Heidmann’s inebriated eyes stared at the stranger with apparent horror. Then he looked at Purdue with his mouth agape in amazement.
“You knew,” he told Purdue, leaning on his unreliable right elbow to point at the billionaire. “How the hell did you know? And why is this bloke here? How does he know about my statue?”
Don scowled at Heidmann, deeming his accusation as a reason to question Purdue.
Purdue motioned with open palms for both men to be quiet and wait so that he could properly inform them of what he had in mind.
“Listen to me, both of you,” Purdue asserted. “I think this discovery is absolutely fascinating, and it deserves further investigation.”
“So, no police?” Heidmann slurred.
“No, Dr. Heidmann. There are things in this world far more important to science and history than the law, and even propriety. What I saw under that tarp conclusively intrigued me, and I want to know how such a thing could come about,” Purdue shared. He had abandoned his light-hearted approach to accommodate the earnest of what he wished to uncover about the ‘Son of Zyklon-B’.
“When will I get to see it?” Don asked eagerly.
“Soon,” Purdue answered. “We will go there later and record as much detail of the specimen as we can. First, it is more important to find out where it came from and how old James here got his mitts on it.”
Dr. Heidmann looked exhausted with concern, but the liquor had rendered him impotent against the actual extent of his troubles. He shook his head despondently, coming to terms with the fact that he had to disclose his well-guarded secret now. It was a secret that was never supposed to be exposed, but an act of God thwarted his confidence and plummeted him into a world of dangerous knowledge. All he could do was to choose his allies now.
Purdue probed the mind of the archeologist under threat of incarceration if he did not comply. Dr. Heidmann had no choice but to tell the two men in his company where and how he procured the disturbing sculptures.
“Did you know when you purchased them that they were in fact calcified human beings, Doctor?” Purdue asked Heidmann.
“I… I got them from a compound, a warehouse, outside Ostrava,” Heidmann answered warily.
“Where the hell is that?” asked Donovan, ordering another whiskey. Unlike Heidmann, he could take a strong drink in stride. Even after half a bottle, he would still stay sober as a judge, at least in judgment.
“Czech Republic,” Heidmann clarified.
Purdue waited for more, but Heidmann only gave short answers. In his experience, Purdue knew that short, obscure answers meant that the speaker was dishonest, or he was hiding something. It was time to shock Heidmann into revealing more.
“Right, then the three of us will depart for the Czech Republic in the morning,” Purdue declared. Out of Heidmann’s visual peripheral Purdue and Don exchanged looks, a well-known method the two of them had employed before — the bluff.
Don joined in the charade. “Sounds perfect. I’ll meet you at the museum tomorrow morning then.”
But Heidmann’s eyes were the size of saucers at hearing all this. He could not go back to Ostrava. Never! He had to dissuade the two men immediately.
“No!” he exclaimed. “No, we cannot go yet. I would have to arrange all my paperwork first. Besides, Prof. Barry will need me here to draw up a damage report with her.”
“Alright then, tell us where to go and we will go in your stead,” Don insisted on wringing out the archeologist’s nerves some more.
“That’s right, James,” Purdue fell in. “Don and I will undertake the journey. You just pinpoint the location in Ostrava for us on the map, and we can be off.”
Heidmann’s countenance contorted in dread at the predicament that was mounting for him. Perhaps he should just come clean, he considered. Maybe he should disclose all the dirty details once and for all. He would be regarded as a charlatan, but at least he would be rid of the heavy yoke he had to bear.
Chapter 9
“Dr. Heidmann, why don’t you just tell us where this oddity came from? I am not the sort of man who flourishes on the misfortune of opportunists,” Purdue explained soberly. “In fact, I admire the unorthodox greatly.”
Don shifted his body to better listen to what Heidmann was going to say, leaning forward with undivided attention. Heidmann’s bloodshot eyes had jumped between Don and Purdue before his shoulders sank limply in surrender. A deep exhale prepared him to divulge the details of how he came to be in possession of a man turned to solid rock.
“I was involved in a dig near the Czech-Polish border about a year ago. I came to know a fellow archeologist. You might say we had a bit of a fling while working together. She was also an antique collector, naturally, a lover of art and such, so she asked me to come with her for a very covert private sale she wished to conclude,” Heidmann recounted, staring at the surface of the table as the vague Led Zeppelin riff seemed to serenade him, a background score to his story.
“W a black market deal?” Don asked.
Dr. Heidmann nodded in affirmation before he continued. “Yes. It was very hush-hush.”
“That did not arouse concern in you?” Purdue wanted to know.
“Of course, it did, Mr. Purdue,” Heidmann defended.
“Dave.”
“Dave,” Heidmann repeated after Purdue. “But I had to escort her to make sure she would not be harmed, you know. I had to go with her to make sure she did not get done in with this purchase she was so adamant about.”
“So where was this deal done then? Ostrava?” Purdue asked.
“Correct. When we got there, she engaged in a heated debate as to the authenticity of a relic the Polish seller presented. I advised her to abandon the purchase, but the seller would not have that. We were in a deserted warehouse where I suppose he kept all his devilish items,” Heidmann sighed, looking more and more agitated as his tale progressed. “The stores had several full-body sculptures in stone and marble in various stages of renovation. I thought nothing of it, you know? I asked for the provenance of the piece the Pole was selling, but…”
“But what?” Don urged zealously, deeply immersed in the story.
Heidmann went on. “Long story short — and I hope you are men of an open mind for what I am about to tell you — while I was arguing with the seller in the office I heard a strange crumbling sound, like rock piling up, sort of,” he frowned in bewilderment. “The bloke pulled a gun and tried to kill me, but I managed to disarm him and scuttled through the warehouse to find Tessa, but…”
“They killed her?” Purdue asked sympathetically. But he could see that Heidmann’s friend met with a fate worse than a bullet. Dr. Heidmann shook his head as if he still could not process the nightmarish memory. When he looked up, his eyes were wide with disbelief.
“She had been turned to stone, Dave,” he whispered harshly. “I swear to God this is the truth! I know what I saw. Tessa was standing in the middle of the floor, halfway to the office where I was threatening the seller, but she was… a statue, a woman carved in rock! Her clothing remained fabric. Only her biology had been altered.”
“I’m sorry. My mind is reeling here,” Don groaned, falling back against the backrest of the booth, mulling it around.
“Donovan, I saw this stone man with my own eyes. This is very real, as mad as it seems,” Purdue assured his friend. He turned to Heidmann. “So how did you get the three statues?”
“I stole them,” Heidmann admitted nonchalantly. By now he had shed all pretenses. “I got a group of my laborers together, and we returned that night. I had to get evidence. Tessa was absent, though. We took the three I have.”
“And how did you come to name them… what you named them?” Purdue asked with great interest.