Woman In A Barrell

It was sunrise....I was in court today....It was quiet in the city...At least for now...

Detective Edwin "Duke" Baylor had gotten a call from his wife, Dr. Hazel Baylor, our Forensic Investigator/Deputy Coroner...

He couldn't find his partner, Detective Angie Belton-Barlow or his "Partner in crime, Detective Tyriq Pile...

So he took my wife, Detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace with him on this run....

Me?I'm Assistant District Attorney Keith Wallace... I prosecute murders and serious crimes...With the help of the dedicated detectives of the Criminal Investigation Division of which my wife is a part of..

''It's been a long time since we hung out Top." said Duke as he drove along...

"I knowwwwwwwwwwww...You and Rico used to take me everywhere until Sharon came and Angie came back..."said Carlotta with fake jealousy....For a long while , She and Sissy were the only girls in the unit...Then Hazel came and Sirena and eventually Sharon and Angie and Carlotta was no longer the novelty anymore...She liked having other females to talk to, but she sometimes missed her close camraderie with the males...

Sirena and Hop were partners..

 and Duke , who was like her big brother was reunited with his old partner,

Angie Belton-Barlow..

.her partner, Jimmy's wife..

Still, she found it nice to be hanging out with Duke again....Her mentor...

''So where are we headed?" she asked..

"A Funeral Home! Hazel found a body there." said Duke with tongue in cheek..

''Hazel found a body at a funeral home? Really?" said Carlotta..

Duke cracked up laughing....

"I know....That was my reaction....The funeral home has been closed for two years and this body was found in an oil drum in the basement....." said Duke...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu now this sounds interesting...Creepy as hell, but interesting.." laughed Carlotta.

II-

They arrived at the funeral home.... A police car was already there .....An Officer met Carlotta and Duke at the door...

"You gotta see this detectives..." he said.

"I smell it already.." said Carlotta ,holding her nose...

"Yeah Top, you aint never lied abut that!" said Duke...

Duke and Carlotta were led down into the basement of the foreboding Funeral home , where they saw Hazel and three of her assistants trying to get the body out of the barrell...

She motioned her husband, Duke and Carlotta over to where they were..

''Dr. Baylor, we are going to have to cut this can open.." said one of her assistants,..

"I was hoping we wouldn't have to.."said Hazel... "Hi Carlotta.."said Hazel, who walked over and gave her husband a soft kiss..

"Ummmmm thanks for last night baby..." she whispered in his ear...

Duke blushed...

"Thank you..." he said, smiling and trying to hide his smile from Carlotta, who was giggling..Thinking of the hot and torrid sex ,she and I had had the night before...

She peered at the head of the mummified body, which had been folded in half and stuffed in the can.. she winced...

"How could people do things like this to other people?" she thought.

III-

After much hewing and hawing.. The men were able to get the body out of the can....The smell was so putrid...That Hazel and her men immediately put on face masks and she passed her husband and Carlotta and the other two police officers some additional ones...

"Oh My God!" said Hazel...

Carlotta put on some Latex gloves and examined the body...

"Hazel, she's got a multiple skull fracture....." she said.

"Wow....yes....Oh my god...."said Hazel...

''So this is a Homicide?" asked Duke..

"I'm 99.9 percent sure of that....and judging from the age of this can and the decay of this body....I'd say this body has been here for over 40 years..."said Hazel...

"Forty Years?? This place has been closed for at least two years..."said Duke...

"Somebody did this and hid it in this basement in the back for a reason ..They didn't want this known...Let's do a property search and see who owned this place last and how long they were here.." said Carlotta...

IV-

Within an hour, Sissy ,myself and the rest of the gang were all at the abandoned funeral home...

"My god...the body is mummified.." said Sissy...

"She's been in this can and been stacked back here in the basement of this funeral home for at least 40 years or more..." said Hazel...

 "Before anyone here was on the force..." joked Jimmy....

"Before any of us was born!" added Angie..

"Geez, they murdered her , then folded her body like a pancake and stuffed her in this can and forgot about her...It's like the world forgot about her.."said Sirena, looking sad..

"She was somebody's daughter....Somebody's friend...Somebody must have been looking for her."said Tyriq...

"We have to identify her first....and then I guess go back through old missing person files..."said Hop..

"My God...Who could do something like this to another human being?" I asked no one in particular...

Carlotta hugged me...The warmth of her body got me partially aroused...

"I asked myself the same thing papi.." she said...hugging me tighter...

"There's no more to be done here....Wrap her up guys....let's get her to the lab...Take that can too..It has DNA in it ,I'm sure.." said Hazel...

As the body ..

and the can was removed...

Nobody envied the job that Hazel and her people had to do....

The Media was outside snapping photos and asking questions...Unlike Lt. Tragg, Sissy addressed them with caution...

"We were called here by neighbors who complained about the odor...We discovered this body in an oil barrel in the basement of this funeral home, which has been closed for two years...It appears to be a female....That's all we know right now.." she said..

She wouldn't answer any questions about foul play, whether there was or not...but from the press, we found out who the previous owner had been...63 year old Bert Caulken...a retired funeral director, turned politician, who was currently running for a State Senator's seat... His Father had bought the property in 1968 and had died in 1982....The Younger Bert Caulken had run the funeral home until 2009, when he stepped down and allowed Conner Aldrich to run the home..Aldrich ran the home until 2015, when he retired... He died later that year....

The funeral home sat empty for two years until today!!!

V-

Some hours later we all converged at the M.E.'s office , not our usual night meeting spot...

Hazel was washing her hands..

"Well, I know this much...She was a 16 year old white female...and she was PREGNANT!!! So whoever killed her...also killed her baby too.."said Hazel..

"How far gone was she?" I asked..

"Too far gone to abort it...I'm guessing three to four months.."said Hazel..

"AYE MIOS DIOS!" said Carlotta...

"Oh My God!" said Sirena, a mother herself , nearly in tears...

"Ohhh Jesus..." said Angie..

Tyriq looked angry....

"This case is sooo old...and soo cold...but I want to find this bastard....."he said..

"So do I." said Hop...

'We need to talk to Bert Caulken.."said Duke..

''We don't know that he had anything to do with this...but he was in the funeral home the longest..Seems like he or his late father had to know about that can..."said Sissy.

"Who had the place before them?"asked Jimmy....

"That will take some research...Why don't you get on that?" said Sissy..

"Me and my big mouth!" said Jimmy.

"I'll help you Jimmy....Things have been quiet around my office.." said Sharon...

"This isn't really a major case per se...but it has the potential to draw certain people to our office like Lt. ArthurTragg and others...We don't have to...but who is for going to Copland and keeping this investigation quiet...We'd be free from the press and the brass?" asked Sissy...

"I am all for it.."said Carlotta..

"Me too!  I'm with Lotta.." said Sirena..

"Well I guess I'm with my partner.."said Hop...

"Can't go against my wife.." said Tyriq..

"I'm down, how about you Ange?" asked Jimmy...

"I'm Down..."said Angie..

"You got a majority Siss...We'll be there tomorrow morning after we pack.."said Duke..

"I'm going to request that the body be moved to the special morgue we set up there." said Hazel...

Everybody's face got blank.....

I smiled... They were spooked, These street tough , hardened detectives....Murder police and they were spooked..

Hazel grimaced...

"Okay, maybe not.." she said..

Sissy busted out laughing...

"You guys ought to be ashamed of yourselves.." she said.


Like it or not....Here we were in what looked like our most bizzare case yet!

TO BE CONTINUED