Doctor Lisa Flately's heels tapped briskly on the linoleum floor. The morgue was cold, and she was glad she had worn her pantsuit and jacket. She nodded at the guard fiddling with her paperwork while security opened the door for her. She was thinking about the strange call she received.
She worked in the museum in the city, and whatever was out there beyond the end of the city limits was not her problem. Or so she thought. The words that had sent her running were 'bog mummy.'
Lisa had seen bog mummies. Of course, they were amazingly well preserved, so much so she could easily see their features and know what they looked like. As far as she knew, this was the first bog mummy found in the states.
The security guard opened the door to the morgue. Lisa stepped in, nervously looking around. It was cold and smelled like disinfectant; she hoped she hadn't been called down there by mistake.
The corner greeted her. He was a short man with a slightly protruding gut and a balding head. "Mrs. Flately, thank you for coming."
"Where is it?"
He nodded. "Right this way."
He motioned to a shrouded figure. When he pulled off the sheet, Lisa gasped. It was definitely a bog mummy. Its clothes were old fashioned and looked to be around the Columbian time when the explorers had invaded America. Her face was smooth and peaceful. She sported several cuts to her torso, and around her neck was a rope.
"So she was tortured and hung. This was no sacrifice," Lisa said, pulling out her paperwork to take notes. "You say a group of boys found it?"
"Yes, that's right. They have a small clubhouse on the swamp. Good boys. They found her kind of washed up on the shore. I figure it must be the earthquake that might have unsettled everything."
"Maybe," Lisa said doubtfully. The quake hadn't seemed bad enough to make the swamp cough up its secrets.
"We determined this was an old body and not a recent murder victim, so we contacted you," the coroner said, covering the girl up.
"Thank you, Doctor I'm going to have it moved to a special room in the museum to preserve it until we have a chance to study it closer." She tossed her ash blonde hair over her shoulder, thrilled.
New discoveries were always exciting, and this had to be the best she had come across so far. But, so much needed to be done. She had to contact other museums with bog mummies and consult with them on the best ways to preserve it.
"I'd like to see where this was found if that's alright."
The coroner nodded. "Of course. I'll call a deputy to drive you to the temporary shelter, and show you."
"That will be fine."
The drive was uneventful to the tent city the residents called the 'clutch of tents.' It was set up to hold forty to a hundred people though only one was full. There was a bulldozer on the lot, clearing up debris.
The patrol car made its way through a small crowd of people with hurt eyes watching what was left of their homes be demolished.
He pulled alongside the swamp. "There's a cordoned-off section where she was found."
Lisa nodded and followed him making sure she didn't step into the bog and become a victim herself.
They went a good way into the swamp, the ground getting marshier and marshier, and if she hadn't wanted to see the place, the bog mummy was found, Lisa would have turned back. She spotted what appeared to be a shack on an elevated piece of land. Boys peered out at them, and she deduced those were the ones who found the mummy. She would definitely talk to them.
They arrived in a section cordoned off with crime tape. The deputy motioned to the ground. "Right here, missus. Guess it's sitting pretty as you please on this spot of dry land. The boys saw it. I suspected the ones watching us and got the police. We thought it was a murder victim at first."
"Well, actually she was," Lisa said, studying the ground and then the bog around it. "This didn't happen in an earthquake. The body would have to float up and then float over here. How strange. They didn't touch it? Move it?"
The deputy shook his head. "Not to our knowledge. Course a hundred years old, course it is, out of our expertise. It's not like we can talk to witnesses about it."
"How do you know it's hundreds of years old?"
"Well, ma'am, I read a bit, and so far, bog mummies are hundreds to thousands of years old. Unless you think this is a recent victim?"
Lisa shook her head. "I won't know until I can test her and get a sample to find how old she is. Thank you for bringing me, deputy. I'm ready to go back now." She was sticky with sweat and had to shoo bugs away from her.
"Sure, ma'am, right this way." He escorted her to the car.
During the ride back to the more populated area, she found herself mentally reviewing what needed to be done to keep the find in great shape, so it didn't deteriorate. She wondered if there were more in the marsh but knew the odds of them finding one was almost impossible.
Lisa still couldn't figure out how this bog mummy had appeared. They didn't float because the swamp didn't have the right environment for mummies to float up. Usually, they were found by draining an area or having an area dry up naturally. It was odd, but she was looking forward to running her tests and getting her data as soon as possible. She couldn't wait to find out what history the young woman was hiding.
