Keegan 00 Soft Case Read Online Free

pretty.
    The room, unlike the morgue, smelled of death. Between the chemicals and the rotting bodies, the smell is most reminiscent of when I leave Chinese food in the refrigerator for too long. Oh, and throw in a little spoiled milk. Not sour milk, but the kind that comes out in chunks in your morning coffee. That’s pretty much the smell of the place. Real pleasant.
    The smell was only the beginning. Mullins’ body rested on the metal table, in clear view. Hovering over the body of the former Mr. Mullins was Dr. Seibling, a squat man with very little black hair and thick glasses. I’d met him a few times before, and thought he was a pretty decent guy. He had brains, that’s for sure, and I came to value his opinions in his area of expertise. That didn’t happen with me too often, as you can probably tell. I got the feeling, however, that he didn’t like cops coming to his workplace, so I always kept the questions to a minimum.
    “New York’s Finest coming down to take a look at our esteemed Mr. Mullins,” he said in his low voice. I always had to strain to hear him. “I don’t think there’s much I can tell you, other than the fact that he’s dead.”
    “I figured that much,” I said, moving around the table to get a look at the body. Mullins’ face was almost completely smashed in from the impact. The skull had fractures at the forehead and left temple. I knew this because along with the deep red blood coming from those spots, I saw little chunks of grey. Yup, brains. His car, though expensive, was old, and didn’t have air bags. Poor guy. He had incisions on his neck, and part of his esophagus was visible, probably from glass, I assumed. His hair was caked with blood. I thought right there that this was no way to commit suicide. He might have died instantly. That I would have to find out. But it must have been painful, regardless. I was looking at a man who had life by the balls. He had everything. Why would he want to kill himself? Did he have some sort of closet problem, like child molestation? I’d seen some pretty powerful guys off themselves for such things, but from what I knew about Mullins, he didn’t fit the profile. It may just have been an accident, but something at the scene had caused the uniforms to say otherwise.
    “He died from severe head and brain damage. Actually, he probably died a minute or so after impact. Tough to tell right now, but that’s how it seems.” That meant he suffered during that time.
    “You testing for drugs, alcohol?” Rick asked.
    “Have to. Should have results in a few minutes actually. Coltrain wanted me to do it for him, considering that I was doing all this work.” Bryan Coltrain was the city Medical Examiner, and he usually went through such tests. I was sure he would be on the way to the morgue, eagerly awaiting the body.
    “Nice of you. Got anything else?”
    “Well, his palms are cut up too, which would indicate that he covered himself before impact. Not sure what that means.”
    “Could mean he didn’t mean to kill himself,” Rick said.
    “Or, it could mean that this was an accident.”
    “There were no skid marks, John,” Rick said, turning to look at me. “Didn’t I tell you that last night?”
    I shook my head. I couldn’t remember.
    Siebling looked down at the body and shook his head. “Forty-seven years old, and he had everything going for him. Amazing someone with so much would end it all, compared to someone who was down on his luck.”
    “Maybe he was down on his luck, and we just don’t know it yet.”
    “True.”
    “Or, it could have just been an accident, or a heart attack. Seen that many times.”
    “I see no evidence of coronary problems, but I’m sure Coltrain will investigate that.”
    “How soon before you ship him off to the morgue.”
    “They’re on their way now.”
    We waited for a few minutes, with nothing else to say. Siebling went about preparing the body for the morgue, which basically consisted of putting