Petrified (7 page)

Nathan shook his head. He wasn't going to tell Theodor Zauber that he had successfully managed to breed a phoenix already. He hadn't even told Ron Kasabian yet, the CEO of Schiller Medical Research Division, who was funding him. Neither had he told Grace, although when she had called him at his laboratory today and asked him how his experiment had worked out, he had told her ‘pretty darn good, on the whole. I think we're making some serious headway.' Obviously she hadn't heard the phoenix in the background calling out ‘
skrrrarrrkkk
!'

Theodor Zauber said, ‘It is not just in recreating mythical creatures from scratch that my father's research could help you.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘I read in
Modern Zoology
that you were trying to create your phoenix by combining the DNA from a dragon-worm with the DNA from a scavenger-hawk. This is correct, yes? But there are other mythical creatures which have survived from previous centuries in their fully-developed form, except that they remain in what you might call suspended animation.'

‘I'm sorry. I don't understand what you're talking about.'

‘Let me put it this way, Professor – they are not unlike a mammoth that is found frozen in a glacier after forty thousand years. Fully formed, fully developed, not at all decayed – but, of course, inanimate. All it requires is for somebody with the right scientific know-how to bring them back to life. Somebody who has both belief in thaumaturgy and expertise in science.'

Nathan stared at him in bewilderment. ‘Are you trying to tell me that your father found one of these creatures, whatever they are?'

‘Oh no, Professor. He found many of them. In fact he found
thousands
. It was one of the last great discoveries of his career.'

‘How could there possibly be thousands of them? Somebody would have dug up at least some of them by now.'

‘No, Professor. You would never have found any of these creatures by digging.'

‘Then where the hell are they?'

Theodor Zauber raised both of his hands in surrender. ‘Forgive me, please. I think I have said too much already. It is obvious that you do not wish to take advantage of my late father's research, and I cannot say that I blame you. He was quite ruthless. He thought nothing of taking an innocent human life if it would further his experiments and eventually make him rich. I apologize for troubling you.'

‘So you're not going to tell me where these creatures are? Or even
what
they are?'

‘Unless you are interested in carrying on my father's work, it is better that I do not. As I say, I apologize if I intruded on your evening. I realize that you must be very tired. Goodnight.

He bowed to Grace and said, ‘Thank you for your hospitality, Mrs Underhill. You were most
gastfreundlich
.'

‘Wait up,' said Nathan. ‘You're serious about this, aren't you?'

‘Of course. Why do you think I went to such trouble to find out where you lived?'

‘Sit down,' Nathan told him. ‘If you really do know the whereabouts of fully-developed cryptozoological creatures, then
I
want to know, too.'

‘Very well. But you have to understand that they may not have the same medical application as the creatures that you have been trying to develop yourself.'

‘I can't be any judge of that, can I, unless you tell me what they are, and what kind of condition they're in.'

Theodor Zauber hesitated for a long time, with his hand over his mouth. Nathan waited, without saying anything. Grace said, ‘I'll get you a beer, OK?' and Nathan nodded.

Eventually, Theodor Zauber walked back to the couch and sat down. ‘I suppose I have to tell you,' he said. ‘After all, you are probably the only person in the world who can help me. Who else has come so close to bringing mythical creatures back to life? My father was full of admiration for your work, and for your persistence in the face of so much skepticism from the scientific community. He always said “whatever has existed once can exist again”.'

Nathan sat down opposite him. Grace brought him a can of beer and he popped it open and took a long, cold swallow. Theodor Zauber couldn't help saying, ‘
Prost
!' although he didn't smile when he said it.

‘So,' said Nathan. ‘What exactly
was
your father's last great discovery?'

‘Petrification, Professor. The turning of living beings into stone.'

Nathan had been about to take another mouthful of beer but he slowly lowered his can. ‘Is this a joke?'

‘Absolutely not. What would be the point?'

‘I really don't know. Maybe you want to make a fool out of me because of what happened between me and your father.'

