Watcher in the Darkness, Book 3: Imprisoned

Chapter 38

The metal surface of the exam table clanged as I strapped down the squirming body bag. Focused on the task at hand, I pretended not to notice the medical examiner's smile. It made him look like a registered sex offender.

The M.E. was a small man, thin and frail with a wispy beard. Everything about him was pale, from his hair, to his skin, to his eyes. I wondered if he had any fairy in his background, but I didn't ask. I have no idea what's politically-correct anymore.

M.E. Creepy sipped herbal tea from a plain white coffee mug as he watched me do his job for him. "Are you sure you don't mind?" he said for the third time.

I nodded as I took the tools from the autopsy tray. "It's fine," I said, and it was, as long as he upheld his part of the bargain.

I unzipped the body bag just enough to expose the ghoul's face. This one was a pudgy, Hispanic teenager that bared its teeth at me with a growl. My flesh was too cold, so its milky gaze began to sweep the room.

"Don't worry," M.E. Creepy said. "I don't mind you two hanging out down here. Heck, I'm kind of glad for the company. Have you heard anything about Angkor Wat?"

I placed the point of the stainless steel awl against the ghoul's right eye, near the bridge of its nose. "Can't say that I have," I said as I smacked the handle with a rubber mallet. The awl's sharp spike punched through the thin bone behind the socket. The ghoul went rigid as it let out a choked groan.

M.E. Creepy winced when I jiggled the handle, just as he had with every ghoul I'd disposed of for him. "It's this gorgeous Buddhist temple in Cambodia. It's one of the wonders of the world, because of how well it's preserved. A group of my friends vacationed there during medical school, but I couldn't afford to go with them at the time."

I sighed as I dragged the dead ghoul over my shoulder. I stacked its body along with the others I'd already dispatched, inside a huge laundry trolley. An identical bin full of writhing body bags stood next to it. I stretched my aching back as I checked on Karen over my shoulder.

Karen sat behind M.E. Creepy's desk, hugging a small wastebasket to her chest. Her eyes were vacant and glassy. I saw her shiver despite the white lab coat M.E. Creepy had given her.

I looked away. To M.E. Creepy, I said, "Hey, wouldn't it be easier to just jiggle their brains in the first bin, then dump them in the second?"

M.E. Creepy lifted his shoulders. "Yeah, but I'm supposed to be giving them all a cursory medical examination before I declare cause of death." He made no attempt to touch the pile of folders on the table beside him. "Hospital procedure, and all. Like we don't already know what killed these people. Anyway, the longer I stretch this out, the longer I can avoid filling out the paperwork for every. Single. Ghoul." He rolled his eyes and made a strangled sound, then smiled at me again. Goddamn, I wanted to punch him. "Again, I really appreciate you doing this. I euthanized eleven all by myself before I couldn't take it anymore. Say, do you want me to call up to urgent care and check on your mom again, Kare Bear?"

I'd been unaware of this nickname, but M.E. Creepy had yet to call her anything else. I wondered if he knew she referred to him as 'that freaky weirdo that works in the morgue.' "No, thank you," she said in a soft voice.

Guilt, I thought to myself, but said nothing. Also, she probably didn't want to draw attention to our hiding place. Why would the medical examiner be calling the ER to check on a nurse aide?

"I'm so glad I work down here," M.E. Creepy said. "Between the quarantine, and whatever gas leak made all those people sick on five? Trying to relocate all those patients? No thanks." I strapped down the next ghoul as he shook his head. "You know, they tell us in medical school not to think of them as still being alive. It's really hard when they're moving around, looking at you, and stuff."