“Huh, thatisa bit odd,” said Harper.
“Do you recognize the language?” Jenny asked.
Harper shook her head. “A few of the words are Latin; ‘medicamentum’ refers to medicine, obviously. No idea about the rest.”
“Medicine is a gift, maybe?” suggested Jenny.
“Maybe. The question is: What’s an antique medical cabinet doing in the old barrack ruins?” Harper mused.
“Maybe you could talk to the MPs and ask them about it?” suggested Jenny. “I was really hoping it might open up some ideas for a new episode. Weird things hidden in the bowels of the abandoned barracks…”
“Aurelio’s been keeping tabs on the MP patrols,” said Blanca. “They’re pretty regular and go by there every day around eleven in the morning and three thirty in the afternoon. In case you wanted to talk to them or, you know, go there without getting caught.”
“Good to know, but I don’t think I’ll be going back. This one might have to remain a mystery.”
“So, I went online and checked out Harvard Medical School, back into the 1800s,” said Jenny.
“They have online records that go back that far?” Harper asked.
“Are you kidding me? Harvard graduates love to boast about their school. And here’s the thing: Soren Perles was a student there but never graduated. Ever.”
“And…?”
“I don’t think he was a real doctor. And get this: When he was there, he was arrested for grave robbing!”
“What?”
“Back in the day medical students had to dig up their own corpses to practice anatomy, if you can believe it. It was against the law, and Soren Perles got caught. And check this out: The current manager of the lab there just got arrested for marketing human body parts. Or something along those lines.”
“You’re talking about now? Modern day?” Harper asked.
Jenny nodded. “You should listen to the podcast. Like we were saying, there’s a whole online market for human bones and body parts.”
“I can’t believe that.”
“They’re usually listed as ‘hooman’ ”—she spelled it out—“to avoid the search engines. Lots of people are into them. You can make loads of money.”
“Do people use them for ceremonies of some kind?”
Blanca shrugged and checked her phone. “A lot of people bedazzle them.”
“They do what to them?”
“You know, decorate them, with a hot glue gun and glitter and stuff?” Jenny called up a site on her phone and showed it to Harper. Skulls, pelvises, and other bones had been painted, bedazzled with beads and spangles and glitter, and were selling for large sums of money.
“I’m…stunned.”
“I know, right? I think Joel might have been involved somehow, too.”
Blanca nodded.
“In the sale of body parts?” Harper noticed Naomi watching them. What was her problem?
“Mostly just bones, I think.”
“Told you he’s weird. Kinda delulu, you know what I mean?”
“I don’t, actually.”
