Page 16 of Hide and Seek
I wait just a moment, making sure she gets in alright. Then after entering her access code, she pushes the door open before pausing and glancing back. Another small smile crosses her face, and after her fingers flutter in a soft wave, Harper disappears inside, leaving me more fucked up than ever before.
6
HARPER-RAYN
My hands grip the last door of the morgue refrigeration unit, and I tear it open before grabbing the empty stretcher tray and rolling it out. I all but shove my head inside the unit and peer around, checking every last corner before finally determining that there’s nobody hidden inside. Well, at least nolivebodies.
I’ve checked every possible space, right down to the small areas inside the old filing cabinets. There’s not a single doubt in my mind, I’m alone as can be. Well, mostly. I came in an hour before my shift to do all of my checks. My supervisor is still here and a bunch of the admin staff, but they’ll be gone soon and when they are, I need to know that I’m well and truly alone.
I’ve already peed and made sure my water bottle is filled, so there’ll be no excuses for me to leave the morgue unattended tonight. Meaning absolutely no chances for some creep to sneak in and leave me unwanted gifts.
I’ve been watching the door. I know exactly who is inside the morgue and am taking note of the moment they leave. Nothing is getting by me tonight.
“Are you about done taking stock of my morgue, Madden?” my supervisor, Dr. McKullan, questions as he skillfully dissects a pair of lungs, his whole attention locked on what he’s doing.
“I am indeed,” I respond, striding over to my desk and unpacking my bag to get ready for my shift. “Is there anything you want me to do? I can scrub in if you’d like.”
“Your shift doesn’t start for another forty minutes.”
“That’s alright. I don’t mind starting early,” I tell him, always down for a chance to learn from the master. Dr. McKullan is at the top of his field, one of the highest-regarded forensic pathologists in the country. Residents would kill to learn from him, so any chance I get, I take with both hands.
“Alright then,” he says, not bothering to look up. When he’s zoned in, he’s zoned in. There’s no distracting this man. “Why don’t you finish this autopsy? I want to look over your techniques, make sure you haven’t been getting sloppy during your night shift.”
I laugh. “Sloppy? Me? Never!”
Dr. McKullan chuckles to himself. “I’ll be the judge of that,” he says. “Now go scrub in, and you can take over.”
I don’t waste a second, hurrying across the morgue to get prepared, and before I know it, I’m back and ready to go. I settle in beside Dr. McKullan, and despite him already being well and truly into the autopsy, he has me start from scratch, meticulously looking over my skills while silently nodding in approval.
“Were you planning on explaining why you felt the need to come in an hour before your shift and search every crevice of my morgue?”
“Oh, umm . . . I was just making sure it was safe,” I say as I begin carefully removing the organs, but I realize too late that I forgot to filter the words falling out of my mouth.
“Safe?” he questions. “Have you been feeling unsafe? Has something happened?”
“No, no,” I rush out, lifting my gaze from the heart cradled in my hands. “Nothing happened. I just like to make sure everything is as it should be. You know, a girl can never be too cautious, especially when working the night shift.”
He narrows his gaze on me, and as his thick, graying brows furrow, I realize he’s more than aware that I’m lying to him, but he thankfully doesn’t push me on it like Knight did.
“Concentrate, Dr. Madden,” he murmurs, indicating down to the heart in my hands. “Never take your eyes off your work, especially when you have a heart in your hands. The slightest distraction could cause you to miss integral information.”
Fuck. I more than know better.
“Sorry,” I say, restarting my examination.
“Now, tell me what you see.”
Two and a half hours later, Dr. McKullan is just starting to pack up his things. He stayed almost an extra two hours after the end of his shift just to work with me, and I’ve never been so grateful. “You’re doing good work, Harper,” he tells me. “You’re going to go far in your career. Now, when you’re ready, close up and get started on the report. The detectives have been hounding me for this one for two days.”
“Will do,” I say with a nod.
Dr. McKullan offers me a slight nod, and a moment later, he swipes his access card against the card reader and a soft beep sounds through the morgue. The moment he’s gone, I call out to Siri to play Paramore and to crank the volume.
I get lost in my work, closing up the body before jumping straight into the report, and just as always, my work consumesme. I’m just finishing up the report when my phone chimes from my desk, stealing my attention away.
My gaze drops to the screen and a stupid smile pulls at my lips finding a new text from Big & Long Schlong #2, and an earlier one from Izzy.
She’s so fucking gross. But I’ll call her later and give her all the sordid details, which will probably turn into a three-hour conversation that will end with me needing to pour bleach into my ear holes.
