We woke early the next day. Neither of us were sure where we were going and we wanted to get a head start. I took some of the money out of the bag I had brought up from the opera and put it in my pocket.

As we left the front door I remembered that we still had no way to lock the house and that I would have to ask Dumas for a key; if there was a key. We headed in the direction CJ believed the Rue Etrange was in. We would have to walk until we reached a road that was respectable enough to have cabs that could take us to the police station.

It took awhile to find a cab, but we finally did, "Police station on Etrange," CJ called out to the driver as we climbed in. I was feeling way out of my element. I hated being seen in the light of day; I loathed the strange glances I was given due to my odd mask. Even though most did not stare with open mouths, I still knew what they were thinking.

CJ seemed to notice my discomfort, "Are you alright?" She asked me evenly,

"I just…I am not usually around this many people," I muttered,

"Are you going to be able to deal with the fact that now we are going to be expected to interact with human society?" CJ said mildly,

"Do I have a choice?" I grumbled,

"I really don't think you do," She smiled at me,

Our cab stopped and we got out. We were standing at the end of the Rue Etrange; a respectable middle class street which had many small café's lining it. We walked down it, and finally spotted the police station. It was a fairly well tended building of a decent size. There were people walking in and out of the red front doors, and CJ confidently walked inside; I came in behind her.

Immediately we saw rows of desks with policemen on one side and in most cases troubled looking citizens on the other. There were stacks of paper high on every desk, and the whole place had a generally disorganized feel to it.

One man who had been sitting looking at paperwork when we came in now approached us. He was tall and solidly built with a mess of dark curly hair, "What do you two need to report?" He asked us in a hurried voice, quickly raking his eyes over my mask and CJ's unconventional dress,

"We need to speak to Captain Dumas," CJ said evenly; it was clear she felt more comfortable in this situation than I did,

The man stared back at us skeptically, "You want to speak to the Captain?"

CJ was about to say something else when Dumas appeared behind the policeman,

"You two are two minutes late," He said hurriedly to us, then he turned to the policeman, "Leo, these two are working for us now, this is Erik Phann and CJ Bradshaw," We both nodded at Leo who was still eyeing us skeptically, "Phann, Bradshaw, this is Leo Denton," Leo offered a grim nod of acknowledgement,

"Right," Dumas said, he clearly had a lot to do that day and did not want to spend all his time introducing us, "You two, follow me," CJ and I walked behind him as he headed to the back of the station and opened a door on which the name Eugene Dumas was etched in black.

Dumas's office was fairly small and contained an oak writing desk and two wooden chairs. As with the desks we had seen when we first entered the station, there were piles of paper stacked on top of his desk. Dumas moved around behind his desk and we sat in the two wooden chairs. On top of the mess of papers there was a copy of the day's newspaper which Dumas picked up and threw to the front of his desk where we could see it.

The headline read, Tragic Death, Blake Le Roy succumbs to head wound,

"The whole article is a bunch of lies about how he was injured bringing the Opera Killer to justice, and that his family along with the whole police force are mourning the loss of his talent," Dumas shook his head bitterly, "But the point is; is was an accident, good work,"

We stayed silent, so Dumas continued, "Alright, here is all I have time to tell you; there is one desk open out there," He motioned to the station outside his office, "You two can share it. The head of your department is Lieutenant Henry Harris; he and everyone else are going to hate the two of you for awhile, but I am assuming you can work past that, now get out of my office and don't act like you are chummy with me; I am not your friend remember that,"

He said all this very quickly and CJ and I just stared at him, "Alright then, get out there, go to work," Dumas dismissed us and we exited his office. Back in the main area of the station house, several of the men seated behind the desks looked up at us skeptically as we moved to the one desk the appeared to belong to no one,

"So what do you think so far?" CJ asked me as we inspected the desk; there were still some old papers spread out across the top,

"I think everyone here hates us," I said grimly,

CJ snorted, "And they don't even know us yet,"

I sighed, "So what happens now?"

