Leigh had never thought of Autopsy as a busy place. In fact, it had always seemed pretty lonely to her. She wasn't scared of it. She was used to Uncle Jimmy and his guests, but it was only Uncle Jimmy down there all the time. Sometimes he had assistants, mostly kids coming through on a med school rotation, but they usually didn't last more than a few months. He hadn't had one really stick yet, like he had with Uncle Ducky.
So, she hadn't expected it to be so hard to wait for Autopsy to be empty. She and Donny had been waiting here for ages. They were doing homework at Uncle Jimmy's desk or at least that's what they were pretending to be doing. They were really waiting for Uncle Jimmy to leave, but he wasn't cooperating at all. He'd been glued to Autopsy all afternoon, almost as if he knew what they were planning somehow. She'd been tempted to pretend that her mom needed something just to get him to go away. That wouldn't work though. When he got upstairs, Mama wouldn't have anything for him, and everything would fall apart. They'd know something was up, and she'd get in deep trouble for lying.
This was supposed to be so simple. After all Daddy's and Uncle Tony's talk about pranks, she and Donny had decided they wanted to try one of their own. They'd batted around ideas forever. At first, it'd seemed like nothing would work. If it wasn't too babyish or just plain too stupid, it was something they knew they couldn't pull off without getting caught. Uncle Tony was a master prankster, and apparently, Daddy had been something of a prankster himself. Any old common prank just would not do. They needed something big, and they needed something good. Finally, they'd hit on the perfect way to prank Uncle Jimmy, if he would only go away so they could get on with it.
As if on cue, the phone rang. Leigh tensed, as she had for every phone call that had come through that afternoon. Pleaseletthemneedhimsomewhere, she thought. Justforalittlewhile,itwon'ttakelong.
"They've come to get Cpl. Parkinson," Uncle Jimmy said, hanging up the phone and striding across to one of the compartments on the wall where his 'guests' stayed. He opened the door and slid out the metal tray where the corporal's body lay. Neither Donny nor Leigh took much notice. They'd both been in and out of here for years and were pretty much immune to the stereotypical squeamishness many people had about corpses. They both took the resident 'guests' in stride. Uncle Jimmy's current assistant, a dark-haired, gangly guy named Justin, brought over a gurney and body bag, and the two of them carefully moved Cpl. Parkinson's body into it. "We're going to escort him down," he said over his shoulder to Leigh and Donny. "You two stay put."
"We will," Donny said. He caught Leigh's eye, grinning. Leigh had to fight not to giggle. It was about time.
The minute the elevator door shut behind the adults. Leigh leapt to her feet. "Come on," she urged, pulling Donny from his chair and nearly causing him to trip over his own feet in the process. "We don't have much time."
By the time Donny had righted himself, Leigh had gotten a gurney and was pushing it toward one of the three currently occupied wall compartments. Donny opened it and slid out the drawer, revealing a body lying atop a clear plastic sheet. "Don't worry Chief Matheson," he said to the body. "We're just moving you to a new home for a little while. Nobody's going to bother you. We just want to play a little trick on my dad."
"Which we're going to get caught doing if you don't shut up and move," Leigh told him impatiently. She gripped her side of the plastic sheet and gestured irritably for Donny to do the same.
"I had to explain," Donny said, taking up his position and helping Leigh slide the body carefully onto the gurney. It was surprisingly heavy, but they were both used to physical activity since Leigh played soccer and Donny was accustomed to lugging around his bagpipes. They managed it easily enough. "You can't just go yanking them around like boxes," he went on. "They're people; it's disrespectful."
Leigh sighed, moving the gurney over to where they planned to relocate Chief Matheson. "I know. Been there, done that, got the lecture too. Just be respectful quickly, ok? I don't want to get caught."
"You think I do?" Donny replied, bringing over a second gurney. "My dad will kill me."
"And me with you," Leigh said. She gathered up the sheet and waited as Donny explained—quickly this time—to Pvt. Carpenter. "It'll be funny later, but I don't think it'll be funny if he catches us now."
"Nope," Donny agreed. They shifted Pvt. Carpenter onto the gurney and then into the compartment Chief Matheson had recently vacated. Then they shifted Chief Matheson into an empty compartment to the left of where Pvt. Carpenter had been. He grinned at Leigh, fizzing with laughter as they returned the gurneys back to their proper places. "He's gonna go nuts. He hates when things are out of place."
Leigh nodded. "It's gonna be hilarious." They scurried back to their places at the desk just before Uncle Jimmy and Justin emerged from the elevator.
Much to the shock of both Leigh and Donny, he didn't immediately return to work as they had expected. Instead, he filed the paperwork on Cpl. Parkinson, gathered his things, and prepared to leave.
"I thought you were going to work some more," Donny stammered. Leigh kicked him under the desk. Did he have to be so obvious?
Luckily, Uncle Jimmy didn't appear to notice. "There's nothing left but paperwork," he replied easily. "Let's see if we can't beat your mom home for a change." He came over and slipped an arm around Leigh's shoulders. "Come on, I'll walk you back to your mom."
Leigh didn't dare protest. As she said goodbye to Donny, the two exchanged a brief look of confusion and anxiety. What were they going to do now?