Tom graciously paid for lunch and we headed back to the morgue. My right arm was killing me. I already had a nasty bruise from the night before, but I could feel there was more damage done by the bathroom door when that girl burst in on me. I ate most of my lunch with my left hand, luckily the boys, as I will forever call them, hadn’t noticed. I was thinking that I, perhaps, have something broken. I was trying so hard to be the hero, but it hurt. I can’t be the hero when I hurt, just the loser. I needed a few moments to myself so I asked Tom if I could use his office. He said yes and took Tam back down to the morgue to see Sara Olny, I told them I would be down in a while. I wasn’t too anxious to see her. I had a feeling that she wasn’t going to give up any secrets to the whereabouts of Kylie White.
I could hear them talk as they walked down the hallway. Tom told Tam that there wasn’t anything unusual about her. His words ricocheted off of the flat walls. They hit me and stung my skin like little static sparks. After the boys went out of sight, I went in search of Melissa, the Radiologist.
“It really hurts, huh?” She lifted my arm and I winced from the pain.
“YES!” I said emphatically.
“Sorry.” She fitted my arm on the X-ray table and placed the lead apron over the rest of me. “This won’t hurt a bit.”
I smiled in sarcasm and she did the same back to me.
“Does Tam know you’re here?”
“He’s down the hall.”
“How does he feel about me checking you out instead of a proper doctor, like the one you should be seeing?”
I was silent.
“You did tell him about this?”
“No. Why should I?”
She exhaled sharply with a bite, “Uh, ‘cause he’s your boy, right?”
“My ‘boy’... That’s funny.”
“I don’t see why you have to keep secrets from him.”
“It’s not a secret, just not public knowledge...yet. I’ll tell him.”
“Yeah, right, sure,” she said over her shoulder as she walked behind the x-ray shield. “Ok, hold still.”
She took two photos and then set me free. “Thanks, Mel. I owe you.”
“Forget about it. I’ll have these ready as soon as possible. In the meantime, keep this ice pack on it. It will help with the swelling.”
“Thanks so much, Mel. I really appreciate it.” I put the small pack under my shirt and let it rest directly on my skin. Oh, it burned! I tucked one corner of it under my bra strap, but I could still feel it shift as I moved. It didn’t really cover the spot that throbbed, but it would have to do for now.
“Just out of curiosity, Molly. If there is a break, how are you going to sport a cast without Tam knowing?”
“I suppose I’ll have to tell him if it comes to that.” I rolled my eyes.
“Please do. And keep that ice pack on it.”
“I’ll try...” I wanted to say, “Cast? What cast? I ain’t got time for no cast!”
I walked around slowly in the hallway, looking at the doors and the dirty windows that led into very cold rooms. I could hear the boys’ voices from the room behind me. They had gone back to the lab, most likely to see if the test results were ready. My feet stuck to the floor. I didn’t feel like taking another step so I made no effort to try to free them.
“I hate this place,” I muttered under my breath.
“You’ll be ok,” I heard whispered into my ear. I looked up to see Kat standing beside me.
“I don’t know why you insist on coming here. Can’t you find a better place to hang out?”
“I could say the same thing about you. Besides, I like spending time with you.”
“Yeah, real quality time.”
She laughs, “Just keep thinking happy thoughts.”
“Oh, Kat, you are my happy thought,” I said half sarcastically.
“That’s sweet. Lame, but sweet.”
“I’m trying to think happy thoughts, but I’ll be lucky if I’m just be able to think in here.”
“Case got you worried?”
“I would be worried about it if I could keep my mind on it.”
“Am I bothering you? I would think you’d be sick of me by now.”
Now it was my turn to laugh. “No, you are not bothering me. I’d take you forever if I could.”
“Again- sweet, but incredibly lame.”
I stuck my tongue out at her and she in turn wrinkled her nose at me.
“Did you see that girl yet?”
“What girl?”
“Sara Something-or-other...”
“Olny. Sara Olny.”
“Yeah, her. They brought her in the same time as Will.”
“What about her?”
“I take it you didn’t see her.”
“Kat, what are you getting at?”
“I think you should see her.”
“I was kind of on my way.”
“You weren’t moving.” I threw her a glance. She returned it with a shrug. “Well...You weren’t.”
“Tom said that there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary with her.”
“He doesn’t always see the same things you do. I really think that you should take a look at her.”
“All right, if you insist.”
She led me down the hallway where Sara was still laid out. The room was as cold as Will’s and I shivered a little as we walked in. Or maybe it was the ice pack frozen to my shoulder.
I walked over to Sara. She was so pretty: long dark hair and clear complexion. She had nice features that showed off her youthfulness. Lucky her. She’ll be young forever now. A folder lay on top of her chest. I opened it and took a quick scan of John the Coroner’s handwriting. Next to her on the silver tray that held various medical equipment sat a plastic bag with a thin gold necklace gathered at the bottom. I shook it around in the bag and noticed that the clasp was still closed and that the necklace had broken somewhere in the middle of the chain, maybe a bit off to the side. I took a look again at her face. My eyes fell upon her neck. I saw Kat smile at me.
