Chapter 26

The clanking of the metal stretcher came down the hall, and after she pressed her lips to his forehead, she pulled the shroud over his face. "See you soon, handsome."

Mory kicked the brake on the bed and tugged it back with her toward the wall as Percy centered the morgue trolly against it. Once they loosened the sheet underneath Bose, they folded it tight around his body to cradle him for the transfer.

Her hand slid under the heavy, cold head and lifted him from the frame. "Alright now, Percy. One. Two. Three." They both gritted their teeth and grunted as they pulled him to the stainless-steel cart.

While they walked through the hallway as she pushed Bose's sheet-covered body, Mory took a deep breath of the spicy cologne he wore and smiled. "He sure was a decent man. Wasn't he?"

Percy slapped the plate for the next corridor. "That he was."

Once they were through, the doors shut behind them with a whoosh, and a blast of air brushed past their face as the vacuum of the chamber being closed off pulled their breaths from them.

The dimly lit hall to the morgue was eerily quiet and sent a shiver down Mory's spine because she could sense that her own sheet-covered journey was only moments away.

It was like a glimpse of the future that awaited her. And when she glanced up at Percy as he pulled the cart with him, she wondered if it would be him that took care of her. "I never really did tell you how great I think you and Neville are. I want to thank you for how you boys look after me and the girls."

As Percy backed his way through the swinging morgue doors, the dark room lit up, and he stopped by a large metal door. "It's been my pleasure, Mory. I'm glad you came to us."

A finger punched in a four-digit code that made the door unseal, and he used his elbow to pry it open. "I was thinking maybe you and Haldir could come for dinner some evening. The Mrs. just loves to hear him go on."

Percy backed himself up inside the freezer as he pulled the stretcher along with him, and she waited outside. "Yeah. I'd really like that."

A burst of warm air came from the entrance as James sauntered in with his hands shoved in his pockets. "Well, that sure was a fucking nightmare. You all want to go have a drink with me in my office?"

Mory glanced up to speak to James, but his face was black now, and she realized hers probably was as well. "Sure, Chief, but I hope you got more than that one nearly empty bottle, because I'm ready to get real drunk right now."

Percy's amused huff of air came from the sink as he shook the water from his hands. "I agree. Today's been absolute shit so far."

Mory crossed her arms and counted the blocks beneath her feet while she walked back between the two men.

James noticed her internal dialogue and held out his hand to her to usher her inside the office. "You alright, Mory?"

Though she nodded, her shoulders shimmied as she pushed her tears away. "Yeah. Just have some things on my mind."

The leather club chair was ice cold now and brought her no comfort at all as she pressed her back into the worn material while James poured the whiskey. When their glasses were in their hands, Percy raised his into the air before his face. "To Bose, the funniest boat Captain in all of Norway."

"To Bose." Mory sipped back her alcohol and bit her lip as she pushed herself up in her seat. "I just met him and all, but he was nice to me. And I could tell that he was a good man, you know?"

"The best." Percy swirled his glass and nodded. "He introduced me to my wife. Told me she was perfect for me, and damned if he wasn't right."

As he poured himself another drink, James glanced between them. "That's the thing about this island. This is such a hard environment to live in, and everyone gets so close just to survive. But the world is so much sadder and colorless when you lose somebody."

Her head nodded because Mory understood perfectly. She used to listen to her father as he preached about Heaven and how glorious it would be when she got there. But she couldn't imagine an existence without Haldir.

Wherever she was headed was no paradise at all, only another lonely, cold island that she couldn't escape from. "Oh, this shit just isn't fair."

"You got that right." James's finger tapped against his glass. "Weird to see you so upset, though. I wouldn't think all this would bother someone like you."

Even though her round cheeks lifted under her eyes, tears dripped from her chin, and she didn't even try to hide them now. "I guess the older I get, the less right this whole deal seems to me. My father was a preacher, and he'd probably be super upset with me right now, but I think all this is complete bullshit. Good people dying in these terrible fucking ways. It's not right."

Her wrist caught the sloppy spittle that came from her lips as she shivered. But when she looked to James, her hand waved at what stared back at her. "I'm so tired of seeing death everywhere. I want to live in a place where I don't have to see the dark cloud on people all the time."

The last of Percy's drink fell into his mouth, then the cup met the desk. "Amen to that."

The ends of the sleeves of her shirt wrapped around her fists, and Mory wiped her face clean. "Chief, can you call over to the pub and see if Haldir's back yet?"

The metal cap squeaked as James screwed it on the bottle. "We'll walk over with you. I think we all could use more drinks, and I'm buying."

As she rounded the office door into the hallway, Charly smiled back at her and held out his hand. She often wondered if she would know when it was time, and as Mory winked at him, she slipped her fingers around his. "I'm glad that it was you that came for me, little buddy. I was afraid I might get lost on my way there."

He rested his head against her as they walked hand in hand behind Percy and James. But right outside the Emergency Department doors, James stopped them, and they huddled together to block the wind. "I want you both to know how well you did in there. It's been an honor to be able to work with you. I mean that from the bottom of my heart."

Like the tingle on her skin the first time Haldir's blue eyes looked into her soul, she felt someone watching her somewhere. And she held her breath as her eyes dropped to the little boy with his arms wrapped around her waist who smiled back at her. Before she even heard the shot ring out, James' blood splashed them all with its sticky heat as his back exploded.

When Percy jerked from his shock, his hands gripped them both, but James' weight crushed Mory underneath him as he took her with him to the crimson-soaked snow below.