DUST TO DUST

Pete's remains began to decompose immediately. His stomach blew up nearly triple the size as intestinal gases expanded and multiplying bacteria colonies ate away at his decomposing flesh. The veins under his skin grew more and more apparent he looked as if he were covered with a mesh of spider webs. Larvae began hatching in his naval cavity and maggots began crawling out of his nose, ears and eye sockets. Around the entry and exit wounds of the bullets, blood had oozed out and stained his clothing a deep shade of crimson. His eyes were still open and his eyeball stared into the darkness. Clutched in his hand was the Saint Gaudens twenty-dollar gold piece 1924 very rare. Its feminine impression was imbued on his skin.
The alleyway was hardly ever used. The neighborhood was zoned for light industrial use and the garbage pickup was only twice a month. The stench was unbearable. Phoenix summertime temperature oftentimes pegged 114 degrees and inside a dark metal container the temperature had risen to well over 150 degrees. The truck driver was a fifteen-year veteran John Salvo who worked for Allied Waste services. He pulled alongside the container where the truck's robotic arms reached out and dumped the container into his truck. It was his last stop of the day and he was anxious to head to the West Side dump in Goodyear and call it a day.
The dump was busy with huge earthmovers pushing about the garbage, indiscriminately ripping open plastic bags, mattresses and various discarded items from an overly materialistic society that thought nothing of replacing an item just because it showed a little wear and tear. There was a group of people with pickup trucks who hovered around the drop off like scavengers hoping to find treasures such as used wood, metal appliances anything that could be sold or salvaged. John knew them well though neither really spoke to the other.
As John dumped the content of his huge hauler two of the scavengers Reese and Tara Parks, both in there forties descended. They supported their meager SSI disability checks with salvage money to the tune of about $150 - $300 per month enough to keep them out of Section eight gang invested housing. They were also volunteers with Habitat for Humanity and were hoping to earn enough credits to earn the right to build their own place. Reese, who wore a bandana around his face to keep out the dust, smelled it right away.
" There's something dead in there Tara!" He exclaimed to his wife. "It ain't no dog neither."
Reese went up to John and knocked on his door. John looked over at him a little shocked that he wanted to speak to him.
" There's something dead in your garbage sir. It smells like death real bad. I think you'd better check."
John had made it a vow to never get out of the truck. He wasn't proud of his job though he made good money. When anyone found out that he was a sanitation engineer most would just reply with. "A fancy name for garbage collector."
Reluctantly he got out and followed Reese back. Tara was already poking around and had unearthed a foot.
" Think its' somebody's foot." She said. "Looks like whoever it is really bought the farm."
John leaned over and retched. The smell and the heat were more than he could handle. Reese looked at him strangely but understood. He pulled a few items off the body.
Reese looked at John thought for a moment and came up with a plan of action. "I think you'd better call the po-lice. They'll probably want to identify the body. People aren't supposed to be burying people in the dump. Supposed to go to cemetery with dead people."
John realized that although Reese wasn't quite all there he had voiced the smartest thing to do. He climbed back into his truck and radioed base.
" Base. This is 214. I've got an emergency at the West Side Dump. You need to send the police and coroner out right away. There's a dead body.'
" We read 214. Just sit tight. We'll make the call right now."
" Oh base. Could you call my wife and tell her I'm going to be late. Over and out."
John sat in the truck wondering why his life seemed to be turning inside out. He tried not to think of the dead body lying in the pile of trash. That person's problems were over, he didn't have to sit in the dump waiting for a police investigator while his wife at home was getting upset because he'd be home late for dinner again. Before much time had passed a police vehicle pulled up followed shortly by hearse from the morgue. Before he could react they were knocking on his window.
" I'm Sergeant Littleton with Homicide." The tall police officer said. "You got some identification with you?"
" Driver's license, work badge do?" John answered hoping the investigation would be over quickly.
" Yes." Littleton said. "Would you mind stepping out of the vehicle and coming back to the patrol car. We're going to need a statement.
John glanced over at the coroner Thomas Menlow M.D.. Menlow was a small fellow with wire rim glasses who wore his oversize white lab coat and plastic gloves. He was directing about three other people.
" I want everything bagged around the body while you are moving it. We're going to have to make a positive identification and we need all the evidence preserved." He stared at Reece. "You find the body?'
" No." Reese said grinning. "I just smelled it. My wife Rita she found it. Foot sticking right out. We've been coming here salvaging over three years first time we ever saw somebody dead. We thought you were supposed to bury people in the cemetery not the dump. Poor fellow. Must not have had any relatives."
The statement made Dr. Menlow think. To him it was a dead body but to someone else it was a brother, a son, a husband, a father. "Let's get him into a body bag and on ice. Who knows how long he has been there."
As they lifted the body into the bag the skin started falling off in sheets. To most people the smell would have been gagging but to Dr. Menlow it was all part of the day's work. As assistant county coroner, it was his job to do autopsies and establish the cause of death. The police department relied on their assessment especially where foul play was suspected. In addition to the body bag several bags full of garbage were bagged. They were hopeful that somewhere in the garbage something would be found that could give them a little more information about the victim.
*
The coroner's office was a plain nondescript building buried amongst an array of government buildings and failed public housing projects serving as homes for welfare mothers and indigent elderly folks. Orderlies were on hand to take the body out and put it into cold storage. The decomposition of the corpse was so advanced that much of the body fluid had evaporated. It was impossible to even get an accurate facial rendering. The garbage was placed in an empty examination room along with the victim's personal clothing and effects.
After examining the garbage for several hours and working with the homicide division to determine a likely site where the body could have been dumped, they had narrowed it down to less than five blocks of South Phoenix between Roeser and Baseline. Police hoped to canvas door to door with an artist's sketch of the victim.
" Ann." Tom spoke to his assistant who was charting his comment on the body. "There is no skin or hair under his fingernails or other signs of violent struggle, by the putrefaction of the liver it would appear that the victim has been dead less than one week. This almost looks like a professional hit. By the massive brain damage and size of the bullet they found I would say it would appear it was at least a thirty-eight caliber and probably a hollow point at that."
" Dr. Menlow. " Ann addressed him looking up from her notes. "You going to want to run any drug tests on the hair follicles?"
"No. " Dr. Menlow stated. "I am going to remove the remaining facial skin and attempt a facial reconstruction. If you can get the digital camera I'll have the skull ready for photographing in about an hour."
For the next hour Menlow worked feverishly stripping the skin and muscles from the face. He knew by the victim's size about how large a face he would have to reconstruct and he knew when he took it down to the skeletal level he'd have a much better chance of building it back up. Fortunately Ann was gifted in 3-D animation and once a graph was made of the skull she could import the digital image into a bit maps and create a number of options for the final image.
After the skull was cleansed of all skin they photographed it with a cad camera and entered it into their laptop. After cross sectioning the skull with the FBI data base and victims weight within minutes Ann rushed back into the room with a digital printout of the enhancement. It looked remarkably like Big Pete.
Thomas studied the print amazed at the type of work she was able to turn out within hours. "That's remarkable but are you sure it is accurate?"
" I entered everything in and downloaded a new program from Arlington. The FBI has different files for the various racial and ethnic groupings in the United States and also for approximate age and weight. When I programmed those variables in it gave me a good basis. This is our man."
Ann looked at the gold coin Menlow had discovered. "Where did you get that?"
" I pried open his clenched hand. The coin was in a plastic cover. It seems to be quite an old coin. There are almost no visible scratches on the coin although it is dated 1924. It probably was an uncirculated coin extremely rare and quite valuable to collectors. Do me a favor before we turn this in to Police property, run me a check on it over the Internet will you? The more we know about the victim the easier it will be to find out who he was and then maybe who killed him. If he had more of these that gives a pretty good motive.'
" Greed and robbery." Ann addressed. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors goods."
" Who ever did this crime broke more than one of the Ten Commandments." Menlow answered. "I wouldn't want to be in their shoes on judgment day."
" Who would?" Ann responded.

