AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ve got a uniform checking out Reverend Oglesby’s house, but he lives over in King George Proper, so it’ll be a while before he reports in.”
“Hand over a couple of the larger bags,” I said. “Most of his fingernails have been removed, but he still has the thumbnail. Maybe he’s got some skin under there.”
I bagged both of the victim’s hands, though the task was more unpleasant than I remembered. It might’ve had to do with his hands feeling like sacks of uncooked rice floating in gelatin instead of skin and bones.
“Do you want to turn him?” Jack asked.
“No. I’ve got everything I need for now. I can do more at the lab. There’s not much more for me to do here.”
Jack nodded and called out to a couple of his men. “Let’s get him loaded up.”
My lab was in the basement of Graves Funeral Home, and it had all the necessary equipment for preparing the flesh for burial or making serious Y-cuts for autopsies. It hadn’t been used in a while, and I was nervous about seeing it after being gone for so long. Would the smell of embalming fluid and antiseptic have dissipated over time, or would that lingering scent of death still hover in the air?
I stood up and let a couple of the uniforms maneuver the victim into a body bag. An ambulance had arrived on scene at some point and one of the EMTs had wheeled over a gurney. The back of my Suburban was stacked high with suitcases and a few boxes of my parents’ belongings I’d found in a closet at the cabin. Once I got rid of the boxes and burned everything inside of them, I’d have a lot more room for bodies in the back. Until then, I had to make do with the ambulance.
“I hope you’re not expecting a fast turnaround on this, Jack. That guy has so many wounds I’m not even sure where to start. And—” I took a shaky breath before I could finish. “I just don’t know how long it will take me.”
I saw his hand coming and braced myself for the touch. He watched me closely as the weight of his hand landed softly on my shoulder. The longer we stood there like that—after I reminded myself to keep breathing—the more I started to relax. The tension crept out of my body and I kept my eyes steady on his. The strength and support of his touch never wavered. I could trust Jack with my life. I already had.
“Just take it one step at a time. I’ll be with you every step of the way on this one. At least until you get settled back in.”
I’d normally be annoyed at having someone underfoot while I was working. Especially Jack. He’d never been comfortable watching the things I had to do down in the funeral home basement, and I didn’t need to lose focus if I was going to do this job well. But I was grateful he’d taken the choice away from me. The last thing I wanted was to be alone with a John Doe and my own thoughts. I’d never been truly comfortable with the dead. Or at least I’d never been before. Maybe things would be different now that I’d almost been one of them.
“We need to verify ID so I can notify next of kin. I’ll get his prints and make a comparison from inside his house.”
We walked back to our cars and I pulled off the latex gloves with a snap before shoving them in the back pocket of my jeans. I opened the door of the Suburban and propped my foot on the sideboard before turning back to Jack. The sun was just beginning to lighten the sky to a pearl grey. Colburn and the other cops would be starting a search of the area before too much longer, and I’d be back on familiar ground, keeping company with the dead and wondering why I wasn’t one of them. Life was a funny thing. A finite thing. And you never realized how finite until you’d crossed that line from life to death and then back again.
“Jaye?” Jack asked. By the look on his face it was obvious he’d tried to get my attention more than once.
“Sorry.” I scrubbed a hand over my face and then massaged the back of my neck. “I guess I’m just tired. It’s been a long night.”
“You should grab a couple of hours sleep before you start on the body. He’ll keep until we verify the ID. Where are you staying?”
I turned my head and watched the light spread through the trees as the sun rose. I didn’t want to face the question Jack was really asking. Whether or not I’d be able to stay alone in the house I’d almost died in.
“I’ll stay at the funeral home for now. I’ve decided to put the house on the market.”
It was the first time I’d said it out loud, but immediately I felt as if a giant weight had been lifted off my chest. I was selling the home that I’d grown up in. A crumbling legacy I was supposed to pass on to my nonexistent children. And I was okay with it.
“You know I’ve always got an extra room if you need it,” Jack said, tucking my hair behind my ear. “And I’ll even promise not to sneak in and take pictures while you’re in the shower and sell them for a quarter in the lunchroom.”
I narrowed my eyes, remembering the moment well. Third grade hadn’t started off well for me. My dating life had pretty much been ruined by the time I was eight. “You still owe me eleven dollars for that stunt.”
“You can send me the bill. Or I can buy you a cheeseburger.”
“That’s a damned expensive cheeseburger. I think a cheeseburgeranda beer will cover the tab. ”
He smiled—a flash of white teeth and just the hint of one dimple that had driven one of his high school girlfriends to rhapsodize over it on the bathroom wall at the stadium in haiku.
“Works for me,” he said. “It’s a date.”
Jack was already inside his cruiser by the time I got my mouth closed. I had a feeling I’d just been manipulated by a master.
“Dead body,” I reminded myself. “Priorities.” I slammed the car door shut and started the engine.Inhale and exhale. Breathing gave me something to think about the whole way back to the funeral home. I was alive. That was the only thing that mattered. Everything else could wait.
Chapter Four
Graves Funeral Home was on the corner of Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. It was a three-story Colonial monstrosity with dark red brick and huge white columns. Two gnarled elm trees with roots that clawed up from the ground like bony fingers arched from either side of the sidewalk to form a canopy of sorts. The branches were as bare as the rest of the yard.
