Page 9 of Unnatural Death

“Truer than you might imagine. Clear to our right.” She’s constantly scanning.

“Clear to the left.” I’m looking out my side window again, the crowd of spectators growing. They’re waiting for the warship- looking bird to take off with me in it, and no doubt people are speculating like mad over what must be happening.

“We got the current ATIS,” Lucy says. “Weather couldn’t be better. But we’ll have some mechanical turbulence and loud automated warnings because of all the buildings.”

Her trigger finger squeezes the radio switch, and she checks back with the Washington National tower.

“Niner-Zulu departing from present position,” she says over the air.

“Niner-Zulu. Ident.”

“Identing.” She presses a button on the transponder, identifying us on radar.

“State destination.”

“Buckingham Run, same as before.”

I feel the helicopter getting light on its skids as Lucy eases up on the collective, pulling in power. Then we’re rising in a blizzard of colorful leaves swirling crazily, alert tones blaring. The automated voice complains nonstop, trees rocking violently in our rotor wash as we climb above the state government northern district office complex.

“… OBSTRUCTION … ! OBSTRUCTION … !”

My building is relegated to five acres that back up to wetlands and a power station. We’re an island to ourselves like Alcatraz, nobody eager to be our neighbor. Despite my best intentions our business is antisocial, especially when the crematorium oven is running, and that was on the schedule for this morning. Bodies donated to our anatomical division are returned after medical schools are finished with them.

I told Fabian to hold off on the cremations. We don’t need smoke billowing up from our rooftop, my headquarters unwelcoming enough. There’s little in the budget for landscaping or anything else that might make the place less off-putting. We have no trash cans or public restrooms, not even a drinking fountain.

“… OBSTRUCTION … !”

Elvin Reddy removed the meditation garden and eternal flame before I took this job. All that’s left to show even a modicum of hospitality are two concrete benches painted dark green and often covered with bird deposits. We’re down to a skeleton crew of three security guards, only Wyatt trustworthy.

“… OBSTRUCTION … !”

The lobby isn’t open to the public, the front doors secured with a heavy chain and padlock. I have no receptionist to answer questions and we no longer allow viewings of loved ones. Cremains and personal effects aren’t picked up in person. We send them UPS, and that’s a difficult package to find on your doorstep.

“… OBSTRUCTION … !”

I don’t have the budget to fix what’s been done or I would have by now. Were it up to me I’d ensure that people are as comfortable and respected as possible in their darkest hour. But that’s not the world we live in anymore.

* * *

Lucy holds us in a hover five hundred feet above my tan brick building, the crowd by the fence staring up at us. I notice that Henry Addams has driven his hearse out of the bay and is chatting through his open window with my secretary, Shannon. I can’t tell much from here, but it seems he’s handing her something, and I didn’t realize they were acquainted.

“… OBSTRUCTION … !”

“If you want to get an aerial photo ofLa Rue Morgue, now’s a good time,” Lucy says as the warnings continue blaring.

“May as well while I’m here.” I take several photographs.

“You can use them in this year’s Christmas letter.”

“We look even worse from the air,” I decide.

It’s the first time I’ve seen our roof from up here, flat and dingy gray with rusting mechanicals, tilting antennas, stained satellite dishes, the tall concrete smokestack an eyesore. Windows are small or nonexistent, depending on the work that goes on inside. The vehicle bay looks like a sally port, and from this perspective we might be a factory or a city jail.

“… OBSTRUCTION … ! OBSTRUCTION … !”

“All right already,” Lucy complains as the warnings continue jarringly.

She reaches overhead to pull out a circuit breaker, abruptly silencing a voice that’s shrilly female.

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