Baz shot Crystal a small smile.
Yep. Busted.
*
“You sure you’re up for this?” Evanasked as Trey led the way down the sterile white corridor, heading toward the morgue.
He peered over at his new partner. “Are you sayin’ I look bad?”
Trey wouldn’t be surprised if he did. He was feeling a little green around the gills.
The smirk on Evan’s face didn’t have an ounce of embarrassment. “I imagine you’ve looked better.”
Trey snorted. “You’ve seen me how many times?”
“Enough to know green’s not your color.”
“Whatever.” He forced a smile. “I’m fine. I’llbefine.”
“You’ve never done this before, have you?”
“Go to the morgue?” Trey shook his head. “Not on my bucket list.”
Evan chuckled. “Brace yourself.”
Taking Evan’s advice, Trey tried to shore up his nerves as they walked into the room where dead people were prepped and autopsied. Only two seconds in, he decided one thing was for absolute sure: he did not care for the morgue at all. There was a pungent antiseptic smell, the temperature was a little too cool, the room a little too dark, and there was a morbid aura that seemed to surround the place.
“Are you with the task force?” the man sporting wire-rimmed glasses and a blue lab coat asked as they approached.
This guy looked right at home in the death room. He was as pale as the dead bodies he worked on, proof he probably didn’t see a lot of sun. However, his eyes were bright, glittering with knowledge.
“Trey Walker and Evan Vaughn,” Trey introduced, stopping a few feet from the metal table that was covered with a sheet. Based on the lumps beneath, he knew there was a cold, dead body.
“I’m Dr. Jason Davis, the medical examiner.”
Trey would’ve said it was nice to meet him, but he wasn’t sure it was. This guy was a doctor for the dead, and while he had never considered himself squeamish, he’d never been in here before. Needless to say, it wasn’t high on his list of things to do ever again.
However, he couldn’t say the same for his new partner. Evan was handling it like a man who visited dead bodies as a hobby, walking right up to the doc and offering a hand.
“Who would you prefer to see first?” the medical examiner asked, turning to face the two body-covered tables.
Neither.Trey kept the thought to himself.
“We can start with Seth Jacobs,” Evan said, his tone decisive.
Trey was grateful, hoping the man would lead from here on out. At least until they were outside where it didn’t smell like … like a mixture of hospital and dead people.
When the ME pulled the drape back, revealing a naked man with a gruesome Y incision on his chest, Trey realized it could get worse. His stomach twisted unpleasantly, and he had to turn his attention to the far wall. Evan, on the other hand, moved right up to Seth, taking the chart that Dr. Davis passed to him.
“Doesn’t look like a crime of passion was what took Seth Jacobs out,” Evan noted, still observing the body.
“I would have to agree,” the medical examiner said. “No broken bones, no signs of torture or even a struggle.”
“Cause of death?” Evan asked.
“Suffocation. I’d say someone held something over his face. A pillow is my assumption based on the particulates I found in the lungs, but I won’t know for sure until I get the test results back from the lab.”
Trey dared a peek at the body, looked away quickly. “Up close and personal, then.”
