Unnatural Exposure

'Here's what we're doing.' It was the USAMRIID team leader named Clark who spoke.

'We suit up and get the body out.'

'I would like to go in first,' I said. 'Alone.'

'Right.' He nodded. 'Then we see if there's anything hazardous in there, which hopefully there's not. We get the body out, and the camper's hauled out of here.'

'It's evidence,' I said, looking at him. 'We can't just haul it out of here.'

I knew what he was thinking by the look on his face. The killer may be dead, the case closed. The camper was a biological hazard and should be burned.

'No,' I said to him. 'We don't close this so quickly. We can't.'

He hesitated, blowing out in frustration as he stared off at the camper.

'I'll go in,' I said. 'Then I'll tell you what we need to do.'

'Fair enough.' He raised his voice again. 'Guys? Let's go. No one inside but the M.E. until you hear otherwise.'

They followed us through the forest, the portable isolator in our wake, an eerie caisson not meant for this world. Pine needles were crisp beneath my feet, like shredded wheat, and the air was sharp and clean as the camper got closer. It was a Dutchman travel trailer, maybe eighteen feet long, with a fold-out orange-striped awning.

'That's old. Eight years, I bet,' said Marino, who knew about such things.

'What would it take to tow it?' I asked as we put on our suits.

'A pickup,' he said. 'Maybe a van. This doesn't need nothing with a lot of horsepower. What are we supposed to do? Put these over everything else we already got on?'

'Yes,' I said, zipping up. 'What I'd like to know is what happened to the vehicle that hauled this thing here.'

'Good question,' he said, huffing as he struggled. 'And where's the license plate?'

I had just turned on my air when a young man emerged from trees in a green uniform and smoky hat. He seemed rather dazed as he looked at all of us in our orange hoods and suits, and I sensed his fear. He did not get close to us as he introduced himself as the night shift park ranger.

Marino spoke to him first. 'You ever see the person staying in there?'

'No,' the ranger said.

'What about guys on the other shifts?'

'No one remembers seeing anyone, just lights on at night sometimes. Hard to say. As you can see it's parked pretty far from the station. You could go out to the showers or whatever and not necessarily be noticed.'

'No other campers here?' I asked over the rush of air inside my hood.

'Not now. There were maybe three other people when I found the body, but I

encouraged them to leave because there might be some kind of disease.'

'Did you question them first?' Marino asked, and I could see he was irritated by this young ranger who had just chased off all of our witnesses.

'Nobody knew a thing, except one person did think he ran into him.' He nodded at the camper. 'Evening before last. In the bathroom. Big grubby guy with dark hair and a beard.'

'Taking a shower?' I asked.

'No, ma'am.' He hesitated. 'Taking a leak.'

'Doesn't the camper have a bathroom?'

'I really don't know.' He hesitated again. 'To tell you the truth, I didn't stay in there. Minute I saw that. Well, whatever it was. I was gone like a second.'

'And you don't know what towed this thing?' Marino then asked.

The ranger was looking very uncomfortable now. 'This time of year it's usually quiet out here, and dark. I had no reason to notice what vehicle it was hooked up to, and in fact don't recall there even being one.'

'But you got a plate number.' Marino's stare was unfriendly through his hood.

'Sure do.' Relieved, the ranger pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket. 'Got his registration right here.' He opened it. 'Ken A. Perley, Norfolk, Virginia.'

He handed the paper to Marino, who sarcastically said, 'Oh good. The name the asshole stole off a credit card. So I'm sure the plate number you got is accurate, too. How did he pay?'

'Cashier's check.'

'He gave this to someone in person?' Marino asked.

'No. He made the reservation by mail. No one ever saw anything except the paperwork in your hand. Like I said, we never saw him.'

'What about the envelope this thing came in?' Marino said. 'Did you save it so maybe we got a postmark?'

The ranger shook his head. He nervously glanced at suited scientists, who were listening to his every word. He stared at the trailer and wet his lips.

'You mind my asking what's in there. And what's going to happen to me 'cause I went in?' His voice cracked and he looked like he might cry.

'It could be contaminated with a virus.' I said to him. 'But we don't know that for sure. Everybody here is going to take care of you.'

'They said they were going to lock me up in some room, like solitary confinement.' Fear erupted, his eyes wild, voice loud. 'I want to know exactly what's in there that I might have got!'

'You'll be in exactly the same thing I was last week,' I assured him. 'A nice room with nice nurses. For a few days of observation. That's all.'

'Think of it as a vacation. It really ain't that big of a deal. Just because people are in these suits, don't go getting hinky,' Marino said as if he were one to talk.

He went on as if he were the great expert in infectious diseases, and I left the two of them and approached the camper alone. For a moment, I stood within feet of it and looked around. To my left were acres of trees, then the river where our boats were moored. Right of me, through more trees, I could hear the sounds of a highway. The camper was parked on a soft floor of pine needles, and what I noticed first was the scraped area on the white-painted tongue.

Getting close, I squatted and rubbed gloved fingers over deep gouges and scrapes in aluminum in an area where the Vehicle Identification Number, or VIN, should have been. Near the roof, I noticed a patch of vinyl had been scorched, and decided someone had taken a propane torch to the second VIN. I walked around to the other side.

The door was unlocked and not quite shut because it had been pried open by some sort of tool, and my nerves began to sing. My head cleared and I became completely focused, the way I got when evidence was screaming a different story than witnesses

claimed. Mounting metal steps, I walked inside and stood very still as I looked around at a scene that might mean nothing to most, but to me confirmed a nightmare. This was deadoc's factory.

First, the heat was up as high as it would go, and I turned it off, startled when a pathetic white creature suddenly hopped across my feet. I jumped and gasped as it stupidly ran into a wall, and then sat, quivering and panting. The pitiful laboratory rabbit had been shaved in patches and scarified with infection, his eruptions horrible and dark. I noticed his wire cage, and that it seemed to have been knocked off a table, the door wide open.

'Come here.' Squatting, I held out my hand as he watched me with pink-rimmed eyes, long ears twitching.

Carefully, I inched my way closer because I could not leave him out. He was a living source of propagating disease.

'Come on, you poor little thing,' I said to the ranger's monster. 'I promise I won't hurt you.'

Then I gently had him in my hands, his heart beating staccato as he violently trembled. I returned him to his cage, then went to the rear of the camper. The doorway I stepped through was small, the body inside practically filling the bedroom. The man was facedown on gold shag carpet that was stained dark from blood. His hair was curly

and dark, and when I turned him over, rigor mortis had come and already passed. He reminded me of a lumberjack in a filthy pea coat and trousers. His hands were huge with dirty nails, his beard and mustache unkempt.

I undressed him from the waist up to check the pattern of livormortis, or blood settling by gravity after death. Face and chest were reddish purple, with areas of blanching where his body had been against the floor. I saw no indication that he had been moved after death. He had been shot once in the chest at close range, possibly with the Remington double-barreled shotgun by his side, next to his left hand.