Page 47 of Confessions of the Dead

Analysis Note: Sordello removes the stack of folders from the pass-through and replaces them with the file on the coroner, Gerald Furber. She slides the carrier forward, allows Maro to retrieve the folder.

Sordello:

Prior to relocating to Hollows Bend, the man you know as Gerald Furber lived in Aurora, Illinois, under the name Benjamin Kramer. He worked in the coroner’s office for the better part of two years and was released from duty when it was discovered he was having sex fairly regularly with the bodies that came in. Two or three times per week. Young females … mostly.

Maro:

[Retrieves file] That’s not possible. Furber grew up in the Bend. He lived in that house his entire life. Inherited the business when his father passed.

Sordello:

I have no reason to lie to you. There’s video. That’s how he was caught. And his prints are on file. Staff at the coroner’s office are required to be registered with the state. There’s no mistake. It was him.

Maro:

[Removes a page from the folder and presses it against the glass, his finger indicating the top left corner] Then how do you explain this? It can’t be him.

Sordello:

We’ll get to that. When Ms. Sanchez told you she was having trouble reaching her daughter, how did that make you feel?

Maro:

Are you psychoanalyzing me now?

Sordello:

You were on duty, Deputy. The proper course of action upon exiting the coroner’s building would be to return to the sheriff’s office and regroup with your superior, but you didn’t do that, did you? Instead, you went with your girlfriend.Oneof your girlfriends.

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