I was thinking of a story for you. Something to blow your mind away. Let me start it like this and then you can see if you want to be blown away.... I am a world traveler. I go many places, but the place I most remember are the years I spent in Cape Verde Islands.
My name is Lillian Brite. I am a archaeologist from Yale University. I was on a dig in the Cape Verde Islands, which are an overseas possession of Portugal about three hundred twenty-five miles west of Cape Verde (site of Dakar) off the West African mainland.The artifacts that I was looking for were from the fifteenth century, when the island was discovered by the Portuguese. When they first arrived, the island was uninhabited. Now, the islands, ten of them and 5 islets, only 9 have inhabitants. I learned from the time I have spent here that these people have their own customs and culture. They have a kind of chant, called Morna, which means, "neither hot nor cold".
On my fifth week on the island searching for the lost relics of the time, I came upon a site called Misericordia Church, in Santiago, where I had unearthed a body. The person whom I found was not of the time I was searching but of this time I am, the time I live. A investigation into the discovery soon became the highlight of the dig. The Minister of Colonies in Lisbon sent out several men to help with the investigation into what turned out to be a murder, something that was not common in this place. Most of the Cape Verdeans are Roman Catholic and so the mass for this woman, this 25 year old female, named Copra Rolas, was soon to be set and the burial was then to follow. After collecting all the surrounding evidence, she was taken away. I was only allowed to stay and help because of my background in criminal forensics. My studies had changed after my 3rd year because I was not sure I wanted to be surrounded by the death of the present, but of the past. But, now, here on this island, I am thrown into the present without thinking twice about the reason. The lead investigator, who was a tall man, about 6 ft, with blond hair that was cut short, blue eyes, and a lean, strong body, came to me and introduced himself as Antonio Tristan. He talked to me of the woman's past, of what he was able to learn. She was a nun who lived lived in nearby Maio Island. He was told that she sometimes came to visit the ruins of the old church because she was closer to God somehow. She was believed to have had visions of the Mother Mary and she was sent to this place led by those visions. People who were strong of faith, believed that Copra was in fact the visionary that was talked about. Her mass was going to be a religious celebration like no other, except the death of Christ Himself. She was the saint of their Island.
When the day came to have the celebration of death, and the whole of the Islands came to say their prayers for this young nun who was killed by strangulation, Antonio and Lillian were there to watch. They sat together in the back of the church to see what each person who walked past the open casket of the lovely Copra would do. They took pictures of anyone who seemed to linger too long, or wanted to touch her face or her hands, which was the same as a priest giving you a blessing. If you touched someone who has had visions of Christ or of Mary, they think that they are somehow blessed with the sainthood miracles she possessed. No one seemed to stick out to the couple and so the celebration went on and then the burial took place.
As in all investigations, you always return to the site of the crime to rehash what you have and to look for something you might have missed when there were so many people around. Antonio and I went together, in fact, we spent most of every day together since we first met on the day I found the lovely Copra. He had a very strong personality and he was very funny. We talked for hours about the case, and other things. I found him to be very easy to talk to and so I would tell him things I would not share with any other soul. As we walked up to the site,we noticed that there was a small white cross on the spot I had found the body. Also that the earth had been scraped off the spot, like it had been peeled away. Antonio told me that some believe that the earth under a person who was a martre would be holy and had healing powers. Someone had come and taken it and would probably try to sell it as so.
We returned to Porto Grande, South Vicente Island. I had a room at the largest hotel on the beach. Antonio had asked me to go into the deep island with him to hear something that would bring me to my knees when I heard it. He told me that it was a chant that was from the time I was digging for, and that this would be the best thing I could find from then. How could I pass up that. I dressed in jeans and a light t-shirt because of the heat, it was the rainy season and hottest time, which was from July to November, and it was August. I also put my hair up to keep it off my neck. He came to call just when he said he would, but I still had a few things to do before we set out, so I invited him in. I went behind my dressing screen and I finished putting on my garments, all the while he was watching my shadow on the outside of the screen. I came out to a sudden and shocked expression, being caught in a fantasy building in his mind.He blushed and then washed it away with a quick hug and said to go. We drove a while until the road became a gravel road and then to a dirt road. Soon we came to the end of the way with the car, and we then had to hike the rest of the way. He brought out two backpacks and gave one to me. It was a slight bit heavy and he refused to tell me what was inside except to say dinner. I lugged it up on my back and we set off to this wonderful and magical place he had told me about. We traveled about 20 minutes before he told me we were there. He picked out a spot and then pulled out a big blanket and a couple of small pillows out of his pack, I laughed because I was carrying the heavy food and he had pillows and blankets. He then pulled out a large bag which had a tape player and a camera and several heavy items. I then saw that it made his pack much heavier than mine and I apologized for laughing. He only looked at me and smiled. I gave the pack to him next and he pulled out a dinner of cheese, crackers, sliced up grilled chicken and grapes. Also he pulled out a bottle of wine, two glass wine glasses and a corkscrew. After the blanket was spread out with all the delicious food and we were settled on the pillows with our glasses in hand and wine poured, we said a salute to Copra Rolas. May she rest in peace and her killer be caught. We dined on the meat and cheese, devouring all of it and finishing off with the grapes which he fed to me and I him after the wine was making us a little giggly. We lay back on the blanket after all the wine was gone and all the mess was packed up. It was dark now and the only light we had was a small fire Antonio had built to keep the darkness from creeping up on us. He rolled over to his side and looked at my silhouette. He had seen several women in his life, but this one made him have desires for the mind and the body, something he never usually cared about. I felt him staring and turned on my side and I looked into the eyes that seemed more blue at night. They had a kind of smile in them and he reached over with his hand and caressed my face. She was about 38, he could tell from the tiny lines around her eyes, and my blue eyes smiled back at him with the life experience of such an age. He put his hand behind my head and pulled me to him and we put our lips together. Just a soft touch, but enough to tell that I was wanting of him too.The fire played over the skin like dancing shadows from the depth of the world. I awoke with him wrapped around my body with his arms, I felt the softness he had and the deep sleep he was under. I snuggled to him, purely in love with what we just shared. I kept my eyes closed until I heard something. It was like a low murmur at first, then it grew into a sort of music like a sort of leitmotiv. It conveyed the sadness or loneliness of a faraway place where the waves break eternally on the shores. I woke up Antonio and told him what I heard and he smiled and told me that is what they came up there to hear. I was trying to peek through the trees to see where the sound was coming from but they must move on to see what they came for. We got as close to the scene as possible. A large group of people were around a fire and they were not singing but sort of humming and the sound was beautiful. He was right, I did not want to miss this. We sat down on the blanket he was holding and we held each other and listened to the sounds of the night and the sounds of the people. We must have fallen asleep sometime during the night. OI awoke in his arms again, but we were dressed and we were out in the open sunlight. The people were all gone, and the fire was now smoldering.
