Page 24 of Compelling Urges

“Anyway, the coroner’s report ought to be available in a few days unless they decide to run a toxicology study on the body. Those can take from four to six weeks, I’m sorry to say.”

Officer Prue added, “There was no purse or phone in the car, and obviously she didn’t leave them here. Can you tell us whether she had family anywhere? We’ll need to notify them as soon as possible.”

Rousing himself a little, Bodhi looked thoughtful for a moment and then answered, “All I know is she supposedly has an aunt who lives in London, and she came from Arizona. She never mentioned any family to me, and you’d think she would have while she was planning our sham of a wedding. I tried to have as little contact with her as possible after meeting her, and really, the only conversations I had with her after our initial meeting were to tell her to stop the stupid lies and quit planning for a wedding that was never going to happen. She carried on as if I’d never said a word and sent me daily updates about the plans and sent crazy invitations to everyone I worked with. It was creepy and scary, actually. When she got here, I could never get any information about a family from her.”

Eventually the police left. Cooper and Ivy looked at each other and had one of their silent conversations that resulted in both of them calling their assistants to report taking a few personal days rather than leaving Bodhi alone with his nightmare. That he needed their company was painfully obvious.

Chapter 19

Bodhi spent a lot of time on the couch. His former bedroom seemed like kryptonite, and he wasn’t ready to join Ivy and Cooper. He just felt dead inside. After a few days of this level of inactivity and wallowing in his misery, however, he got up one morning and announced, “I’m going to go to the morgue.” No record of Blair Hendrix appeared in any search for family in Arizona or London, according to the police, and Blair’s body was still awaiting burial instructions.

“We’ll go with you,” Ivy said firmly.

“I’ll drive,” offered Cooper.

A couple of hours later, Bodhi met with the coroner and announced, “I’ll take care of them.”

“Sir? I’m afraid I don’t understand,” the coroner answered.

“The bodies. They’re my responsibility. I’ll bury them.” The baby girl was so real to Bodhi he thought of her as a separate person from Blair even in utero.

Looking alarmed, the coroner asked, “Was there someone with her when she jumped? Only one body was recovered, and it was my understanding that her suicide was witnessed by several people. No one reported another jumper.”

Bodhi shielded his eyes for a moment and explained with a broken voice, “No… I mean the baby.”

“She was holding a baby? I’m sure you’re mistaken, sir. That would have made climbing over the bird spikes and up onto the wall extremely difficult. Perhaps she left the baby in someone’s care before going to the bridge.”

“No!” Bodhi insisted. “She was pregnant with my baby.”

The lights went on in the coroner’s eyes, and he said gently, “I’m quite certain you’re mistaken. The autopsy showed there was no baby. In fact, I doubt she could have conceived in her condition.”

Completely taken aback, Bodhi asked, “What condition?”

“She must have been in tremendous pain, sir. You didn’t know she was suffering from stage four pancreatic cancer?”

Suddenly everything went fuzzy for Bodhi, and his knees gave out on him. Cooper grabbed for him before he fell. He led Bodhi to a nearby chair and asked, “Can we get him some water, please?”

An assistant ran and produced a bottle from somewhere that Bodhi accepted absently as he whispered, “Sonofabitch.”

“I think that about covers it,” Ivy said sympathetically.

Bodhi processed in silence for a long time. Finally, he sighed. “Thank God there was no baby after all. It’s sad, in a way, but a hell of a lot less sad than the baby dying because she was a girl. That woman was completely off her rocker.” With his voice growing in volume, he asked, “Why the charade, though?” He looked at his friends with utter disbelief.

“We may never know,” Ivy mused. “Are you still going to take care of the… remains?”

“Well, someone has to, I guess.” He looked questioningly at the coroner.

“If you are comfortable with that,” the coroner replied. “If you choose not to make arrangements, the body will be held in storage for a year and then cremated if no one related to her shows up to take responsibility.”

“I’ll do it. She may have been awful and messed up, but no one deserves to be held in storage.”

∞∞∞

Bodhi had to sign a lot of documents and make a bunch of calls to organize Blair’s final arrangements. At least it kept him busy for a couple of days, and he didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on his guilt and annoyance. But those emotions crept in anyway as he ran out of busy work and had to confront his emotions.

Each evening, Ivy and Cooper did their best to pull Bodhi out of his funk, but he seemed terribly withdrawn. Cooper tried to get Bodhi to go surfing, and Ivy made sure Bodhi had lots of tasty things to eat. Their efforts went unnoticed, unfortunately. Bodhi seemed to prefer brooding. They kept an eye on him—making sure he didn’t end up drinking to excess, but Bodhi didn’t seem interested in that either. He just moped and thought about his life.

Blair hadn’t packed any personal items that gave them a clue to her origins or her family, so there was nothing they wanted to keep in case anyone was ever found.

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