Aurora Magazine 2019

Cold Case

Elizabeth (Libby) Maher

The title of the McCrumb book swirled through my mind as I rolled the body through the halls of the morgue. Her novel, “If I Had Killed HimWhen I Met Him” seems like good advice in ret - rospect. It isn’t as if I tried to kill him. When he came at me with the gun, fate moved in my favor. He tripped on my dog, Tank, and the gun shot blew off most of his face. I picked the gun up from the floor and now it has my prints. Who would believe I didn’t do it? There is not a mark on my body to show abuse or defense wounds. Why did I file a protective order against him and then let him move back? I had been a fool but what to do now? What does someone do if they need to hide a body? Hide it in plain sight. I never considered my work place could become a real crime site. But, with all the potential murder sce - narios staged at the Body Farm, who would know the difference? The Body Farm only takes donated or unclaimed bodies for forensic research. When I pick up the bodies from the morgue, my job is to collect the paperwork and verify. Easy enough to add his body to the rest in the transport. My hands shook as I filled out the appropriate forms required by the office. Once satisfied with my forgery, an unnatural calm came over me. He is going to become a scientific study. How ironic that this good-for-nothing abuser is going to do something constructive for the world. It would be the first and last time. While he resides in his temporary home, I will carefully doc - ument his eventual return to the earth. When his remains have yielded their last bit of information and given up their last ounce of flesh, he will go to eternal rest having spent a year in earthly hell being eaten by insects, worms and birds. Serves him right. “Well, what do we have today?” asked Pat, our admissions

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