Doctor Leeds, I presume…
Heinlein and Leeds had just entered the Warren Police Department lobby when Gina – from behind the front desk – called over to her, “Doctor Leeds – State Police in Bordentown called…they want you to call back immediately over our landline”.
Heinlein looked at her quizzically. “Doctor Leeds?”
“Yeah” She replied. “I’ve got a Doctorate in Anthropology from Temple University in Philadelphia. I did my undergrad work at Rutgers, Camden.“
Before Heinlein could respond, she hustled off to call the NJ State Police at Gina’s station – and he saw his Chief, Gus Trevor, waiving him into his office. Gus looked agitated.
“New Jersey State Police Command in Trenton and the Attorney General’s Office say you’re supposed to stick with Leeds. Everywhere. Until this Morristown Memorial Hospital quarantine business is resolved, you guys are an item. Don’t call me unless you got somethin’ to report – just make sure it’s positive. And NJSP says use a burner phone. This is your extended assignment now.”
DEUS EX MACHINA…
For over 500 million years of its 4.5-billion-year history, the Earth has been teeming with life. About 315 million years ago, some one-celled protozoans encased in slime deposited themselves on a wet, nutrient-rich shoreline somewhere and – very slowly – evolved. Into humans.
But there were others already here. A dinosaur – it’s unclear whether or not it was technically a Reptile – had been evolving for billions of years. It was bi-pedal and had a large encephalization quotient – a large brain-to-body-mass percentage. Scientists are not absolutely certain it was an offshoot of the Troodon Formosis dinosaur family – but computer analysis of the data seems to suggest that when mankind finally started walking upright and hunting for its food an organism much more advanced, not by arithmetical but logarithmic leaps, claimed the Earth as its realm.
If this analysis is true, scientists have always been puzzled by how mankind survived to evolve – if a competitor so incredibly advanced on the evolutionary timeline was sharing its turf. Usually, a less-evolved species was eradicated by the stronger – especially when precious resources like food, water and livestock hung in the balance.
The only answer scientists can come up with is the obvious one: Humans were allowed to survive and evolve. Why? Nobody knows.
Computer-generated simulations of this advanced, Reptile-based predecessor species clearly show how different it would have appeared from humans. It would have scaled skin. A large head – with horned outcroppings – to contain a highly developed brain. Its facial features would be reptilian. Its eyes would be large and accustomed to indirect light. It would have a strong musculature and some variation of claws. It would certainly have had an advanced social structure, the ability to communicate and leverage its strength in numbers to fashion for itself a secure environment. A temperature-constant living space would be necessary because Reptiles are, essentially, cold-blooded and have difficulty modulating their body temperature within optimum degrees of warmth. A subterranean location would be ideal, free from the wild swings of earth’s weather patterns and punishing precipitation.
Their Havens would be deep and well-guarded, ever-expanding and more elaborate throughout the ages. Sophisticated by any metric. Would they have science? Mathematics? Machines in which they could fly? Non-verbal communication? Extra-sensory perception? Thought transference? Would they have outgrown the use of violence? Would their emotions be controlled by intellect? Would they be interested in making contact with a less-evolved species? Would they have morals? Would they have law? Would they worship a God?
QUESTION: What would humans be like in comparison to these Reptiles that had such an incredible head start – Billions of years – in the Evolutionary sweepstakes?
ANSWER: Pets.
Heinlein and Leeds headed up Mt. Horeb Road to look at the Wee-Tots Child Care Building that was still cordoned-off from the general public. They were then going to Morristown Memorial Hospital – Leeds urgent phone call at Warren HQ was orders to get to the Morristown Emergency Room ASAP. Something was up.
Ever since Warren Township EMS brought little Andrea Jameson and Tracy Marcam to Morristown ER from Wee-Tots Child Care, the Hospital Infectious Diseases Wing was sealed off by NJ National Guard troops in full Level 4 HazMat gear. Sargeant Leeds was now being told to get there as fast as she could. All they would tell her was NJ National Guard Units were being withdrawn.
As they both stared at the huge PSE&G trench that was still gaping at the side of the WeeTots Building, Heinlein’s car police radio blared.
“DETECTIVE HEINLEIN – CODE 3 – I REPEAT, CODE 3 – RESPOND TO AYERS SUNOCO STATION, 5168 OLD MARTINSVILLE ROAD – LIGHTS AND SIRENS – I REPEAT, LIGHTS AND SIRENS – CODE 3 – I REPEAT, CODE 3 – ACKNOWLEDGE”.
Heinlein acknowledged the “CODE 3” and floored his Ford Explorer, blasting through a red light on Washington Valley and Old Martinsville Road. The gas station they were being dispatched to was about a mile away. Within minutes they were screeching to a halt next to two other Warren Police cruisers with their lights on directly underneath the “AYERS SUNOCO” sign. Heinlein and Leeds jumped out of the vehicle with their holsters unsnapped not knowing what to expect.
Two huge new fiberglass gasoline tanks were lined up next to the gas station garage bays and a long-arm digger was positioned nearby. The gas station was obviously in the process of getting their old tanks swapped out. The long digger arm and bucket was still extended into the excavated chasm that it just pulled the old steel tanks out of. Two old, beat-up steel tanks were secured with cables on a vacant lot next door, waiting to be certified safe for destruction by the Department of Environmental Protection. They looked like they’d been in the ground since the fifties. The excavation was colossal – and looked like it had opened up a wastewater utility casement or sewer pipe at its deepest point. The stink was overpowering.
Heinlein and Leeds made their way to the edge of the gaping hole that three Warren uniformed officers were silently staring into as still as classical Greek statues.
“What you got here boys………………”
Heinlein stopped talking immediately. He whispered out loud, “Holy Sweet Jesus….”
Inside the hole were the body parts of three children – arms, legs, heads – all ripped off. Their torsos were split open, and their guts were gone. Their heads had no eyes – and brains oozed out of the sockets down the fronts of their little faces. Their legs looked gnawed on with large chunks of flesh torn off, exposing deeply serrated bones below. Feet that belonged on three legs were chewed clean off. One was lying there, still wearing a little shoe. Lungs and hearts were all torn from open chest cavities, strips of the organs hanging in ribbons of gore. In one torso, the spinal column had been ripped forward and picked clean of muscles and sinew. One thing was obvious – and macabre. There was no blood. The bodies had been sucked dry of it.
Heinlein said in as measured a voice as he could muster to the cops that were still staring shell-shocked at the scene from Hell spread out in front of them.
“We’ll need Forensics and a Medical Examiner here, guys. Cordon-off the scene. Let’s get to work”.
He looked at Leeds. Her eyes had welled up. She was clearly shaken.
“Dear God….Is there anything I can do?” She asked.
Heinlein knew they had to have the pros from Forensics and the Medical Examiner’s Office sift through the crime scene and document it before he, as a Detective, could start an investigation.
“Let’s go to Morristown Memorial and tie up your assignment. We can come back to this afterwards. I have a feeling it’s all going to eventually dovetail somehow….”
Copyright, Jon Croft 2025
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