With a collective groan of effort the four constables tipped up the big coffer and a small avalanche of ice granules spilled on to the ground. There was a soft thud and a bundle rolled free, wrapped in oilcloth. Bobby pushed it to one side with his boot while the others made sure there was nothing else in the coffer but ice.
“What is it?” Bobby asked.
Carriscant crouched down and unfolded the material. “It’s a liver,” he said. “Human, I think.”
“Jesus Christ! Is it Ward’s?”
“He sent Ward’s liver back. Must be someone else’s.”
The other coffer was dragged out and unended also. They found three dead dogs, and the lower trunk of an unidentified monkey.
Carriscant said: “I told you this was a bad idea.”
The constables rooted around in the compacted ice chips searching for any other bits and pieces. Half a dozen others stood in a loose semicircle around Cruz’s laboratory, their Krags held at the ready, keeping the astonished and befuddled servants at bay. In the bottom corner of the second coffer they found a canvas bag containing what Carriscant identified as two hearts, a human hand and a monkey’s head with half the skull cut away.
“Is there any way you can say that hand was Braun’s?” Bobby asked.
“No. The discoloration makes it impossible. Why have you brought me here, Bobby?”
“I need a medical man. I don’t know what these lumps of meat are.”
“There are lots of American physicians on this island.”
“Yeah, but none of them know the case like you.” Bobby went into the lab with a lantern and came out a few seconds later.
“Where’s everything gone?” he protested. “The last time we came here those two coffers were chock-a–block.”
“I think Dr Cruz may have given up his experimental work.”
“Why should he—”
They were interrupted by an angry shout from the direction of the house and soon they saw Cruz appear, partially dressed, his shirt unbuttoned, exposing his comfortable body with its wobbling belly and its dense fur of grey hair.
Cruz swore and shouted until Bobby showed him the warrant he had permitting him to search Cruz’s premises.
“This is your doing, Carriscant,” Cruz yelled at him. “This is a deliberate attempt to destroy my reputation.”
“I asked Dr Carriscant to accompany me on this raid,” Bobby explained, when Cruz’s oaths had been approximately translated. “He was most reluctant to accompany me, but I insisted.”
Cruz faced Carriscant over the small scatter of remains, animal and human. The hand lay palm upward, as if begging for alms, the fingers slightly curved.
“You are suspecting me?” Cruz said in English to Bobby.
“I’m just investigating every area I think proper.”
Cruz pointed at Carriscant. “This man, this man is man of violence. I have seen him attacking Dr Wieland. You ask Dr Wieland. I have heard him to threaten to kill Wieland. Wieland will tell you.”
“Wieland has been relieved of his duties,” Bobby said.
Cruz began to rant on in Spanish again, fulminating against this disgraceful intrusion, his household roused in the middle of the night, his reputation besmirched.
Carriscant looked down and made a little dust pile with the toe of his boot, his eyes roving over the pathetic remains laid out in a row. The liver was beginning to thaw and small oozings of blood and water were forming around it, already receiving the attentions of ants and other crawling insects.