As if in answer to my question, a man strode purposefully toward us; he was shorter than myself and CJ and his light brown hair and bright blue eyes gave him a boyish look; but his demeanor suggested that he knew how to intimidate;

"You two are Phann and Bradshaw?" We nodded, "I am Lieutenant Harris, here," he handed me a piece of paper, "This is a street address; someone reported finding a dead body there. From what the man said it is probably not a murder, but you have to go and check out the body anyway; just rule that it is not a murder and get back here, someone should be waiting to pick up the body," he was turning to go but then he added, "Remember, you two are only here because Dumas suggested it; I did not want you in my unit,"

He walked hurriedly away, "Well, here we go," CJ said to me, and we walked out of the station house, which was rather like walking a gauntlet by the way all the others were glaring at us.

Outside CJ and I climbed into a rickety old police carriage which was pulled by a rather woebegone old chestnut mare. I took the drivers seat and CJ was beside me,

"Where are we going?" I asked and CJ looked down at the paper Harris had handed me; I was more or less worthless when it came to navigating around the city as I had spent most of my years in Pairs in the immediate area around the opera, except when I drove to the cemetery with Christine…

"Rue Agreable, go down to the end of this street and take a left," With these words we set off on what would become a truly death defying ride. The carriage was old, and it did not take turns well, which would have been nice to know before I tried to turn. After the cab nearly fell onto its side, I realized I would have to be more careful. In addition, the horse was completely out of control; for a beast which looked half dead it could run quite quickly when it wanted to; before coming to an almost immediate halt which would send the carriage lurching forward.

To add to the list of things gone wrong; CJ managed to get us lost twice before we finally found the right road.

I was not sure what to expect when we arrived on Rue Agreable; it was a middle class residential neighborhood and I could not imagine a dead body in the street where the house fronts were tidily groomed and flowers poured out of window boxes,

"Over there," CJ pointed and I saw a small ring of people gathered around a figure covered with a sheet,

I pulled over; happy to not be in the moving carriage. CJ and I approached the group and one man, an elderly fellow with expensive dress and white hair, stepped forward,

"Are you the police?" He asked us in almost an appalled voice; CJ and I did not look like police, we did not even have uniforms (not that I was complaining, the gray-blue outfits some police wore looked ridiculous) not to mention my mask usually put people ill at ease anyway,

"Yes," I responded grimly; I did not like the looks I was getting from the gathered housewives and children who were gawking at the body,

"Well it is about time! I reported this hours ago! This man over here;" he pointed to a young looking man who was leaning nonchalantly against a carriage, "He came to pick up the body almost immediately after I reported it! And I have been making him wait because I knew the police needed to look at it and…" he continued speaking but I was done listening to him,

I moved forward and crouched in the center of the circle of people by the body; I still did not like everyone looking at me, but the sooner we got this over with the sooner we could leave,

"Can I have everyone's attention please!" CJ yelled out to the crowd as she stood beside me, "If you would all kindly return to your homes please! This is not a floor show!"

Reluctantly the silent spectators wandered away; all except for the elderly man with white hair and the man leaning against the carriage. I pulled the sheet off the body to reveal the figure of a grown woman, eyes closed.

"You found this body?" I asked the white haired man,

"Yes; it was behind these bushes just here," The man pointed to the corner of the street where there were large green bushes neatly trimmed so that they were all perfect rectangles,

"And you moved the body?" CJ asked the man, kneeling down next to the body as well,

"Well, I was not sure if she was dead or not, so I dragged her out here; when I realized she was dead I ran back to my house to get the sheet from my wife and report the body, and I have been waiting for you ever since,"

CJ and I studied the body; I had never realized how ideal for this job we were. There were many things one learned as an assassin that could not be learned as a police man. Assassins were paid to know all modes of murder possible; as well as how best to cover one's tracks.

However, this woman did not appear to have been murdered. There were no strangulation marks around her neck, nor patches of blood on her clothes indicating a wound, and no skin decolonization to indicate poison.

"Looks natural to me," I murmured to CJ,

She nodded, "I wonder who she was," Then she turned to the old man, "Did you know this woman?"

