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Authors: Martin Cruz Smith
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the director here and so I did. The brain and organs show no evidence of drugs or toxins. That is not conclusive because the body was in the water such a long time, but there was another aspect. The heart muscle displayed definite signs of necrosis, which is a strong indicator of heart attack."
"A heart attack while floating in the water?"
"A heart attack after a lifetime of eating and drinking like a Russian, an attack so massive and so quick he had no time even to thrash, which was why all the fishing gear was still on board. Did you know that life expect ancy is twenty years less in Russia than in Cuba ? I will give you samples of the tissue. Show them to any doctor in Moscow and they will say the same."
"Have you ever seen neumaticos die of a heart attack before?"
"No, mostly shark attacks. But this is the first time I've heard of a Russian neumdtico."
"Don't you think that's worth an investigation?"
"You must understand our situation. We have no crime scene and no witnesses, which makes an investi gation very discouraging, very expensive. And no crime. Worse, he's Russian and the embassy refuses to cooper ate. They say no one worked with Pribluda, no one knew him and that he was merely an innocent student of the sugar industry. For us even to visit the embassy requires a diplomatic note. All the same we asked for a photograph of Pribluda, and since we didn't receive that, we have matched him and the body to the best possible certainty. There is nothing more we can do. We must consider him identified and you must take him home. We will have no more 'cigars' here."
"Why ask the embassy for a photograph? I showed you one."
"Yours wasn't good enough."
"You can't match anything to the way he looks now."
Bias let a smile win his face. He rolled the body drawer shut.» I have a surprise for you. I want you to return home with the right idea of Cuba ."
On the second floor Bias led Arkady and Osorio into an office with the faded title antropologia on the door.
Arkady's first impression was of a catacomb, the remains of martyrs assiduously sorted by shelves of skulls, pelvises, thigh bones, metacarpals lying hand in hand, spines tangled like snakes. Dust swam around a lampshade, the light reflected by case after case of neatly pinned tropical beetles iridescent as opals. A fer-de- lance with open fangs coiled within a specimen jar topped by a tarantula on tiptoe. What looked like dominoes were burned bones in gradations from white to charcoal black. On the wall the baroque jaws of a shark outgrinned a jawbone of human teeth filed to points. The cord for the ceiling fan was the braided hair of a shrunken head. No catacomb, Arkady changed his mind, more a jungle trading post. A sheet covered something humming on a desk, and if it were a great ape going philosophical Arkady wouldn't have been surprised.
"This is our anthropological laboratory," said Bias.» Not a large one, but here we determine by bones and teeth the age, race and sex of a victim. And different poisonous or violent agents."
"The Caribbean has a number you won't see in Moscow ," Osorio said.
"We are deficient in sharks," Arkady said.
"And," Bias said, "by insect activity how long the victim has been dead. In other climates, different insects start at different times. Here in Cuba , they all start at once, but at different rates of progress."
"Fascinating."
"Fascinating but perhaps not what an investigator from Moscow would call a serious forensic laboratory?"
"There are different laboratories for different places."
"Exactly!" Bias picked up the jawbone of pointed teeth.» Our population is, let's say, unique. A number of African tribes practiced scarification and sharpening teeth. The Abakua, for example, was a secret leopard society from the Congo . They were brought here as slaves to work on the docks and in a short time controlled all the smuggling in . It took the Comandante to turn them into a folkloric society." He set down the teeth and
"A heart attack while floating in the water?"
"A heart attack after a lifetime of eating and drinking like a Russian, an attack so massive and so quick he had no time even to thrash, which was why all the fishing gear was still on board. Did you know that life expect ancy is twenty years less in Russia than in Cuba ? I will give you samples of the tissue. Show them to any doctor in Moscow and they will say the same."
"Have you ever seen neumaticos die of a heart attack before?"
"No, mostly shark attacks. But this is the first time I've heard of a Russian neumdtico."
"Don't you think that's worth an investigation?"
"You must understand our situation. We have no crime scene and no witnesses, which makes an investi gation very discouraging, very expensive. And no crime. Worse, he's Russian and the embassy refuses to cooper ate. They say no one worked with Pribluda, no one knew him and that he was merely an innocent student of the sugar industry. For us even to visit the embassy requires a diplomatic note. All the same we asked for a photograph of Pribluda, and since we didn't receive that, we have matched him and the body to the best possible certainty. There is nothing more we can do. We must consider him identified and you must take him home. We will have no more 'cigars' here."
"Why ask the embassy for a photograph? I showed you one."
"Yours wasn't good enough."
"You can't match anything to the way he looks now."
Bias let a smile win his face. He rolled the body drawer shut.» I have a surprise for you. I want you to return home with the right idea of Cuba ."
On the second floor Bias led Arkady and Osorio into an office with the faded title antropologia on the door.
Arkady's first impression was of a catacomb, the remains of martyrs assiduously sorted by shelves of skulls, pelvises, thigh bones, metacarpals lying hand in hand, spines tangled like snakes. Dust swam around a lampshade, the light reflected by case after case of neatly pinned tropical beetles iridescent as opals. A fer-de- lance with open fangs coiled within a specimen jar topped by a tarantula on tiptoe. What looked like dominoes were burned bones in gradations from white to charcoal black. On the wall the baroque jaws of a shark outgrinned a jawbone of human teeth filed to points. The cord for the ceiling fan was the braided hair of a shrunken head. No catacomb, Arkady changed his mind, more a jungle trading post. A sheet covered something humming on a desk, and if it were a great ape going philosophical Arkady wouldn't have been surprised.
"This is our anthropological laboratory," said Bias.» Not a large one, but here we determine by bones and teeth the age, race and sex of a victim. And different poisonous or violent agents."
"The Caribbean has a number you won't see in Moscow ," Osorio said.
"We are deficient in sharks," Arkady said.
"And," Bias said, "by insect activity how long the victim has been dead. In other climates, different insects start at different times. Here in Cuba , they all start at once, but at different rates of progress."
"Fascinating."
"Fascinating but perhaps not what an investigator from Moscow would call a serious forensic laboratory?"
"There are different laboratories for different places."
"Exactly!" Bias picked up the jawbone of pointed teeth.» Our population is, let's say, unique. A number of African tribes practiced scarification and sharpening teeth. The Abakua, for example, was a secret leopard society from the Congo . They were brought here as slaves to work on the docks and in a short time controlled all the smuggling in . It took the Comandante to turn them into a folkloric society." He set down the teeth and
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