‘Please, Professor. I am one hundred percent seriously talking about creatures whose flesh has been deposed into solid stone.'

‘I see. Your father didn't find Medusa's head, by any chance?'

‘Of course not. But he did discover a formula that was used by thirteenth-century alchemists to convert a vertebrate being into what is essentially a statue. It is a process first mentioned by Ibn ar-Tafiz, sometimes known as Artephius.'

‘OK, Artephius, I've heard of him. He wrote
The Secret Book of Artephius
, didn't he? Not that I've ever read it.'

‘You should, Professor, although it is not an easy book to understand, even for an eminent scientist such as yourself. Artephius devised a way of converting solids into gases without first becoming liquids, and many other important chemical reactions. He lived on his family's cattle farm near Cordoba, and he discovered many new methods for making cheese and yogurt.

‘His most important discovery, though, was what he calls “secret fire”. This fire is actually a volatile liquid that can permeate a living body within a matter of hours and transform flesh into stone. It is exactly the same process by which mineral-rich spring water can gradually petrify anything that is immersed in it for long enough. Because of the active chemicals that Artephius added to his water, however, it all happens considerably quicker.'

‘And so what are you telling me? That at some time in the past, thousands of mythical creatures were turned to stone, and that your father found out where they are?'

‘Yes, Professor. Precisely that. But he found out much more than that. He found out how to turn them back into living flesh.'

EIGHT

Tuesday, 8:34 p.m.

J
enna switched off the lamp on her desk and shrugged on her quilted brown parka. ‘That's me for tonight,' she told Detective Brubaker, who was still hunched over a pile of paperwork. He was appearing in Municipal Court tomorrow, giving evidence in a case of two young girls who had died after taking contaminated ecstasy tablets.

‘See you, sweet cheeks. Have a brewski for me, will you? I won't be through till way past midnight.'

Jenna paused beside Detective Brubaker's desk. ‘
Gerry
?' she said.

Detective Brubaker caught the seriousness in her voice. He took off his reading glasses and looked up at her.

‘What is it? Not that daughter of yours giving you trouble again?'

‘No. Nothing like that. I was just wondering if you think that I'm likeable.'

‘
Likeable
? What kind of a question is that?'

‘I don't know. Sometimes I get the feeling that I put people's backs up. You know, losing my temper too quick, opening my yap and putting my size six sneaker in it. That kind of thing.'

Detective Brubaker made a
moue
. ‘Nah. I don't think anybody gets too aerated when you say what you think. Now and then it might be better if you kept your opinions to yourself. Like Sergeant Mulvaney's hairpiece. The poor guy's real sensitive about it.'

‘I know he is. But, my God. He could have warned us he was going to walk into the squad room with Punxsutawney Phil on his head.'

Detective Brubaker couldn't help smirking. ‘Let me tell you this, Jenna. Most of the guys don't believe that women should be detectives at all. They think women should be home doing the laundry and baking brownies and changing the kids' shitty diapers, and that every night they should welcome their husbands back to the bosom of the family with a cold beer and a warm blow-job. They certainly don't believe that women should be detectives who say it the way they find it.'

He replaced his spectacles and went back to his paperwork, but Jenna stayed where she was.

‘But, what?' she asked him.

Detective Brubaker looked up again. ‘Did I say “but”?'

‘I'm a trained interrogator, Gerry. I know when somebody has a “but” on the tip of their tongue.'

‘OK. You asked me if you were likeable, and you are. I like you. You're sassy and you're funny and you're tough and you're good at what you do. Underneath, I think all of the guys like you, too. It's just that they're scared of you. In fact I think that they're scared of most women, especially women who talk back to them and won't take any bullshit.'

‘Hm. I think you're just trying to get into my thong.'

‘I didn't know you wore a thong.'

‘And you never will, Gerry. Not for sure, anyhow. I'll see you tomorrow, OK? And – you know – thanks for the heads up. I'll try not to be so goddamned outspoken in future, especially when it comes to toupees. I'd hate it if everybody in the district thought that I was some kind of harridan.'

