THE SWORD AND SICKLE

PART TWO DECEPTION:

CHAPTER-SIX

CASSINI-2

"Yes."

"Then I will meet you there. If you get there before I do, I will call ahead and tell them you are coming to try and identify a Jane Doe for us."

"Thank you, officer."

"Oh, when you are done, I will need you to come to the Glendale Precinct for some paperwork."

On the drive to the morgue, the pudgy Bob felt queasy; he had never been to a morgue to ID a body. He searched in his pocket, pulled out some antacid tablets, and chewed them. When he arrived at the morgue, the officer greeted him and led him to the morgue attendant, who showed him the way to the body. He said to Bob, "I am going to give you a bag in case you have to puke." Bob grabbed the baggy, not saying a word as his brain processed the smell of burnt tissue and the powerful ammonia smell. Bob took one look at it and immediately vomited in his bag. The officer asked, "Are you alright, Dr. Gibbon?"

"No, but I'll be better in a minute or two."

"Take your time."

After about five minutes, Bob accessed all his remaining energy and turned toward the body. "He watched things on these TV crime shows, but TV was in two dimensions, plus the morgue smell. The LA morgue was nothing more than a warehouse of bodies on carts, with or without body bags. Walking closer to the body, he stared at the badly charred body. The face looked like a black piece of meat left on the barbecue for too long, and what flesh remained looked oddly inhuman. He thought, What a horrible way to die. He asked the morgue worker, "Do you know if she was burned alive?"

She looked at the notes and replied, "Yes, she has charred tissue inside the lungs."

Bob looked at the unburnt area of her left arm, and seeing nothing identifiable, he asked if he could see her right arm. She rotated the right arm so Bob could inspect it. He said to the officer, "I can't tell. The body is the right size. Can you tell me if you found any evidence of tattoos on her arms? She's too badly burned for me to tell."

The morgue attendant said, "Yes, as a matter of fact, we did find evidence of a tattoo on her left arm."

Bob replied, "Alicia had a small dove about halfway down the forearms."

The morgue assistant said, "From what we have reconstructed, this body has a tattoo of a heart. I don't think this is the woman that you are looking for if you are certain it was a dove."

Bob felt a great weight lift off his shoulders. "I am glad—err, not for this poor woman, but I am relieved." If it had been her, well. The lightness in his stomach disappeared as he turned away from the body. "Where are your headquarters, officer?"

"Dr. Gibbon I would be glad to drive you; if you wish, you don't look so good."

"I would like that. I'm rather shaky."

"You'll ride in back, sir. The front of my car is my office, as you will see. It is state of the art."

As they arrived at the car, the officer said, "Watch your head as you get in, and I apologize for the legroom."

He opened the door for him, and Bob thought, Jesus, he wasn't kidding about the leg space. When he finally settled in, he was startled at the technology the officer had at his fingertips. It looked like something in one of his spacecraft, all crammed into one neat module. As he drove, he had his left hand on the wheel as the other entered data. Bob spoke loudly so he could hear through the thick glass, "Isn't there some law against you driving with one hand?"

He answered, "Nope. If I have an accident, they may find me at fault for driving with one hand, but otherwise, no."

"I can't drive using a cell phone, and they let you all drive like this."

"Yep."

"Our lab could put all that information you need into something the size of a tablet, but I doubt we have the time at the moment." He chuckled, and the blood began to flow to his brain again.

"I'll mention it to the department head," he continued to enter data. "Dr. Gibbon, you sound nervous. Just relax, and we will be there in a few minutes." Bob tried to relax in the small space afforded him, but he didn't find a good position. He remained silent for the rest of the ride.