Legacy of the Dreams

Chapter 55 - A Difficult Day

Greg and Reuben made the lonely journey to Sacramento on Friday, as early as they could get away that morning. It was still dark out when they left. It was also still raining, though relatively lightly compared to the day before.

Reuben pulled his car up in front of the coroner's office and parked a few minutes before eight. They got out of the car just as a staff member was unlocking the front door, and the two men were led inside without delay.

"We were expecting you," the attendant who met them at the reception desk said after they introduced themselves. "If you'll follow me please? Back this way."

Greg and Reuben followed the young man to an office where they were introduced to the coroner, Mr. Tatum. After the attendant left, Greg and Reuben explained to the coroner who they were in relationship to Ruth and Mr. Simms while Mr. Tatum took down their information.

"The flood victims are right over here," Mr. Tatum told them.

He led them through another door from his office, into the morgue where two bodies lay waiting to be identified. Each was laid out on a separate slab and covered by a sheet, folded back to reveal the shoulders and head of a man and woman. The coroner led them to stand between the victims and waited while Greg and Reuben studied their faces.

"Is that them?" the coroner asked as they studied the pair.

Greg remembered going through this with Susan less than a year ago, when Mrs. Abernathy died. But somehow now, seeing Ruth – the mother of his children and the friend from his youth like this – this was far worse. Her pale body laid out on the coroner's table, her hair disarrayed by the water that took her life, her face set in a grimace suggesting fear and pain; Ruth looked far worse than he'd expected her to, given the way she met her end. Greg glanced discretely at Reuben who was visibly struggling, and turned away for a moment to allow Ruth's husband to collect himself in private.

"Yes, this is Ruth Nash, my wife," Reuben told the coroner when he could speak.

"Is this your friend?" Mr. Tatum asked Greg when they turned to the body of the man lying on the other side of the aisle, next to Ruth.

The body beneath the sheet on the second table was that of an old man. Compared to Ruth, he looked peaceful, almost as though he was sleeping. The thick hair on his head was cut so short – he'd had it cut for Chanukah - it was hardly disturbed. Although he too was pale, to Greg it wasn't as noticeable on him as it was on his ex-wife. Perhaps he thought, that was because Mr. Simms was ill so much over the past month. He'd looked pale at Chanukah too, so in death his appearance wasn't that much different.

"Yes, this is Bobby ... Robert Simms," Greg said.

Reuben too took a moment to study him.

"This was easier for Bobby than it was for Ruth," Reuben remarked.

"Evidently," Greg said. "I think he knew it was coming."

"How do you know that?"

"Something he said over Chanukah," Greg told him.

"Then you knew them both," the coroner concluded.

"We do," Greg told him.

"We both do," Reuben said. "Ruth is Greg's ex-wife, and Bob Simms has become a family friend."

The coroner looked down at the paperwork he had.

"He's not family?" he asked Greg.

"He is the great-grandfather of my adopted daughter. She is the only family he has," Greg explained. "I am also a distant cousin, so in a sense, we are family."