“You see it, don’t you?”
“Humm...” I wasn’t quite sure what she wanted me to see. What I did see was what I had read in the autopsy report: Strangulation, bruises around the neck, broken neck, death was immediate, no usable prints. I agreed. The necklace intrigued me, though. I leaned in to look closer at her. The necklace left a little burn mark, barely visible, when the hands met her throat, pressing the chain into her skin. But there was something shinny in the folds of the impression. I looked closer. Kat clapped her hands, which caused me to jump a little. “Do you mind?”
“Sorry.”
I knew she was proud of herself, finding something before I did. I thought I’d let her gloat for a while. In the mean time, I went on with my work. I searched the drawers in the room for an evidence bag and a pair of purple latex gloves. The examining tray had everything else I needed.
“I told you there was something there.”
I used the magnifying glass on the end of the extender arm to take a closer look and followed the sparkle at her neck. Slowly and very carefully, I used the long tweezers and picked out a small gold jump ring.
“Well, technically you didn’t say anything about something being there...”
“I told you that you needed to look at her.”
“That you did.” A jump ring meant one thing; there was a charm that wasn’t there anymore. Where did it go? Did the maniac have it? Did it fall onto the road or into the car? I had a feeling that I would become obsessed with this charm. I wanted it. I wanted it in my hands so that it could tell me everything I wanted to know.
“Do you think it’s real gold?”
“Possibly.” I turned the tiny ring around in front of my face. I moved it as close as I could without going cross-eyed.
“What did you just do?”
“What?”
“You just sniffed it, didn’t you?” Kat sounded slightly offended.
“I didn’t sniff it, I was looking at it.”
She shot me a disbelieving glare and moved the magnifying glass closer to me. “Here, use this.”
“Why would you think I sniffed it?”
“It’s something you do.”
“I sniff things?”
“Yes. You sniff the air, you sniff the ground. You have even sniffed evidence! Face it, when you investigate, you sniff!”
I was speechless. I never noticed what I did when I investigate. I didn’t really care either. How am I supposed to know? People do things without realizing it; they clear their throats repetitively, slurp soup, tap pencils... “Does my ‘sniffing’ bother you?”
She had to think about that for a moment. “No,” she shrugged. “I just don’t want you to be sniffing the wrong things.” She burst out laughing at what she said.
“I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks that was a weird thing to say!”
“Sorry.” She wiped her eyes. I shook my head.
“You’re weird.” I pulled the magnifier closer to my eye and looked at the ring with better clarity. Tam opened the door behind me.
“What’s so funny?”
“Huh?”
“I heard you laughing down the hallway. Did you find something?”
I switched the tweezers to my left hand and very carefully, I lowered my right arm and shook it slightly to let the ice pack slide through my sleeve and into my hand.
“Yes, I found something, but that’s not what was funny.”
“Well, what then?”
“It’s nothing, just something... Colleen said to me yesterday. Or a few days ago. I don’t remember. It was just funny and it just popped into my head.”
He grunted in surrender. “It just popped into your head. In a morgue, it just popped into your head. Ok. It’s just good to hear you laugh.” He kissed my on forehead. “What did you find?”
I moved the glass over so that he could see.
“Is this significant?”
“Could be. John found a necklace but didn’t see this.”
“You’re just trying to one-up him.”
“I am not!”
He giggled.
“This is a legitimate find!” I handed the tweezers to him so he could take an even closer look. While he did, I backed up against the counter, opened a drawer and tucked the ice pack inside.
He nodded his head. “Nice,” he said flatly and gave me a suspicious glance.
“What’s the matter with you?”
“I’ll believe you if you tell me what you were laughing at.”
“Oh, whatever.” I took the tweezers from him put the ring in an evidence bag. Pulling my gloves off, I snapped them in Tam’s direction. I picked up the necklace bag and the folder and headed for the door but something caught my eye. Tam ran into me when I stopped.
“Sorry. What’s wrong?”
“I just wanted to see something...” I walked over to Sara’s left side. There was something on the inside of her wrist. I opened the folder to see if John had taken pictures. There weren’t any in there. They might not have been processed yet. I couldn’t touch her without a glove so I grabbed the large forceps that lay on the tray on the other side of her. I saw Tam lurch forward, possible thinking that I was going to fall on her. I gave a slight glare in retaliation of his faithlessness. Using the forceps I twisted her wrist to have a better look. It was a tattoo of Wile E. Coyote. It was done well, and done recently. The color was vivid, the black outlining looked almost shinny. This couldn’t have been more than a few months old.
“Tam, can you ask Tom or John if pictures have been taken of Sara?”
