Hull - Volume I

A Start to Things

It was both my first and last case with the Newfield Police Department. Here I was, just two weeks after returning home from a two-year deployment in Iraq as a combat medic, and I already had an offer as a medical examiner. Granted, Newfield only had around forty thousand people and the city was in the center of the Willamette Valley in Oregon. To sum up the location, it was in the middle of nowhere. But it was where my older brother lived with his family, who had generously offered me a place to stay until I had my feet on the ground. I would have been a fool to turn down the opportunity. I also would have been a fool for the fact that, had I not moved here and taken the job, I never would have met Mr. Sheridan Hull.

I sat at my new desk in the forensic investigation department, which just so happened to be in the basement of the police building. Beside the complete lack of natural light, the location was made more unpleasant by the eclectic mixture of odors. Across the hallway was what the other examiners called the “temp morgue.” Every body brought in for an investigative autopsy was kept in there. And the number of murder-related crimes in Newfield were abnormally high. There was a good traffic of bodies in and out of the room. Just down the hallway was where any arrested individual was kept until the proper paperwork was filed and a decision on their destination was made. For a basement, the floor received a high level of activity. And my job was to analyze bodies at a crime scene. So far, my presence hadn't been requested at any scenes. So far.

“Walker,” the chief examiner at the far end of the room yelled, disrupting the silence that had fallen for almost an hour. “Lennox wants you upstairs.”

I looked towards my superior's desk, shocked at having heard my name attached to his statement. “He wants me?”

“Get up there,” the examiner said, not bothering to look up from his paperwork. I stood up quickly, grabbing my temporary badge from my desk before leaving the room. Lennox was one of the heads of the police force, primarily overseeing the investigation department. He was the man who sent people to crime locations. And since I'd been called, my hopes were high.

I approached Lennox's door with both anxiety and fear. To everyone here, I was the new guy. I'd been given my doctorate after four years in college, one year in medical school, and a sudden demand for medical professionals in the Army. I had no actual experience working in the criminal investigation field, and for that, the chief examiner had been reluctant to even give me a desk. Nonetheless, the opening had been present and the chief of police was a good friend of my brother. Thankfully, the people above the basement had been more open to my arrival.

When I was within a meter of the door, it opened. A tall, black-coated man exited, back-first, his black hair shining and neatly combed. He was almost a head taller than me, but probably the same weight. Despite his leanness, he had broad shoulders, and when he turned, he did so with a sense of pride. His face was both stern and welcoming, his eyes so deep a shade of brown they blended perfectly with his pupils. His face was cleanly shaven, save for a goatee. He smiled and nodded at me before glancing back into the office.

“Busy schedule, Greg? You've already got another visitor,” the man said. Another man exited the office, standing eye-to-eye with me. He wore a more business-based attire with a gray suit and dark blue tie. His hair was brown, short but lengthy enough to be visibly combed forward. He had a bit more weight accumulated, but not to an unhealthy level.

“Ah yes, well, you know how it goes, get done with a business meeting, have a crime scene to get to.” The man, Inspector Gregory Lennox, clasped the black-haired man on the shoulder before gesturing to me. “Mayor Montorum, this is Dr. John Walker, our new medical examiner. Dr. Walker, this is Mr. Jameson Montorum, Newfield's mayor.”

“Pleasure to meet you, doctor,” Montorum said, grasping my hand.

“The pleasure's all mine, sir,” I replied coolly, giving a nod.