Death Mask by Michael Devaney

finger toward the puddle on the floor. She quickly nodded back, ticking her head upward as if encouraging him to once again lift the glass covering off the mask.
    Finn swallowed hard and maneuvered his way around the night guard’s body to follow her bidding. When he lifted the glass, the mask didn’t disappoint. It immediately stopped sobbing and spat out another rhyming couplet:
     
    “ Please, please release my soul,
    Everything you need is buried in a hole. ”
     
    Finn’s jaw went slack. “Release your soul?” he uttered.
    “Yes,” the mask replied. “ Everything you need is buried in a hole. ”
    “Like a grave?” Finn asked.
    The mask tilted its weight forward then said:
     
    “ Dry, dry bones are mine,
    Try my bones and make a find. ”
     
    “It’s a gravesite... His gravesite,” Finn said, excitedly. “That’s where we find the answers.”
    A satisfied smile spread across the mask’s face and, as if on a repeating loop, it kept reciting the original couplet over and over:
     
    “ Dry, dry bones are mine,
    Try my bones and make a find. ”
     
    “ Dry, dry bones are mine,
    Try my bones and make a find. ”
     
    Then suddenly the clear tears turned to blood. The crimson droplets first collected at the corners of the mask’s eyeholes then rolled, in smeared streaks, down its alabaster cheeks. The stark contrast of colors created an eerie image. Within seconds the red liquid also began trickling from its nose and the corners of its mouth.
    Finn replaced the glass on top of the pedestal then calmly turned to Andria and asked, “Care to take another plane trip?”
    “Where to?” Andria asked.
    “ His gravesite,” Finn said, pointing at the mask.
    “I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Andria said. “But first, we’re gonna need some sand to keep this thing quiet.”
     
    ***
     
    Finn and Andria hung around to keep the area undisturbed until the paramedics and police arrived, but also to get some insight into what might have happened.
    “Did you know him?” Finn asked.
    “Yes,” Andria said. “His name was Juan Gonzales. He was from Ecuador. We occasionally spoke in passing or sometimes exchanged niceties in the break room. He was a really nice man.”
    “I’m sorry you had to see him like that.”
    “Thank you. It was upsetting, but I’ll be okay.”
    “Even so, it’s a tough situation. Do you think with him being the night guard he would have seen anything suspicious these last couple of weeks that may have spurred this to happen?”
    “Hmm. I hadn’t thought of that, but I guess if anyone were in position to experience anything weird related to the mask it would have been him. I could ask some of his peers to see if he’d told them anything or had been acting unusual. Come to think of it, he also has a locker on the museum’s premises to store personal items while he’s working. I could go through them to see if there’s anything that would help.”
    “I’d say yes to both.”
    After the crime scene was securely taped off, Andria went to her office leaving Finn and the others to do their jobs. When the opportunity was right Finn approached the on duty representative from the coroner’s office and flashed his badge.
    “So, Mr. Mercer,” he asked, reading the name plate above the man’s uniform pocket. “Based on the position of the body, skin color and elasticity, blood loss, etc…what would you guess was the reason and time of death?”
    “It’s hard to say without a thorough investigation, but the time of death looks to be pretty recent; probably less than six hours ago. As for the reason, that’s anyone’s guess. The only interesting things we’ve found so far are the look of extreme terror frozen on the deceased man’s face and a size 32oz. baseball bat confined underneath his body.”
    The look of terror makes perfect sense, Finn thought, but a baseball bat? Now that’s weird.
    “Well, if you had to venture a guess, off the record of course, what would