Into the Gloaming

Prologue

He knocked lightly on the door frame and looked in, the room was a mess, a woman in overalls was kneeling in the middle of the floor tearing at the carpet with a Stanley knife. She looked up at him expectantly. He fumbled with his camera and accidentally took a picture of her. He wondered why she was wearing a mask over her mouth and nose.

"Hello..." he stammered "Are you a relative?"

He didn't really know what he was meant to say to bereaved people, it was rare to have to speak to the family of one of Dr. Townsend's bodies. He felt uncomfortable outside the lab and bumping into someone was the last thing he wanted.

The woman laughed,

"No, do you really think a relative would want to be doing this?" she asked, brandishing a bloody scrap of carpet at him. Her eyes seemed to be smiling.

There was an uncomfortable pause.

"What are you after?" she asked

"Oh, I just need to get some samples, ours are all contaminated, at the lab I mean. I work at the hospital just down..."

He trailed off, the woman had started scrubbing vigorously at the wood underneath the carpet as she hummed tunelessly to herself. He took a step into the room and she immediately straightened up.

"Stop!" He froze "Out!" He backed out of the doorway "Sorry to yell at you like that, but I can't let anyone in until I've finished cleaning, it's probably nothing, but viruses are carried in spinal column fluid, so if there's any of that around it can be quite dangerous if you don't have protective gear. I shouldn't be too much longer, the blood didn't stain the floorboards too badly."

"He did lose an awful lot."

"Hm?"

"Of blood, I mean, and there probably will be some spinal column fluid around too."

"Who are you again? The post mortem guy?"

"I'm his helper, he sent me to get clean samples."

"So what exactly happened here? Shooting?"

"You could say that, he was shot in the stomach with a nail gun. It was probably an accident, but we have to check anyway."

"Oh wow, I usually don't ask, people just want me in and out and everything to look like nothing ever happened."

"So, this is what you do? Clean up after deaths?"

"Yes, suicides mostly, after this I have a guy who jumped in front of a train, got dragged along for a few hundred metres. It's going to take days to get all the bits and pieces out from under the train. I'm not looking forward to that."

She bundled all the bits of bloody carpet into a thick black plastic bag and slung it over her shoulder.

"All yours." She said, walking out

He stepped into the room and immediately spotted the nail gun in a corner. He was about to take a photo of it when her voice made him jump and turn around.

"You didn't need any of the carpet did you?"

The mask was now loosely around her neck. He noticed how pretty she was.

"I'm just going to destroy it, so if you need any, now's your chance."

There was a pause, he realized it was because it was his turn to speak, and he was just staring at her aimlessly.

"Uh, carpet? No, no, I don't need any carpet, most of his blood's on there but there's still enough left inside him for us, I just need to get the nail gun."

"Oh, ok. My name's Caroline by the way."