*

As Ann checked the Internet making herself more familiar with uncirculated coins or numismatics as they were called Menlow couriered the photos Ann had put together over to the homicide department. Shortly after he got a call from Jack Clancy lead investigator.
" Tom. It's Jack. I just got your package. How accurate is this picture. From what I understand the body was pretty badly decomposed."
" Ann ran them from one of her new programs. She says it's quite accurate. We had the hairline, skeletal structure and eye color. We built this face from ground up. Run with it and see what you can find. This guy didn't die in his sleep. He was killed with no sign of a struggle. One thing was interesting. We pried open his hand and found a rare twenty-dollar gold piece. I looked at in under the scope. It's over seventy-five years old and looks like it might be uncirculated."
" Robbery." Jack thought aloud.
" Most likely." Tom responded. "Ann's now on the Internet but maybe you can run a photo check to the local coin dealers. He had to buy these someplace. He was a big fellow my guess is around two hundred and seventy five pounds and at least six feet three. He's not the kind of person that would go unnoticed."
" Thanks for the lead. I'll put some investigators on it. Let me know if you come up with anything else."
" I will." Menlow hung up the phone. He hoped he hadn't missed anything. He walked over to the bag of personal effects and pulled out the victim's shoes. They were large at least size thirteen and the bottom was caked with oil and dust. He put them under the scope and started to dig out the debris with his small scalpel. Embedded in the dirt were fresh metal shavings. Menlow put the evidence in a proper bag and filled out the tag and sent it out to the police lab. He went back and examined some of the stomach contents and noticed what he thought was remnants of chili peppers. He saved that as well in a jar and labeled them. He knew overlooking the smallest clue could let a cold-blooded killer out on the street to strike again.
He wondered why the victim had shown no signs of struggle. It was unusual for someone that big to go without a fight unless he was taken off guard. He also thought about the disposal of the body. It would have taken at least two people to lift a stiff that big into a container. Menlow was anxious to share his thoughts with Clancy.