bodies found inside were parents who ran into the flames to try to save their children. But most of the villagers were hacked to pieces by the militia, who were waiting for them. The children were only bait.” He took her arm and was moving her toward the door. “And now I’m getting you out of here. Jill won’t be pleased that I let you get this upset. You’re done. You’ve seen it, you won’t forget it.”
No, she’d never forget it, Eve thought. It wasn’t just the terrible ruins, it was as if the spirits of those children were still here…still waiting.
She pulled her arm away. “It’s not as if I’m going to break down or anything, Gideon.” She concentrated on keeping her voice steady. “I’ve seen terrible things before in my career. It’s just that this is…overwhelming. I feel if I look over my shoulder, I might see them there.” She did not look over her shoulder, but at him. “I thought this Hajif was going to meet us here.”
“He always asks if he can meet us at the museum a little down the road. It’s only a few yards away, and he finds this place pretty hard to take.” He was leading her farther into the jungle. They were passing a beautiful brook surrounded by tall boulders. It seemed odd that anything beautiful could exist this close to that atrocity, Eve thought dully. And Gideon was saying quietly, “Hajif’s grandson was killed in the massacre at the school.”
Hajif. Eve thought for a moment, then made the connection with the biography Jill had written. “Hajif, grandfather of Amari, nine years old. Amari liked building model airplanes with his father. He wanted to be a pilot when he grew up…”
“You have a good memory. His father was also killed in the massacre. Now there’s just Hajif and his wife, Leta, left.”
“It doesn’t take a good memory to remember what Jill wrote about Robaku.” She changed the subject. “Museum? Jill never mentioned a museum.”
“It’s part of Zahra’s memorial. Not that there are many museum artifacts there. Just a few trinkets and photos. She just wanted a place to entertain dignitaries and news media that would show her off to advantage and keep her designer outfits from being contaminated by the soot of the schoolhouse.” He lifted his head as a small black man with grizzled hair and lined face, dressed in flowing trousers and a loose white shirt, appeared, coming toward them. “Hajif.” He moved quickly toward the man and bowed. Then he rattled off something in an African dialect and turned to Eve. “Eve Duncan, Hajif. She came to see Amari and his friends and hopes she can be of service.”
“Jill Cassidy told me of her.” The old man’s English was broken but his expression was desperately eager as he turned to Eve. “It’s we who should strive to serve you. Ask us, and it will be given.”
“I don’t know if I can help you,” Eve said gently. “I’ll have to examine the skulls and see if the damage will prevent me from being able to measure and do the sculpting. I understand there was considerable…” She hesitated. She didn’t want to say that during fires, the brain often exploded and shattered the skull. “The fire might be a problem…”
“But Jill said you are wonderful and can work with such problems. Is that not true?”
“If there are no other elements that cannot be overcome.”
Hajif was silent. “Please.” His dark eyes were glittering with moisture. “We need to see him at least one more time as he was. My wife, Leta, keeps hoping that Amari escaped into the jungle and is afraid to come home to the village. She will not listen to me. She said that head in the box is not her Amari.”
Eve frowned. “Head in the box?”
Gideon said quickly: “The remains of the children were sent to the American embassy to be kept at the medical lab there until they could be ID’d. But the villagers made such a fuss about the skulls being taken that they were allowed to keep them on-site until it was decided how to dispose of them.”
“She kept them,” Hajif said. “It should not be. They belong to us.”
“Zahra stepped in and took over the preservation of the skulls until the decision could be made,” Gideon said. “She put the skulls in her museum.”
Eve stiffened. “What?”
“With all due respect, of course,” he said ironically. “Blessed by the church. Properly preserved in specially crafted