.”
Kinny looked at them from the far side of the body. “Come see me tomorrow. It’s Sunday, when even the Lord said we should rest, but this case is too important to wait. Come in and I’ll show you what I’ve got on the bodies of Antoine Deveau, Randy Nicholson, Miguel Gomez and your Mr. Acervo here.”
“We’ll be there,” Brett promised him.
The body was removed, but the crime scene techs stayed on.