“Sure, Boss.” He left before he could finish his answer. My mind spun. I had a weird feeling about this tattoo. I could feel that it was important. I held her wrist a little closer to my face so I could take in the detail, but had to stop in fear of dropping her hand; I was giggling. I was thinking of what Kat had said. I was holding her wrist close to my face; I could have easily sniffed it. My shoulders started to shake. I was trying to keep my laughter to myself but I almost started to spit from holding my lips tight shut. I looked over my shoulder to see if anyone was coming. I knew I shouldn’t have done it, but I couldn’t resist. I lifted her wrist up once again and sniffed it. I was shocked, really. I could smell something. I could smell a smoky scent, like a cigarette or a cigar. I took another sniff. It was a deep scent. I lowered her wrist and carefully set it back on the table. I took another glance around me and another sniff of the air and could smell a definite hint of smoke. I bent closer to her body and sniffed again. Oh god, if Kat could see me. The smell was coming from her skin. I could also smell formaldehyde, a soapy cleanser, and the sharp detergent used on the sheet that covered her, but there was also a very strong smoky smell. I stood straight up as the door clicked open. Tom waved some papers in his hand.
“Photos. As you requested.”
I opened the folder and let him place them in the fold.
“Don’t you want to look at them?”
“In a second. Tom,” I asked sheepishly, “what do you smell?”
“Smell? In here?”
“Yeah. Take a whiff. Tell me what you smell.”
He looked at me as though I had finally lost my mind. I nodded to him that I understood his thought. He did what I had asked. He took a sniff of the air. He listed the things that I had smelled, but not the smoke.
“Lean closer to her.”
He bent slightly and sniffed again. He shrugged his shoulders.
“Closer.”
“Closer?” he asked, still bent over.
“Yes, please.”
He looked down at Sara Olny and back up at me. “You want me to smell the body?”
“Yeah.”
“The dead body?”
“Why is that so weird?”
He moved his face closer to her, slowly, hesitantly. He came close to her shoulder and sniffed. He took another sniff. And another. His eyes flew open wide and turned to look at me. “Smoke,” he said.
I grinned. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, it’s there. It smells like... a cigar... “
“Not cigarette smoke?”
“No, cigarettes smell spicy, this is heavy... sweet. Smell me,” he lifted his elbow to me and I sniffed. His jacket smelled like fresh cigarette smoke and it did smell spicy in an odd, non-culinary way. The scent brought back quick memories. “This smell is heavy, like a pure tobacco smell, not mixed with other things, like impurities.” He took another sniff. “That’s what tobacco should smell like.”
“Where’s Tam?” I asked.
“He’s by Will. He wanted a moment alone.”
I nodded. I flipped the folder in the air, waving to Tom to follow me to the table that sat against the wall. I opened it and leafed through the photos. The picture of her neck reminded me of the jump ring.
“Oh, and I found this.” I held up the bag and he took it.
“Is there something in here?”
“A very tiny ring.”
“What kind of ring?”
“A jump ring- it’s used to hold a pendant or a charm to a necklace or bracelet... in her case, a necklace.”
“Only a woman would know that.”
I wrinkled my eyebrows at him and he shrugged a claim of innocence.
“I want to find what was once attached to this.” I took the bag back and laid it on the table with the necklace. I also took the photo of the tattoo and held it up.
“Why would a young girl have a tattoo of such an ugly creature?”
“Who knows,” I shrugged, “But I’m taking all of this along, if that’s ok.”
Tom nodded. “The blood tests aren’t done yet. I’ll fax them tot the office as soon as I get them.”
“Great, thanks.” I gathered everything and followed him out of the room. We walked down to his office. Tam must have heard us in the hallway and came to the office a moment later. He still had Will’s file and handed it to me. Tom gave me an envelope to put both files in, and I clutched it to my chest. Something that has been dormant for so long in me started to wake up: like a thaw- an odd feeling for the middle of winter. But at this point, I’ll take any feeling I can get.
We said our goodbyes to Tom and promised that we would call each other the moment we found something new. Tam and I got into his Jeep and started for the trip home. It was still January, but the sky looked different. I inhaled deeply.
“Smells like rain,” I said, breaking the silence.
“There’s barely a cloud in the sky.”
“Maggie said it was supposed to snow this afternoon,” I said in rebuttal.
“Snow, not rain.”
“Have you never heard of thunder snow?”
“You just said that it smelled like rain.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So... what is it? Rain or Snow?”
I stuck my head out of the window and sniffed. I smiled again at the thought of sniffing. “Rain.”
Almost instantly we could hear the roll of distant thunder. The electric sign on the bank claimed that it was 43 degrees, warm enough for rain. The radio weather guy announced the approach of the storm. He sounded confused. Just that morning he had announced an approaching storm that would produce snow, not rain. The wind had unexpectedly changed and caught everyone off guard. The rain didn’t bother me. I loved rain just as much as I loved snow. I sat back in my seat and listened to the thunder that chased us home.
