Shadows Disinterred: Day 1

Word Count: 6,034

Summary of Events:
Dallas spent time with his dad's side of the family for their Easter gathering and was given something by his cousin that she wanted him to check out. Dallas arrived home Easter Monday and had a rather sour talk with his sister on the phone. The next day Dallas took what his cousin had given him to the lab and then was asked by a fellow officer to take statements for them while they investigated a robbery. Later that day Dallas went back to the lab and received results that left him reeling.

Excerpt of the Day:
"Dallas said noting and watched as Madeline finally got out her key and opened the trunk. Laying on the black carpet was a spade. Dallas felt it was all rather anticlimactic: a spade? It looked like the same kind of spade a person could find at any home improvement store, or even in anyone's toolshed.
"It's a spade," Dallas said flatly.
"Yes, but here," Madeline said, taking hold of the handle and the blade and lifting it out of the trunk. She put the handle under her arm and indicated some dark spots near where the blade and handle met. "These spots, they look like dried blood to me — they remind me of what some of our facecloths used to look like after Theodore, Peter, or Brandon had a bloody nose."
Dallas looked closely at the spots and nodded. He reached out and felt the spade handle between them; the varnish was worn off, thus any liquid that came into contact with the spade would soak into the wood fibres.
"It could very well be blood," Dallas said. "But seriously Madeline, goodness knows if this relic was in an antique shop, it was on somebody's farm — Grandpa's probably got a dozen of these things — and if this thing's old enough, I mean, people used to butcher chickens and cattle and goodness knows what other farm animals by themselves instead of sending it to a butcher, this could be random farm animal blood. I mean honestly, just because you have a cop for a cousin doesn't mean every little thing you encounter could be suspicious." . . .
. . . "There were thirty marks on the shovel that yielded information," Rod said.
Dallas nodded, not sure why Rod seemed to be dragging things out.
"The rest of them had insufficient staining to yield much, but they were likely blood as well," Rod continued. "And of the thirty marks that yielded information, they can be divided into eight groups of perfect matches. I've sent them off for further examination."
"So, like, five of them were all of one type of blood and three were another?" Dallas asked.
"Yes," Rod replied.
"Okay," Dallas said.
"And, like I said, I sent them off for further examination," Rod said.
"Why?" Dallas asked. "Don't you have the capability to find out whether they are cow blood or chicken blood or not? Or are you trying to specify if it's Hereford and Leghorn?"
"No," Rod replied, his face going so serious Dallas felt chilled, and almost like the bright lights of the lap should've dramatically dimmed.
"Well, then what?" Dallas asked, feeling nervous.
"I sent them off for further examination because all eight samples are human blood," Rod replied."