"Certainly not," The old man sounded appalled once again; I assumed it was because the body of the woman was dressed in tattered clothes and had dirt all over her face, she was clearly poor,

"Do you get many people like her walking down this street?" CJ asked skeptically,

"No! this is a respectable area; we don't get beggars or pickpockets here,"

CJ nodded, "So what is she doing here?" She muttered to me,

"I don't know," I mumbled back, then I straightened up; "Monsieur…?" I asked the elderly man,

"Ghant, Max Ghant,"

"Monsieur Ghant, you said you found the body over here?" And I pointed to the grass behind the row of bushes,

"Well yes," He said uncertainly, "But, she was closer to the bushes; she was under them really, but she was not behind them, she was on the street side of the bushes; I almost did not see her,"

I thought about this for a moment and something was defiantly wrong; I had never heard of someone feeling as though they were about to die and then scrambling under a bush. I looked at CJ; she had stood and was regarding me with a furrowed brow.

"Are you two done?" A new voice said from behind me and I turned to see the man who had been leaning against the carriage had walked toward us, "I was supposed to be back hours ago,"

"Who pays you to cart off these bodies?" CJ asked with a raised brow,

"Government program," the man answered,

"I never heard of it," CJ said bluntly,

"Well, mademoiselle, it is new program; we pick up unclaimed bodies and transport them to medical schools; this one was supposed to be at the Royal Institute of Medicine about a year ago,"

CJ glanced at me and I shook my head, "No, we are not done yet,"

However, we could find nothing else indicating foul play; the only marks on the body were deep, red scratches on her shoulder; and they would not have been fatal. It seemed we had no other choice than to give up the body and head back to the station. We helped the young man place the body in the open cart the cab was hooked up to and he quickly drove away, taking a sharp turn which almost tipped his cab.

Bidding goodbye to the elderly Max Ghant, we got back into the perilous police carriage and headed back for the station. We found our way back with greater ease; but the cab still rocked dangerously if ever we took a turn too fast.

Lieutenant Harris was not pleased when we returned,

"What in hell took so long?" He barked,

"We had a problem," I said shortly, and Harris was not impressed,

"What kind of problem?" He snapped,

"We got lost," I said when I could think of no other thing to say,

"Sweet Jesus! You were lost?" He threw his hands up in the air and walked away; muttering something about getting what you have coming when you hire a woman and bizarre looking man.

The next few hours CJ and I spent doing monotonous paperwork; transferring information from one sheet to another, reading complaints people had sent into the station, and other trivial things. Around two o'clock, Harris asked CJ and I to go down to the basement and bring up several boxes. When we returned from this task, we found the station was completely empty.

Puzzled, we walked outside. Then we saw that all the police men were across the road in an outdoor café taking their lunch break.

"They could have been a bit less obvious about not wanting to include us," CJ said, but by the tone of her voice she did not find the situation too troubling. All I did was walk back inside.

Sitting down again in the deserted station house to begin never ending paperwork was far from what I wanted to do and I almost missed the crazed cab ride we had taken in the morning. I would take almost falling out of a cab over almost falling asleep any time. And then I wondered…

"CJ," I said suddenly, and her head snapped up; happy to be distracted from the work we had been assigned to do,

"Yes?"

"The body of that woman, it was found under the bushes on the street side of the hedge right on the corner of the road…"

"So?"

"So, did you see the marks on the side of her shoulder?"

"I saw them," CJ blinked, then her eyes widened, "You think…?"

"She fell out of a cab and then rolled onto the ground,"

CJ considered for a moment, "So she falls out of the cab, and rolls under the bushes, and the driver does not notice, and there was no blood…"

"She must have been dead already," I said,

"So we have a cab carrying a dead body speeding down a respectable street, it must have been last night because it was only found this morning," She shook her head, "And now the body is at the Royal Medical Institute,"

"The Royal Institution of Medicine," I corrected, earning a disapproving stare from CJ,

"Either way, I think we should go take another look at the body, if we can,"

I nodded standing, "Better than sitting here,"

We left the station and got into the same treacherous cab. From across the street I heard Harris call out to us, but I ignored him and drove the cab away.

