“I’ll be there in, say, twenty minutes.”

I immediately grabbed for the bottle wondering what the hell they had down there for me. Cops spook easily, so I was willing to bet that it wasn’t anything too strange.

I downed another beer or two, a couple shots of whiskey, chased it all with milk, and then headed down to the precinct to see what there was to see. It was early evening and the heat of the daytime sun had cooled along with the dimming light.

Inside the precinct building, I gave my name to a guy in uniform at a desk. He said Lieutenant Brueger was waiting for me in the morgue, and then pointed in that general direction. I knew where it was. I’d been there before. I walked a ways down a hall and then followed signs pointing down a short flight of stairs. At the bottom of the stairs there were some double doors. On the other side was the morgue.

Brueger was there waiting. She was small, but tough as nails. You might even say she was pretty, but something about the way she carried herself made the description sound all wrong. There was this thing about her that said I have a gun and I’ll shoot you if you fuck with me. So I guess, what I’m trying to say is she’s pretty, but in a homicidal sort of way.

We didn’t shake hands. We just gave each other the nod. Brueger gestured with her head for me to follow as she pushed open another door with her shoulder. I followed. The room we entered was a huge rectangle, plain walls, each covered with either cabinets or bunks stacked four and five high.

On the bunks were dead bodies, most in steamy bags, but several wore only their toe-tags. I wandered around the room, checking out the bodies with minimal interest. I could feel Brueger’s eyes following me as I strolled. I waited a moment, stopping in front of a John Doe, and then turned toward her.

“So, where’s this mess you want me to look at?”

She bobbed her head sideways. “This way,” she said. “In the next room.”

I followed her to a door marked “Private” and we entered. The room was dim, only light from one fluorescent tube flickered on the ceiling. In the center of the room there were five bodies. All of them were covered but I could see by the size of the lumps they were small, which meant young. I could also tell by two protrusions, breasts and heads, that they were all female. Male corpses have two lumps as well, but the placement is distinctly different.

The fifth pile was short one lump. It had no head.