I'm sorry for the huge *huge* wait between chapters. Leaves on the line, the wrong kind of snow etc… Normal service has now been resumed.
Anyway, on with the show…
***
***3***
Jesse pulled on the locker door. The metallic clank-shush of the catch echoed in the empty morgue, reverberating in his ears and everything around him faded as....
The door opened and booted feet marched in….
Jesse gasped as the image that flashed before him, clear as day. The sensation was like being suddenly drenched by a bucketful of ice cold water.
"Jesse?"
Reality crashed back in at the sound of his name spoken behind him. He spun around at the voice, breathing heavily. "Steve!"
The detective frowned. "Jess, are you OK?"
"I-I…there's…body…"
Concern appeared on Steve's face. He stepped closer. "What body?"
"This one!" Jesse cried, forcing himself to look around at the open morgue locker. Dull shiny metal stared back at him. The slab was empty.
"He was…there was…" his eyes were wide. "I saw…"
"Jesse, calm down." he took Jesse's arm. "Let's find my dad and have him-".
The young man skittered away before he was even aware he was doing it. "Don't touch me!"
The concern on Steve's face deepened. "Jesse?"
Gradually the panic subsided and Jesse lowered his hands. "We have to tell Mark." He forced the words out of his dry mouth. "The…the body's gone."
"Are you sure it hasn't been collected for burial?"
He shook his head. "No. It was the John Doe."
The pathology lab door opened and Jesse tensed. The flash of booted feet replayed in his mind's eye, less of a shock this time but no less disturbing. Mark's face replaced the image a moment later.
"Jesse!" He said, looking relieved.
Steve turned to his father. "Dad, what's going on?" He said. "What does this have anything to do with the Paris Pharmaceuticals file you asked for?"
Mark frowned, "I'll explain later. Let's get Jesse back to his room."
*****
Steve watched as his father fussed over Jesse, taking his blood pressure and checking his pupil responses. Jesse had relented to the examination, but the tension in his face spoke of his earlier panic.
"I'm fine, Mark." The young man protested.
"Maybe, but your B/P could do with coming down."
Steve smiled. "I told him to lay off the salt at Bar-B-Q Bobs."
"You know you should have left your bed alone, Jesse. You could have collapsed again."
He gave a half smile. "You were gone."
Steve felt a shiver run through him at the words. You left me… echoed in his head and he drew a breath.
Mark frowned, "And you went to the morgue…to find Amanda?"
"No, I-" A touch of Jesse's earlier panic registered on his face. "Mark, he's gone. The Joe Doe." He told him. "I…I opened the locker…and he wasn't there."
"Are you sure you opened the right one?" Steve asked.
He nodded. "We only had one Joe Doe today. I couldn't have opened the wrong door by mistake."
Mark paused. "I thought you said you didn't want to see him again."
Jesse did his best to look casual. "It was just another dead body, right?"
"Dad, if this body really has gone missing, we should report it."
Mark nodded and cast a concerned look at Jesse, who lay back on the bed. "I'll be fine." Jesse assured him.
"This won't take long."
***
The door shut behind Mark and Steve and the silence of the room closed around Jesse. He laid his head back against the pillow and stared at the ceiling. Gradually his eyes closed and he found himself relaxing. Sounds filtered through the walls, the intercom announcements, the chatter of voices, and the grate of wheel across the floor. A woman in spike heals tap-tap-tapped her way down the corridor.
Booted feet stamped towards him. Hands hauled him upright. A face stared into his own. Then the face was a corpse, lying on Amanda's slab…
Jesse sat forward in the bed, gasping. It was him. That man had been there, in those missing hours.
His face had triggered something.
And now Jesse was starting to remember…