Beyond Death Read Online Free Page B

change the subject and indicating the change in the scene below. ‘You have visitors. Must be there to identify you before your post mortem. Coming for a look?’
    Claire knew it would be very emotional but couldn’t stop herself. They moved nearer and watched events unfold, just like me and Tash would do on a Monday night in watching all the soaps, she thought.
     
    *****
    Jay refused to believe it. Claire’s twin brothers had picked him up and they had collected Tash on their way to the mortuary. Her parents were travelling down from Yorkshire and would meet them there. The twins sat quietly in the front, Tony driving and Jim looking out of the window. It was obvious that they’d been crying but now they seemed to have turned inward and every time Jay spoke they merely grunted or gave one word answers, refusing or unwilling to get into a conversation. In contrast Tash was sitting next to Jay, balling her eyes out. He knew that all this was one big misunderstanding and that the body at the morgue would be that of a complete stranger, not his Claire.
    They arrived and parked up. He took a deep breath and headed towards the main entrance in a hurry, not looking forward to the task but keen to establish that it had all been one big mix-up. A story they would share with their kids in years to come. Jay wanted to go into the room alone so the others agreed to wait outside.
    Tony and Jim stood next to each other and Tony put a hand on Jay’s forearm before he entered.
    ‘Claire’s gone.’
    Annoyed, Jay shrugged him off and walked towards the door.
     
    Claire watched him enter the room and wanted to be there with him. Not sure how it had happened, she was now next to him, crying and explaining that she loved him and that it wasn’t her fault she’d left. Jay stopped before he reached the trolley and shivered. He sensed her presence and knew instantly. The cold truth hit him like a bucket of iced water. As quickly as he’d sensed her presence it disappeared and his agony was too much for words. He let out a primal scream and collapsed to the floor.
    Tony and Jim burst through the door closely followed by the mortuary staff. The twins gently lifted Jay and sat him down on a chair. Seeing the cover on her body still undisturbed they looked at each other and Jim nodded.
    ‘Did you look, Jay?’ said Tony and Jay lifted his head and looked at her brothers. All colour had drained from his face but the twins were too anxious for information about their sister to worry about him.
    ‘I didn’t need to look,’ he shook his head and folded his arms around his middle, pushing them into his stomach, trying unsuccessfully to stop the pain. ‘She was in the room with me.’
    Jim nodded his head and the twins looked at each other in silent understanding but knowing that Claire had now left the room. They walked over to the trolley slowly, in perfect sync, and the mortuary attendant would later tell his colleagues how weird the whole experience had been from the comments of the dead girl’s fiancé to her identical twin brothers who seemed able to mind read.
    They’d been warned that the person on the trolley had suffered severe trauma and knew that Claire was under the cover but nothing could prepare them for the shock of seeing their sister’s lifeless and broken body.
    Claire was once again looking at the scene from above and had no idea how she’d travelled between the two places. She looked down at her mangled shell and was devastated by the sight. Devoid of life, her face was bruised and pale with a wide gash under her chin. The boys had slowly moved more of the sheet in morbid fascination, although they’d been advised not to, and Claire’s legs sat at unnatural angles, obviously broken. She didn’t want to watch any more but she felt drawn to the scene below her like a passing driver rubber-necking a road accident. She laughed bitterly to herself at the likeness. That was exactly what she was, a road accident, taken