DEATH (The Justice Cycle Book 1) J Kiefer (ebook reader .txt) 📖

going downstairs? If Jared and Agent Johansson are waiting for me, then wouldn’t they be somewhere on the first floor?”

“Sorry, ma’am. I know this seems strange, but they are both down in the morgue.”

Dana’s mind raced. She was certain that whatever had happened in the morgue was most likely the cause for all the commotion.

The scene that Dana beheld when she walked through the doorway was like something out of a television crime drama. CSI techs could be found in every corner of the room, peering into all of the nooks and crannies with all the instruments and devices that they had in their respective toolboxes. She quickly spied Jared talking to Agent Johansson in one corner of the small room. Even with the two cups of coffee he was holding, he still managed to wave her over.

“Glad you could make it work, sleepyhead.” Jared’s eyes were still bloodshot and swollen.

Did he even sleep last night? she wondered.

He handed her one of the coffee cups and took a long sip from the other. “It seems that there are many strange series of events happening here in upstate New York.”

“Is this strange occurrence why the science nerds are out in force this morning?” she asked curiously, blowing on her coffee.

“A very keen deduction, my dear Watson,” he said with a wink. She smiled in spite of herself. It was good to see some of his normal playfulness returning. Of course, it was a horrible time for him to be joking, but Jared had bad timing in most things in life.

“Okay, now that we have established that you have a dark sense of humor, what exactly happened last night that has everyone in the entire building so riled up?”

Agent Johansson spoke first. “Well, it’s the strangest thing. You know that body we brought in yesterday? Well, it’s gone and gotten itself lost, right under the noses of an entire police precinct and the coroner’s office.”

Dana stopped mid-sip and just stared at him. She glanced from Jared to Johansson. “You’re serious?”

“As serious as the Bambino’s curse,” he replied. “Well, I guess more serious than that, since we kicked that curse to the curb in 2004.”

“Wait. I mean, just how the heck is that even possible? Don’t we have cameras and a friggin’ security system? With all of the equipment we have here in this building, it’s just not possible.”

“Well, sweetheart,” said Jared in his worst Humphrey Bogart impression, “apparently the universe doesn’t give a damn, because the corpse just simply vanished into thin air.”

Dana rolled her eyes. “Just shut up already. And for the record, it was Clark Gable who said that, not Bogart.”

He grinned as he took another long swig of his quickly cooling coffee. “Well, on a serious note, impossible or not, the body has simply vanished. We already checked the security cameras for the only time last night that Dr. Strayhand was out of this room and we found nothing.”

“What do you mean by nothing?”

“What he means by that, Detective,” replied Johansson, “is that nothing out of the ordinary is on the security camera footage. Nadda. Zilch… absolutely nothing. The tech guys are going over the video feed as we speak, but from what I could tell, there does not appear to be any tampering with the video. One minute the body is there and the next minute, abracadabra, it’s gone. Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like this in all of my years with the Bureau, and I have seen a lot of strange shit in my time. We may actually have a bona fide unsolvable mystery on our hands.”

“I am still not buying this.” Dana frowned. “There has to be a rational explanation that we haven’t yet considered. I am sure after more careful examination we will be able to solve this mystery.”

“Don’t think so,” Jared said. “I don’t know why, but I can’t shake the feeling that something supernatural has or is happening here.”

“Seriously, Jared? Supernatural? Like angels and demons or whatever? Have you lost what’s left of your mind? You and I both know, and I am sure Agent Johansson here will attest, that there is always a rational explanation for everything. I may believe that God is real, but God didn’t come down from heaven just to take a dead body from a morgue. There has to be an explanation other than ghosts and demons.”

“All I am saying is that it feels… strange to me. Otherworldly. And no, I don’t think God came down from heaven for this corpse, but I can’t shake the feeling that this whole situation is far more than it appears.”

“I agree with Jared,” interjected Johansson. “But I also agree with you, Detective Campbell. There is more going on here than just your normal run-of-the-mill murder, but I do think that there is a rational explanation that we just haven’t stumbled across yet.”

“Rational explanation or not, what does a body disappearing from the morgue have to do with this case?” Dana asked. “Has this happened before?”

“Not to my knowledge. In fact, I can’t think of one instance where an entire body has simply up and disappeared. Well, not unless the mob was involved. Even in those cases, it was never a corpse that disappeared, but rather a live one. Of course, that body was most likely not going to stay alive for very long, if you get my drift.”

“So, this is an entirely unique occurrence then?” Jared asked.

“Yeah, I would have to say so, but ‘occurrence’ is putting it mildly. If this had happened in New Mexico or Nevada, I would simply chalk it up to aliens, but we are nowhere near Area 51.”

“Really?” Jared asked excitedly. “Is Area 51 an actual thing?”

“Of course not, I was just joshing ya. Everyone bites at that, though.”

“All right, enough jokes, we need to get back on track here. What did the coroner say when he was interviewed?” said Dana. She was still exhausted from not sleeping, and the time that the two men were