“Oh, he’s expecting me,” Hailey lied.
The old lady looked up at her, her hand hovering over the keypad, then the desk, then the keypad.
Hailey didn’t have the patience to wait for this old dear. She needed to see Grabstein now.
“He told me to meet him in his office.”
“…his office,” the receptionist snickered. “He thinks that’s so funny.”
“Yeah,” she agreed with an uncertain laugh. “Could you point me in the right direction?”
“Just push the ‘down’ button, and the elevator will do the rest.” She motioned to the hallway on the right. “Dr. Grabstein’s been at it all night. He should still be down there…”
Hailey pushed the button for the basement, which was very conclusively labeled, MORGUE. The doors clanged shut, shaking the entire platform, which dropped her off at the end of an underground hallway with harsh fluorescent lights and air that felt cool and heavy, smelled a bit metallic, slightly like bleach, and reeked of another pungent, synthetic yet rotting ick she couldn’t identify.
Voices echoed in the hallway, and she made her way in their direction until she found a couple of men bent over a stainless-steel gurney, each wearing scrubs under a black rubber apron.
Hailey opened her mouth to announce her presence, but nothing came out, so she cleared her throat, and one of the men looked up.
“Can I help you?” he said from behind a plastic face shield. He had a scalpel in one hand and a bloody glove covering the other.
“Yes. Could you tell me where I might find Dr. Grabstein?”
“You’re looking at him.” He held his arms out and smiled. “Please, step into my office.” He bowed and still smiling, looked like he was waiting to see if she’d laugh. He really did think that was funny.
“Dr. Grabstein,” she said using her most mature voice, “I’m here to see Holly Hartley.”
Grabstein looked at her expectantly, and Hailey figured he needed more information.
“She came in last night… Detective Toll’s case… A knife wound?”
“Knife wound?” he scoffed. “They took her head clean off, but not with any knife.” He put his scalpel down and picked up a folder.
Hailey reminded herself it wasn’t Holly.
He scanned one of the pages inside.
“Most of her injuries were consistent with tearing, except for the foot, which was removed with a large blade…”
Hailey froze, but she clung to her theory: this was not Holly.
“Never seen anything like it, actually. Were it not for the spatter inside the mausoleum, I would have said she was drawn and quartered by a team of horses. I did find a couple of stab wounds, but they were mostly superficial, hesitant…some defensive wounds on her hands…
“It was difficult to determine an exact cause of death with the body so heavily damaged, although I can tell you she was burned postmortem. You’ll read all of this in my report, of course—should be ready this evening—eh—you did say you were with Detective Toll?”
“Yes,” …in a manner of speaking… “Could I see the body?”
“’fraid not. Mortician was here not half an hour ago to collect the remains. Not much to see anyway…just pieces really.” He picked up his scalpel again. “And you’ll have to wait until morning for an ID on these other two that came in with her.”
Hailey sneaked a peek at them, but the pile on the gurney didn’t even resemble a human. It looked more like mashed and chunky meat.
“Of course,” Hailey said graciously. She didn’t care about this crime, because it had nothing to do with Holly. She just needed to see the body to prove it.
“Which mortician, then?”
“Who was it that came for the female dismemberment?” he asked his colleague.
“Eh…Rising Sun, wasn’t it?”
