Blout started to say something, but before he got it out, the door of the lab was knocked open by someone pushing a cart. It was a young woman with a serious face and hair pulled in a tight bun wearing a dark blue coroner’s office windbreaker. On the cart was a bagged corpse, and behind it another.
“You Blout?” she demanded as much as asked. “On the John Doe case?”
Blout nodded quickly, flustered as a third and fourth cart were rolled in. “Yes to both questions,” he said. “What the hell’s going on?”
The woman handed him a clipboard. “We’ve been trying to reach you. Beat cops found a dumpster full of bodies alongside the water treatment plant near Georgetown. Sign please.”
Blout grabbed his head and shot me a look. “All homeless?”
“Near as I can tell.” She stopped for one quick moment as she caught a glimpse of Mo’Lock and was out the door.
In the hall, they had begun to line the walls with carts and bodies. There wasn’t any room left in the lab.
Seconds turned into minutes at Dead Body Central. We all did a lot of head shaking, muttering, and heavy sighing. Everywhere we looked was a cart and body bag. The place was a cadaver parking lot. I waited for Blout to say something, but when at last he spoke, it was anti-climactic to say the least.
“I better get back to the office to start sorting this shit out.” He eyed me sharply from across the table. “Got any ideas?”
“A few. I think the first thing I should do is get ahold of the Edgar Cain files. Can you get them for me?”
Blout shook his head. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don’t go running off on one of your tangents. That was a nice story, but I need to investigate on planet Earth first.”
“Would it hurt you to humor me before it’s too late just this one time?” I said and smacked his shoulder.
Blout muttered something under his breath, then, “Give me an hour.”
“What about Cain’s phone records?”
“Oh, come on, Cal. Why do you want phone records? You know what a bitch those are to get.” Blout looked irritated.
“Just a hunch. I’ll fill you in if anything pans out.”
I turned to Mo’Lock. “One thing’s for sure, if John Doe was found outside a drainage pipe and this crowd was near the treatment plant, we got one place we have to check out.”
The ghoul bobbed his head. “The sewers.”
“Right. Grab some of your buddies and check it out.”
“I’m on it.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Blout shudder as the ghoul left. I chuckled.
“That freak gives me the creeps,” Blout said with a little extra gravel in his throat.
“Be glad he’s on our side. You’d cry like a baby if you knew what he was capable of,” I said. “Besides, he’s saved my ass more times than I care to admit, so in my book that makes him a lifetime pal.”