Sudden Death

Sepia and I sat at the table in the Moshulu on Penns Landing and enjoyed a delicious meal with the Sarbers...Mike and Jessica. They were friends of ours who had lived on our block who had just recently moved into a new house...a House my wife had sold them...

"Oh Sepia...gurlllll, this new house is bangin.." said Jessica, a tall buxom, brown skinned beauty who like my own wife looked too good to be with the man she was with, Micheal Sarber, a short stocky,Dark skinned man with horn rimmed glasses and a short, nicely trimmed haircut. Michael
Sarber was a doctor...He worked at the Coroner's Office...He and I had had the pleasure of working together a couple of times ,during some of my cases..We weren't friends...but we were cordial..We discussed cars and sports when we did see each other.

I had to admit with some guilt that his wife needed to put some curtains up in their bedroom window and in their living room...When I had been home, I had too often looked out my window and gotten an eyeful looking into their house. She'd be undressing right in front of the window,giving me and every man on the block a veiw of all of her ,let's say assets... Of course,I never said anything..I just enjoyed the view..she was a beautiful woman. I had my own ideas as
to why she was with the good doctor. He brought in a sizable income,both as a coroner and with a small private practice..She did not, to my knowledge work at all. Must be nice.

"So Kevin, you haven't said a word all night...You've got to come see our house when we move in...Sepia found it for us...it's not far from Cape May." said Jessica.

"Yeah..we'll have to do that...I must admit, I'm going to miss you guys not living across the street from us." I said.

"Miss them? We hardly interacted with them when they lived there " said Sepia.

"Well maybe you didn't, but I used to talk to Mike here." I laughed.

Mike Sarber was texting someone on his blackberry the entire time we were talking.....He looked
up, smiled and said-

"Yeah..uh..we used to talk about cars and sports all the time." he said, while still texting.

"This means that Mike will be commuting for awhile to the medical examiner's office until he can find a job in Jersey, but it'll be all for the best." said Jessica.

We continued to eat and enjoy our meal and finnally, we paid our respected tabs and went our seperate ways.

There was nothing strange or out of the way going on that night....I noticed Sepia getting dressed for bed and just out of curiosity I peered out the window, pretending to look at nothing in particular, but hoping to get one last glimpse at Mrs. Sarber undressing....Perhaps putting on a sexy negligee' for Mr. Sarber...something....since she didn't believe in curtains.. Tonight, there was nothing.. Not even a light on in the front room. I walked over to the bed, Kissed Sepia good night and pulled the covers up over us and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning....I got up, made a pot of coffee and fixed myself some scrambled eggs and bacon. Sepia came downstairs fully dressed.

"I fixed us some breakfast." I said.

"Can't eat this morning...Got another house to show..." she said as she kissed me on the cheek and walked down to the garage to get her car.

I noticed that Mike Sarber's car was gone already....Not unsual..He kept different hours ,working
for the medical examiner. I ate my breakfast and drank my coffee and then went into my study
to make some calls...I needed Sean Jackson to fax me those photos from the interview we did recently in New York....I had just finished the story and was getting ready to e-mail it to the magazine and I needed to upload the photos.

I just happened to glare out my window and I saw an EMT wagon and a police car in front of the
Sarber home....I looked out the window...They were coming out of the house with a gurney..and the body on it was covered...which meant, it was a corpse... I put on my sandals and walked outside and across the street.

"Officer...I live across the street from these people, these are friends of mine." I said.

"Good, you want to come and make a positive I.D. of the deceased?" said the policeman.

"The Deceased?" I said.

"Yes." He said and he pulled the cover up so I could see who it was under there. It was Jessica
Sarber!!!!!!!!

"What? My wife and I were just out to dinner with her and her husband last night? I just saw her." I said.

"Well, someone was trying to get there to see her this morning and there was no answer and they called us..We came in and we found her in the front bedroom, dead. It doesn't look like any foul play...but she is dead...We are trying to find her husband." said the Policeman.

"He works for the Medical Examiner's Office...let me go inside...I have a number for him." I said.

"Thanks.....Okay guys, load her up into the wagon....I'm gonna get a statement and a number for the next of kin from this guy here...let's go." said the Policeman.

I was more than stunned...A young beautiful woman like that....dead!!!!! It couldn't be...I had to find Mike and find a way to break this devestating news to him.


(To Be Continued....)