She was making her way to the squad room door when her telephone rang. It had a particularly loud, unpleasant jangle that always left a salty taste in her mouth.

Detective Brubaker waved his hand dismissively. ‘I'd leave it, if I were you. Go home.'

Jenna hesitated. She was very tired, and she was anxious to get back in time to make sure that Ellie had eaten a proper supper. Ellie was neurotic about her weight at the moment, almost to the point of anorexia, and Jenna was growing increasingly worried about it. She knew what it was like to look in the mirror every morning and see a big-breasted, big-bellied, big-hipped lard-butt staring back at you, even if you didn't really look like that at all.

The phone kept on jangling and she knew that she would have to answer it. She went back to her desk, put down her pocketbook and picked up the receiver. ‘
What
?'

‘Jenna, it's Dan. I'm at the Nectarine Tower Apartments on North Nineteenth. Up on the roof. We have two DBs up here.'

‘For Christ's sake, Dan. I thought you were supposed to be home.'

‘Well, yes, I was on my way. I'd even bought myself a pizza at Dolce Carini. But I saw two squad cars and a bus pulling up outside and I couldn't very well drive past without checking what was going down here.'

‘You're not on duty, Dan.
I'm
not on duty. Our shift is over, and I'm frazzled. Why didn't dispatch put it through to Smith and Collard?'

‘Because I told them not to. I told them that you and me would handle it.'

‘And why the hell would you want to do that?'

‘Because three eyewitnesses say they saw something drop out of the sky. Something dropped out of the sky and they heard screaming up on the roof and when they went up to see what it was all about, they found these two DBs. They've been ripped right open, Jenna. I mean they have literally been torn to shreds. I never saw anything like it.'

‘Something dropped out of the sky?'

‘That's right. All three witnesses saw it. Or at least they caught a glimpse of it.'

‘Do they have any idea what it was?'

‘They're not sure. One of them only saw its shadow, but they all agreed it was like some kind of a bird, even though it wasn't a bird. Like, it had wings. But two of them agreed that it had horns, and one of them said it had bulging eyes like Don Rickles.'

‘Don Rickles? I don't believe this. Two people were ripped to pieces by something with wings that looked like Don Rickles?'

‘I guess it was the eyes, that's all.'

‘Jesus. And you thought you and me needed to take this case up for why? Because of that statue that fell out of the sky?'

‘Well, yes. You have to admit they could be connected. The horns. The bulging eyes. The feet that looked like claws. It all seems like kind of a coincidence.'

Jenna took a deep breath.

‘You still there?' Dan asked her.

‘Yes, I'm still here, for my sins. Give me ten minutes. I have to call home first.'

‘The crime scene team have just arrived. My God. One of them barfed. One of them actually barfed.'

Jenna hung up. Detective Brubaker looked across at her and said, ‘No peace for the wicked, hunh?'

‘Two DBs on top of the Nectarine Tower Apartments. According to Dan they were both torn to pieces.'

She punched out her home number and waited for Ellie to pick up. Detective Brubaker stretched and said, ‘It totally beats me, you know. Homo sapiens has been living on this planet for five hundred thousand years and we're still tearing lumps out of each other. Homo sapiens? More like homo asinus.'

Ellie answered, ‘
Mom
?' She sounded tired, or dreamy, as if she had just woken up. Jenna hoped she wasn't high. Some of her school friends had been caught last week taking mephedrone, and she knew for sure that several of them regularly smoked weed, particularly that Ricky Martinez.

‘Hi, baby. Listen, I'm going to be later than I thought. I'm sorry. Something real important came up and I have to go deal with it.'

‘A murder?'

‘Yes, well, something like that. You don't want to hear all the grisly details. Did you eat the lasagne I left you? I made sure I left you only a small piece.'

‘I ate some of it.'

‘You ate
some
of it? Ellie, it was only a mouthful to begin with.'

‘I had lunch. I wasn't hungry.'