The Death Of A Jane Doe

The Arrival

Rain had a way of making the city look dead.

By midnight, the streets outside the morgue had emptied, leaving nothing but blurred headlights and water crawling down the windows in crooked streams. The occasional flash of lightning illuminated the buildings across the street for only a second before darkness swallowed them again.

Lenny had worked enough night shifts to know the silence well.

He preferred it that way.

The dead didn't ask questions.

The living always did.

He sat alone in the small office near the examination room, surrounded by stacks of paperwork that seemed to multiply whenever he looked away. A cold cup of coffee sat beside his elbow, untouched for nearly an hour.

He stared at the final report in front of him.

Male. Sixty-two years old.

Cause of death: cardiac arrest.

Nothing unusual.

Nothing interesting.

Lenny signed his name at the bottom of the page and leaned back in his chair.

For a moment, he considered leaving.

His shift technically ended twenty-three minutes ago.

But there was always something else to finish.

Another report.

Another phone call.

Another body waiting to be transferred.

That was the thing about working with the dead.

There was no such thing as being behind schedule.

The dead were patient.

A sudden crack of thunder rattled the windows.

Lenny glanced toward them.

Rain hammered against the glass.

"Perfect," he muttered.

He reached for his coat.

Then he heard the sirens.

At first, they were distant.

Just another ambulance moving through the city.

Lenny barely paid attention.

Then the sound grew louder.

And louder.

Until it stopped directly outside the building.

He slowly lowered his coat.

For several seconds, he listened.

The rain continued.

Then came the sound of car doors slamming.

Footsteps.

Voices.

The front doors opened.

Lenny looked toward the hallway.

Two paramedics entered first.

Behind them came a police officer.

And between them all, lying beneath a white sheet, was a young woman who had no name.

Lenny stood.

He had seen bodies arrive in every possible condition.

Victims of accidents.