I woke up Antonio again with a kiss. He smiled to me and told me good morning. They were both in love. They both felt it. He wanted to wake up with me every morning. I felt the same. We made our way back to the car and we traveled to my hotel and we both went in. I got into the shower and he started to order some food from room service. He whispered to me that he loved her.I spun around and threw my arms around his neck and kissed him and told him I loved him too.
After we ate and dressed, he still in the clothes from the night before, decided to go to his house and get him changed and them go to the lab to see what was found on the evidence. When we arrived at the lab, the technician was very excited. He had found a fingerprint on her shoe. She was not raped but she was drug by the feet to the site of burial. She had some traces of coffee and clay, also some traces of sugar- cane. If you can find the place that has all of those together, you can find the site of abduction or at least a place to start to look for the killer. The ground that she was in is changed because of the atmosphere becoming heavy and cloudy and the soil issues forth a certain humidity, and so the body decomposed fairly quickly. But the fingerprint was left and the same soil held it in place. They were in the process when Antonio got a call to go to Praia. The islands are administered by a governor appointed by the Minister of Colonies in Lisbon. The seat of the government is in Praia, which is the chief city in the Archipelago as well as the capital of its largest island, Santiago.
He left the technician several Portuguese escudos, which is equal to $5. American dollars, and told him to go out to lunch on him, the tech thanked him with a smile. When he got to Praia, he let them know what they had found. The fingerprint would take several hours and we needed to find a place that had all the common traits that we were told. We went to the survey office in the building and got a map of the islands. The only place we could find all the same items talked about was the volcanic island of Fogo. As we go to it, I noticed that it was shaped like cone. On its slopes grew some of the best coffee in the world I was told. The panorama view was so beautiful, I could see why Copra would have come up here to pray. Here the dark cliffs stand high above the sea while banana orchards and sugar-cane brakes spill their rich green tones over undulating hills.As we drove our car up the roads to the place that we thought would hold some insight to the murder, we took in the sights and held hands. We drove up to the building used to gather and pack up the coffee and the sugar-cane to sell off to other lands. There seemed to be no one there. We got out and started to look around. There was clay all around in the soil and so we knew we were close. As we entered the buildings, I bent down because I saw something on the ground that I needed to see closer. As I pulled it up, I let out a small scream. It was a rosary. I knew that we were in the right place. Antonio came over and took it from me and we carefully went on to see what else we could find.
As we went on, we found a place on the ground that looked like there was a struggle. Then some tire marks and the dragging of something up to the tire marks. This is where she was taken off. But why? Farther on we came to a large room, and in it was a table that was covered with pieces of wood that looked the same color and style as the wood from the cross on the site of the burial. On another table to the side were several big buckets filled with dirt. No doubt the soil removed from the site also. The only three questions now to answer were who, why, and why not the soil from the building, why the soil from the burial.She must have died on the dirt in the buckets, not in the buildings.
We went back to Praia and told of our findings. We had to find more. We had to find the owner of the print. Hours past and they were discussing things about the case when the phone rang in his office. The lab had found a match and they gave Antonio an address. He gathered several men and he went to the house that Maxwell Polk lived. He was in the back, he looked a little like a kid. He was in fact 28 but looking at him you would think 18. He was laying on the couch in the room next to the kitchen, he looked like he was sleeping. He had a rosary in his hands exactly like the one we found earlier. The medal of Mary was right over his heart. When someone touched him to wake him up, they then realized that he was dead. Later when he was examined they found that he had died of an overdose. When later they went back to search the house, they found his computer still with the last work he had done on it, and it was all they needed to answer the questions.
Maxwell was a greedy young man, who bought and sold drugs for a living. He knew where to grow the drugs so no one would find them or to come across them. He owned the coffee and sugar-cane mill and he would keep his secrets up there. Then came along Copra. She knew where she was, because Mary in her vision had brought her up there.She entered the building only to be attacked by Maxwell and then drug off to the truck inside the building. He drove her to the church ruins so no one would find her. He killed her there and buried her and left her there. But as he wrote in his journal, things started to happen to him. He woke up with a woman standing over him, then she would disappear. He was called up on the phone and was told to dig up the dirt and take it to the place she had last been alive and spread it out on the earth for the healing. He had been hearing voices in his head and he had taken the drugs to keep them away. Antonio figured that the voices got the better of him and he took too much. The rosary on his chest had left a mark on it, like a small burn. When examined up close, it was the Sacred Heart of Mary......
Later that year, Lillian married Antonio and they started their life together. Many lovemaking sessions into their lives, they found out she was having a baby. They named their little girl Mary.
by Madison Marina copyrighted 2005 Hk
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