Frank gave him the bone. As Connelly brought it close to his face and studied it intently, Frank said, “I found it in a cabin out in the woods.”
“It was by itself?” Connelly murmured. “No other remains?”
“Nope. Just the one bone. And it was stuck almost out of sight, where it would be easy to overlook.”
Connelly glanced up. “Then someone took the rest of the skeleton and left this bone by accident.”
“That’s what I’m wondering about,” Frank said with a nod.
“One thing we can be certain of…The other bones didn’t get up and walk away by themselves.” The doctor’s manner became more brisk. “What is it you want from me, Mr. Morgan? A simple confirmation that this bone came from a human skeleton? The answer is yes.”
“It doesn’t look like it’s been…damaged.”
“Gnawed on, you mean?” Connelly looked at the bone again. “I agree. I don’t see any teeth marks. I’d say it was picked clean by insects, not cannibals.” Connelly smiled. “That thought did enter your mind, didn’t it, Mr. Morgan?”
Frank shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Wait a minute,” Connelly said with a sudden frown. “Morgan, Morgan…You’re the man Rutherford Chamberlain hired to go after the Terror. The gunfighter. You’re the talk of the town…along with the Terror itself, of course.” He waved the bone in the air. “Does this have something to do with the Terror?”
“I don’t know yet,” Frank replied honestly. Even though he instinctively liked and trusted the doctor, he wasn’t ready to reveal all his secrets and theories to the man. “I’d like to ask you, though, as a man of science…do you believe all the stories that have been told about the Terror?”
For a long moment, Connelly didn’t reply. Then he said, “There have been reports of strange, unknown animals from around the world for years, Mr. Morgan, perhaps even for centuries. Did you know that in Africa, there are creatures called gorillas, who are supposed to be half-man, half-ape? I’d love to see one someday.”
Connelly was straying from the subject at hand. “What about the Terror?” Frank prodded. “Could it really be some sort of monster, instead of, say, a man?”
The doctor frowned. “I’ve seen some of the damage done by the Terror, Mr. Morgan.”
“So have I.”
“Do you think a man did that?”
It was a fair question, but to be honest, Frank couldn’t be sure. He was about to say as much when someone pounded violently on the front door of the doctor’s house.
“Doc! Doc! Come quick!” a man yelled. “There’s trouble!”
Molly appeared in the doorway to the kitchen again. “Now what’s all this disturbance?” she asked hotly. “At this rate, you’ll never finish your dinner, Patrick!”
“Occupational hazard, my dear, occupational hazard.” Connelly strode over to the front door and pulled it open. A red-faced townie stood there, breathing hard. “What’s all the excitement about, Bert?”
“You got to come downtown, Doc,” the man said. “A couple of Chamberlain’s loggers just brought in a wagon, and it’s plumb full of men who are all tore up!”
Chapter 16
Frank wasn’t surprised by that breathless announcement. If anything, he had sort of expected some of Chamberlain’s men to discover the massacre at the logging camp and bring the grisly news to town before now.
Evidently, they had brought more than the news. They had brought the gruesome evidence of the killings as well.
“Settle down, Bert,” Connelly said. “These men are all dead?”
“Yeah. They’re all tore up!”
“Yes, you said that. It seems that they’d be more in need of the undertaker’s attention than mine.”
“All I know, Doc, is that Marshal Price told me to fetch you.”
“Very well.” Connelly still held the bone in his hand. As he turned toward Frank, he lifted it and asked, “Do you mind if I hang on to this for the time being, Mr. Morgan? I might be able to determine a little more about it if I have time to study it.”
Frank nodded. “That’s fine, Doctor. Just keep it somewhere safe.”
Connelly laid the bone on a small table where he had placed the copy of Gray’s Anatomy. He reached for his coat and hat, which hung on hooks next to the door, and as he put them on, he said to his wife, “I’ll be back as soon as I can, Molly. I doubt if there’s any reason to keep my dinner warm, though. I expect I’ll be downtown for a while.”
She sighed and gave him a resigned nod.
Frank followed Connelly out of the house. Bert, the townie who had brought the news, was too excited to move at a normal pace. He broke into a run, obviously anxious to return to the main street.
“Man’s morbid curiosity,” Connelly said as he and Frank strode along side by side. “I see it all the time. There’s nothing more intriguing than death, probably because of its universality and inevitability.”
“Yeah, I expect there’ll be quite a crowd gathered around that wagon.”
Frank’s prediction proved to be accurate. So many people were in the street that it was difficult to see the wagon itself. He spotted the man sitting on the seat holding the reins, though, and recognized Karl Wilcox, the logger he had met the day before. Wilcox looked pale and shaken, which wasn’t surprising considering his cargo.
Marshal Gene Price was on hand, too. When he saw Frank and Dr. Connelly approaching, he raised his voice and ordered, “All right, everybody get back! Get back, there! Let the doctor through!”
On the wagon seat, Wilcox rubbed a shaky hand over his face and said, “It’s too late for a sawbones, Marshal. Way too late.”
Frank knew that was true, and Price must have as well. Still, the marshal took hold of Connelly’s arm and steered the physician to the wagon. “Take a look, Doc, and see what you think.”
Connelly had to know what to expect, but he blanched anyway as he studied the grisly remains in the back of the wagon. “I think this gentleman is right,” he said with a nod toward Wilcox. “The time when my services might have come in handy has long since passed.”
“You’ve seen some of the other bodies that have been brought into town from the woods,” Price said. “Are these killings the work of the same creature?”
Frank was particularly interested in hearing Connelly’s answer. He had determined to his own satisfaction that men were responsible for this outrage, not some monster. However, his discovery of the other body indicated that the Terror had been in the vicinity of the logging camp when the massacre took place.
Connelly said, “I couldn’t tell you that, Marshal, without a closer examination of the bodies. What I can say is that you should get them off the street. There’s no need for this grotesque display. Take them down to the undertaking parlor, and I’ll have a better look at them there.”
Price nodded and made a curt gesture to Wilcox. “You heard the doc,” he said. The lawman stepped away from the wagon and waved his arms. “Let’s have some room here, damn it!”
Reluctantly, the crowd moved back far enough so that Wilcox could flap the reins and get the team of mules moving again. Connelly followed the vehicle toward the undertaking parlor.
Price hung back and frowned at Frank. “I saw you come up with the doctor, Morgan,” he said. “You sick or something?”
“No, but I was discussing some medical matters with him.”
Price looked like he was waiting for Frank to go on, but Frank didn’t elaborate. After a moment, the marshal said, “If you’re going to hunt down that creature, Morgan, I hope you do it soon. Even though these killings aren’t happening in my jurisdiction, I don’t like seeing all these bodies brought into my town.”