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“Yeah,” Chen said. “I passed that meteorologist guy who always goes to the worst weather locations by the park this morning. That’s never a good sign.”
I signaled to the EMT that I was ready for him and was glad to see a familiar face. “How’s it going, Percy?” I asked.
“Could be better,” he said. “Caught this at the end of my twelve hours.”
I winced in sympathy. “Isn’t that the way it always happens. Guess you haven’t learned to pretend you’re in the bathroom during that last call at end of shift.”
“Believe me,” he said, putting the stretcher down next to the victim. “I’ve used it. But you can’t overuse it. I’m already on my third time this month. Usually I let the rookie take these. He needs the practice. But it’s his kid’s birthday today, so I told him to head home.”
“That’s why they call you a hero,” I said deadpan.
Percy snorted and called out to his partner who was opening the back of the ambulance. “Hey, Henry, let’s get out of here before we’re all washed down the river.”
Percy pulled an electronic device out of his pocket, clicked a couple of boxes, and then handed it for me to sign.
“Thank God for technology,” he said. “Paper release forms on a clipboard wouldn’t have done it today.”
I signed for the transport and release of the body, and then he shoved the device back inside his jumpsuit.
Percy and Henry lifted the woman onto the stretcher and then carried her to the back of the ambulance, sliding her in and slamming the doors shut.
“Catch you on the other side,” Percy said.
“Ahh, Friday the thirteenth ,” Chen said. We watched the red lights of the ambulance as they pulled away.
“Yeah,” I said. “And just think, the full moon isn’t even out yet.”
Chapter Four
“Do you believe in all that stuff?” I asked Jack on the way back to the funeral home. “The superstitions of Friday the thirteenth and the full moon. Do you think that’s why we’re being slammed with bodies?”
“Nope,” he said. “But people are people, and it’s easier to put a label on things. Everyone has a label for everything nowadays. I heard on the news this morning that a Friday the thirteenth full moon only occurs once every twenty years. That’s plenty of time for people to amp themselves up, to watch their violent horror movies, jump at shadows and let their imaginations go crazy. Dates and triggers and memories…they do something to people and sometimes they just snap. You can’t always explain everything. Maybe that’s why Christmas and New Year are the highest murder days of the year.”
He pulled into the driveway at the funeral home behind the ambulance. “I need to get back and check on the flooding issues. You got it from here?”
“Yeah,” I said, leaning over to give him a quick kiss. “I guess I’ll see you when I see you.”
“Eat something healthy to offset all the coffee you’ve had,” he said. “You can’t live on caffeine alone.”
“Filthy lies,” I said, looking horrified. “I’m a doctor. I know these things.” I winked at him and pushed my way out of the truck and back into the rain and wind.
I let Percy and Henry do the heavy lifting, so to speak, and get our Jane Doe into the lab that occupied the basement of Graves Funeral Home. My parents had operated the funeral home before me, so I’d never questioned where they worked. What I hadn’t realized was that they had a Frankenstein kind of lab set up where they were smuggling everything from money to weapons inside the bodies.
The security was tighter than Fort Knox and the equipment was top of the line. You could afford the best of everything when your criminal enterprise was successful.
Once they’d gotten her downstairs, I signed the device again for receipt of Jane Doe, and then followed them back upstairs. “Feel free to grab something to drink. There’s sodas in the refrigerator. Or water.”
“We are leaving and turning our phones and radios off,” Percy said, giving me a two-fingered salute. “This shift is officially over.”
“I hear you,” I said, and Percy and Henry were on their way.
I stripped out of my rain gear and boots and stashed them in the mudroom to dry out. I locked the door since I was going to be down in the lab, knowing Lily and Sheldon could get in using the code. And then, out of guilt, I rummaged around in the refrigerator, thinking Jack and Emmy Lu must be in cahoots, because it was stocked with things I wouldn’t eat on a normal basis.
I pulled out a bowl of hummus and sliced veggies, and then didn’t feel guilty for starting another pot of coffee. I carried my plate to my office just off the kitchen and snacked on a carrot while I stripped out of my wet clothes and put on a pair of black leggings and a thin black sweater. And then I shoved my feet into sneakers because I was going to be standing for a while.
The funeral home was quiet, which wasn’t unusual, but I hadn’t seen the Suburban in the parking lot so I assumed Lily and Sheldon were still at the Hargrove house. Emmy Lu’s minivan was parked in her spot, and she was probably tucked away in her office. She’d have seen me come in on the cameras. Emmy Lu didn’t miss much.
I did feel more energized after eating, so I grabbed another cup of coffee and then headed downstairs. It was cold in the lab, and I grabbed my lab coat off the hook out of habit, pulling it on over my clothes, and then I grabbed a heavy canvas apron to put on top of that. There was no such thing as too much protection. I’d seen some weird things happen with bodies over the years.
