Episode 29: Window of Opportunity

I was all psyched up to sink my teeth into a murder case.

It's a nice change of pace from background checks and process serving.

Murder gets the blood pumping.

But I don't much like visiting morgues.

And yes, I'd been to morgues before.

There's lots of boring records there, which it can be necessary to review in my line of work.

I'd even seen the occasional body, although this would be my first murder victim.

I don't suppose many people do enjoy morgues.

I suppose if you like them, that'd make you a bit of a weirdo.

The Truman Morgue is like most morgues.

Antiseptic, quiet, lonely.

The girl at the reception desk greets you with a frown instead of a smile.

It's one of the few places in America where smiling is a faux pas.

And you're directed back into a chilly library card catalog of death.

Human beings neatly organized into drawers.

You head for the one you want, see your dour-faced police contact, Jason Henderson, waiting as if he's just been standing there all night.

And he greets you not with pleasantries, not by asking you how you've been, but by opening a drawer to reveal the refrigerated corpse you've come for.

Notice anything, Mac?

And I looked at the body.

I looked at those cold blue feet, the hairy legs.

A man, probably in his late 40s.

There was something very familiar about him.

My eyes continued up the body and finally settled on his

face.

You see?