The Good Coroner

The first thing we did was stop by Josie's Bar....It was nearly midnight...but I knew I could find the man I was looking for there. Dr. Rufus Crabtree. He was an old grey haired man with skin the color of maple honey. He had been retired for years now...but he was still a good doctor, though he had taken to drinking now and telling tall stories. He was the best I could get to do what needed to be done. To tell you the truth...I had thought of calling on the good doctor long before I got the mysterious call in the middle of the night.

The first person he noticed was Sepia, when we walked into Josies.

"Looka here, looka Heah....Lawd Jesus, look at the body on this here philly....." He exclaimed!

Sepia didn't like young guys like this and old guys who didn't have a shot in hell, ogling her and making cat calls made her even more disgusted. He noticed me next.

'KEVIN?? IS THA YOU???? Oh my god...Gus...that's Kevin Morris...I delivered him....oh my goodness....." He exclaimed. Of course this was a lie...He hadn't delivered me, but he had been a friend of my dad's and had known me since I was a toddler.

"Is that your woman Kevin?" he asked.

"That's my wife...Sepia..This is Dr. Rufus Crabtree." I said.

"Goood God Almighty, she's a healthy thang...you is one lucky sucka....heh heh hehheh..." he said.

"If you don't pay your tab, you 're gonna be an unlucky sucka who's out on the pavement." said
Gus, giving him the side eye...Sepia giggled.

"What's his tab Gus..I need his services.." I said.

"You need him? That old rummy...for what?" asked Gus.

"You don't want to know." I said.

"Yeah, knowin you, I probably don't." he laughed.

His tab was $72.50......Phew, for one night's worth of drinking...He'd better be worth it. I paid his
tab and then Sepia and I got him some coffee and I told him what I needed him to do for me. he balked at first, but then I reminded him that I just cleaned his slate with Gus..and he agreed to do it.

We drove around and rousted Lockpick Johnson and Peeping Tom Constanoble. I needed their services desperately for what I had in mind. We drove to the Harker Funeral Home where the body was. It had long been closed...but Lockpick Johnson was able to bypass the security system as well as the front door and get us inside. I realized that if caught, we could all go to jail
and we wouldn't have an alibi to our name.

Peeping Tom acted as a lookout, setting outside in his car as Sepia, Dr. Crabtree,Lockpick and I
searched for and amazingly enough, found the body. To our surprise..it hadn't been embalmed.
Dr. Crabtree had his bag with his equipment in it...and he went to work....opening her up and taking tissue samples and examining her vital organs and all.

Sober, the old man worked with precision and collected all of the evidence he needed. Finnally,
he stitched and sewed the body back up.

"These funeral directors won't know and don't care what was done in here....They'll assume that
she was already autopsied and just go on with their procedure. You boys get some mops and some water and let's clean up in here." he said.

We did and just as fast as we got in, we cleaned up and got out. We went to Peeping Tom's house
where he was able to use his computer and printer to make fake documents that we would need to ship Dr. Crabtree's findings to a local lab for analysis....I used my job as a return address for their findings.

"Kevin...I know a guy at this particular lab....he owes me a favor...He can get your findings for you, but not until the day after tomorrow...She'll be in the ground then. Something ,I should tell you though....it looks like somebody had opened up before I did and took samples....I know you say that an autopsy wasn't done..but I would swear that one has been." he said.

"What?" I said incredulously.

"I'm just saying...that's what it looks like to me..." said Dr. Crabtree.

"I know...but at least we'll know the truth." I said, wondering all along what was going on here.

The next day, Sepia and I attended the funeral. Jessica's family was there, as well as her friends and collegues from various times in her life..They were all confused as to why the funeral was so soon after her death and why Michael Sarber seemed like he was in such a rush to get everything over.

It was quite obvious that Dr. Sarber could care less about what everybody thought. The repass
was at their home and the entire time people were eating and sharing their memories of Jessica,Michael Sarber was on his Blackberry..Talking to who, I don't know.... Her family was giving him the serious evil stare...but he didn't care.

It turns out that I didn't get the analysis back until a week after the burial. The Analysis told me what I needed to know...Jessica Sarber had been injected somehow with the same drugs used to
execute condemned death row inmates. One drug had sedated her...another drug had relaxed her muscles and the third drug had sent her into cardiac arrest and thus ended her life. She had indeed been murdered...but how did I prove it! I couldn't.

One night, while Sepia and I were lying in bed...My phone rang again....

"You know that He killed her...you have the proof....what are you going to do about it?"
said the voice.

"Who are you? How do you know what I have?" I said.

"Who I am is not important...I just want to see justice done...want to see that bastard behind bars." said the voice.

So did I...but how was I going to do that? Just then , my phone rang again..

"What is this, a party line?" I exclaimed. Sepia laughed.

"Hello."

"Kevin....I've got to talk to you." came a voice, a man's voice...One I recognized as the Assistant Coroner from the day before.

"You are talking to me.." I said.

"Not on the phone...Meet me at Josie's tomorrow around 6:00 pm."

"What's this about?" I asked.

"It's about Jessica Sarber." he said.

"What about her?" I asked again.

"Just meet me at Josie's." he said.

"Wait a minute" I said.

Click!

This was the second time the phone had been hung up on me in one night...I was starting to get a complex.

(To Be Continued......)