We only got lost once trying to find the Rue Agreable, and we only almost died in the tilting cab twice. The second time this happened, CJ scolded me,

"You drive like a maniac," she said seriously,

"I am a maniac, remember?" I said dryly,

"Ah! All those maniac things; sleeping in a coffin, the mysterious mask…I almost forgot about that," She responded with light sarcasm,

"Don't forget that knowing you alone is enough to make someone a maniac,"

"You really know how to complement a woman don't you?" CJ said shaking her head,

We finally reached the street and I slowed the cab considerably. We reached the end of the road where Agreable intersected with Etat and where we had found the body.

"The cab would have had to turn left here to make the body fall out and roll in the direction that it did," I said,

"So we turn left," CJ stated, and we turned left.

We followed Etat for some time, and I was just beginning to think we would have to turn around and come up with another plan when I saw what we were looking for; a large red brick building on our right had a large sign in front of it which read The Royal Institution Of Medicine.

"There it is!" CJ exclaimed a moment later, "The Royal Medical Institute!"

"It's the Royal Institution of Medicine," I said as I stopped the cab,

"That is what I said,"

"It says the name right there on the sign, I think you could get it right," I spoke lightly as we walked toward the building,

"I think my way sounds better," CJ laughed, and we walked in alongside several confused looking students.

CJ and I followed the signs to the 'operating room,' which seemed like the most likely place for a dead body to be. The room was located in the back of the building, and we quietly pulled open the door and saw a large room in the style of an amphitheater, and a class was in process…

"And now we are going to open the body; we will observe the each detail, ask yours self simple questions about the workings of the body and see if you can answer them; write or sketch concisely in your notes what you see," The man who was talking was a balding professor wearing a white coat and standing behind a cadaver laying on a long table,

"And of course, the man who pioneered this technique of careful observation and notes was…" The professor asked his class, who sat in silence for several moments,

"Come now someone must know," The professor said exasperatedly, then I noticed the body laying on the table was that of the woman we had found earlier; if we wanted to see it before it got cut up, we would have to go now,

"De Vinci was the first to truly observe the human body instead of just looking in the bible or consulting the ancient writings of the Greeks," I said, stepping into the room and walking over to the table. It took every bit of will power I had to make myself enter the room and face all the staring eyes; but I did it.

"Who are you? Should you be in here?" The professor turned to face myself and CJ as we walked toward them,

"I am detective Phann, this is detective Bradshaw,"

"A female detective?" The professor sounded scandalized, "And you, why are you wearing a mask?"

"We need to see that body," I said, ignoring the question,

"Why?" The professor was angry, "You can't just come in here and disrupt my classroom like this you know," But CJ and I were already making our way around the table to see the body,

"Don't worry professor," CJ said evenly, "We will only take a second of your time,"

The body was laid out on the table, completely stripped of clothing. I found the scrapes on her shoulder and discovered now that they went all the way down her side,

"Scrapes, but no bleeding or bruising," I said to CJ, "She was already dead,"

"How do you know that?" The professor stated, coming to stand beside me. The truth was that I knew that because once while moving a man I had killed to a more discreet location I had accidentally dragged him over a jagged piece of glass. Afterwards I had made the observation. Obviously I could not tell the professor this; so I ignored him again,

"Erik," CJ said slowly to me, and I looked to see she was no longer observing the scrapes, but was looking at the woman's chest. I followed her gaze,

"Those marks, there on her chest," CJ pointed and I saw the two large, round marks,

"What is that?" I asked, and the professor stared at them,

"I was not sure…" he said; a lot of good he was,

"They look like…do you still have the clothes she was wearing when she came in?" CJ asked,

"Um…no," the professor stated slowly,

"They look like the indentations of buttons…her dress had buttons on it, didn't it?" CJ looked up at me,

"It did," and then it became clear, "She was Burked,"

"What does that mean?" the professor now sounded more interested than angry,

CJ was nodding, "Somebody sat on her; applying pressure to her chest, until she died," I was not surprised CJ knew what I was talking about; it was a well known technique which took it's name from William Burke…then I wondered how I had been so foolish,

CJ seemed to make the same connection as I did at the same moment, "Where did this body come from?" She asked, her voice high,

"I pay some young chap for them; they he must make a fortune for how much I pay him," CJ and I stared at each other, but the professor continued, "What are you talking about, what does Burked mean?"

"William Burke was a criminal arrested for suffocating victims and then selling their corpses to medical schools for dissection," I sated gravely