The one place where she heard nothing about these women who had their teeth removed by a depraved psychopath was at the medical examiner’s office. There was no gossip, no talk at all. She began to wonder if Dr. Blythe had a gag order on the case. Even Candace was strangely tight-lipped. Then she thought of the likely reason for the silence. This was just another case to them and they had to be professional about such matters. The news sensationalized such things. The medical examiner’s office did not.

Of course this is the reason why, she told herself. But damn it, I want to know what is going on. Val bit her fingernails and stared out of the car window.

“Val, are you ready? You’re going in first. I’ll jump in only when I think you might need me. Okay?” Howie said. “Okay?” he asked again.

Val snapped to attention. “Of course.” Howie and Val sat together in their official death scene investigator van. The late afternoon sun streamed through the windshield and she put her hand up to her eyes, protecting them from the glare. They had parked a few minutes ago.

Howie grabbed the door handle. “Let’s go,” he said. “You’ve had enough time for any necessary pre-investigatory meditation.”

Val was about to enter her first death scene as the lead investigator and was anxious as all hell. Dr. Blythe had decided to send her here today. From what she heard around the office, his newest investigator, one that Oliver highly recommended, should be ready to jump into action. Luckily, since the day she was hired, she had buried herself in Howie’s death scene investigation textbooks, learning everything she could.

Julia had arranged for Howie to be with her on this assignment which made Val less nervous. Julia had also given her good advice: “Study basic technique. That’s the most important thing right now. The rest you’re going to learn as you go on. Mostly, know what to do when you first walk onto any death scene. Just act like you’ve been doing this for years and don’t let the cops bully you.”

Val looked at the house they were about to enter. There was a dead man in there waiting for her to document the circumstances of his demise.

Oh my God, what if I screw this up?

She opened the car door, and stepped onto the pavement.

Howie came around to Val’s side of the car and put his arm around her. “Just remember, you’re here to do a job. Try not to get emotional and act confident.”

Her assignment seemed straightforward. An elderly man had been found dead in his apartment by the visiting nurse. No foul play was suspected, but he was alone with his wife at the time of his death, and she failed to alert the authorities that the man had died.