Words required:

acknowledge, grievance, religious, weather, liaise, occupant, irrational, relive, memento, special

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Hundreds of eyes peered at her through the darkness in the alley. How many cats where there ? Why were they all here together?

Now Alice wasn't afraid of cats, she could take them or leave them, she preferred a dog, but, to be stared at by so many, down a dark alley, where she was supposed to be attending a crime scene, well, she had to acknowledge to herself, it was creepy!

'Doctor,' Matthew Lawson's soft voice made her jump, 'not afraid of cats, are we?' He teased.

'That would be irrational, Superintendant,' she pursed her lips but he knew she wasn't being serious. Over time their relationship had become special, well to him, anyway, and he quite liked the idea that when Blake was out of town he could call on Alice Harvey to step into the breach, but this was the first time he had called her out.

'The body's this way, doc.' Bill Hobart called from somewhere in the dark. As Matthew and Alice moved into the alley the cats hissed but backed off. Hobart was standing over the body of a young man, who, according to his wallet, was not a resident of Ballarat A Sikh, Alice thought, although his turban had been pulled from his head and thrown towards the wall. She looked at his head, but he did not have the customary topknot, his hair was neatly trimmed, against the Sikh rules.

Alice walked around the body, taking in the sight, how the body lay; straight out, legs straight and arms crossed over his chest. In his hands was a crucifix.

'Hmm..' she pointed at the object, 'someone with a religious grievance, perhaps? And yet, he isn't a Sikh, just dressed as one...strange.'

'Could be.' Hobart nodded.

She bent down and looked closer at his chest, taking the crucifix out with gloved hands and dropping it into an envelope Matthew thoughtfully held out to her. She moved the hands and peered at the chest. His tunic was beautiful cream silk fastened with expensive gold buttons. She could see no sign of injury, anywhere, in fact. She checked the rest of the body, it appeared that he had been placed there, possibly killed elsewhere.

There were signs only of paw prints on the damp dust on the ground.

Alice stood and thought, 'Given that the weather has been fine up to today...,' she pointed out, 'can you life his shoulder, Sergeant, Please?'

Bill did as asked, revealing dry dust, untainted by the recent rain,

'Hm, just as I thought,' she folded her arms, and put her finger on her chin, 'he was placed here sometime before the rain. His clothing is dry, and so is the ground under him, so he wasn't killed here.'

'Time if death, doctor?' Matthew asked, she was as bad as Blake for too much thinking at the scene.

'Not sure, yet, Superintendant,' she put her hands in her pockets, 'I'll have a better idea when I open him up.' She waved the waiting ambos over and watched them lift him onto the stretcher.

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Autopsy was quiet without Lucien, so she had no one with which to debate the puzzle. She removed the clothes and examined every square inch of them. The front was clean, almost surgically clean, but the back was dusty from the ground, as was to be expected. She bagged the tunic and trousers, wondering if anyone had thought to pick up the turban.

On examination of the body she found a tiny mark in the centre of his chest. Using her magnifying glass it was a puncture wound small enough to be an injection site. She swabbed the residue and transferred it to a slide for the microscope. Nothing she wouldn't expect on a skin swab. Next she decided to take a blood sample, and send in for a toxicology screening. She drew a sample but it wasn't blood! She squirted it into a dish and looked closely at it, then smelt it, embalming fluid. She screwed her nose up just as Matthew walked in. He grinned at her expression.

'So,' He broke the silence and her thoughts, 'what do we have?'

'He's been embalmed, professionally.' She stated, glaring at him, 'and, really, Superintendant, do you have to creep up on me, like that?'

'Sorry. Embalmed you say.' Matthew scratched his head, 'so he was dumped then?'

'But why?' She put the sample down, 'and, no, I don't know when he died, and because he has been embalmed I won't be able to tell.'

'Bugger!'

'I've yet to open him up to find out why he died, but I'm not holding out any hopes I will get an answer.' Alice got ready to cut into the body so Matthew left,

'I'll see if any of the funeral homes has lost a body,' He muttered as he left the room, picking up the bag of clothes on his way out.

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Alice had finished her autopsy but it was as she told Matthew, she didn't know when he died or how. He seemed to be in perfect physical condition, and because of the treatment to the body there was no bruising and she couldn't find any scars. She left her report on Matthew's desk and walked home.

She passed the alley where the Sikh had been found and instinctively turned into it. There didn't seem to be as many cats this time, but there were still quite a few. She scanned the site, footprints from the police and ambos, more paw prints but nothing she hadn't seen on her first visit.

There was a giggling behind her and she turned to see a group of young children.

'Now, then,' she went up to them, 'what's so funny?' She was quite gentle as they were children, but she wanted to know why they were giggling.

'All them cats, miss.' One girl pointed, 'd'ye think it's a witches alley?'

'No,' Alice laughed, 'I just think the cats have found somewhere nobody bothers them. There are rather a lot aren't there?'

The children ran off, and she went towards where she had seen the turban. It had gone so she assumed that the police had picked it up.

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Matthew was perusing Alice's report when she went into the office the following morning.

'Ah, good morning, Dr Harvey,' He smiled, 'so we have a body dump.'

'Looks like it,' She sat in the chair usually occupied by Lucien, 'but I can't work out why he's dressed that way, why he had been embalmed, which isn't the Sikh way.' She looked at him for ideas. 'Oh, by the way, what happened to his turban?'

'Charlie,' Matthew looked over at the sergeant, 'didn't you have his effects boxed up?'

Charlie nodded in the direction of the door, and pointed, as he finished his phone conversation.

'Simmons,' Matthew raised his eyebrows at Ned, 'bring it over, please.'

Ned brought the box and put it on Lawson's desk.

Alice started to look through the clothing and found the turban at the bottom. She wasn't sure what she expected but it certainly wasn't to be peered at by a pair of blue eyes.

'Oh!' She gasped, 'there appears to be an occupant. Something has made its home in here.' She reached in and retrieved a tiny black kitten. 'Well, well, what have we here.' She smiled and pulled the animal to her chest where it nuzzled under her chin.

'Who the bloody hell was supposed to check this stuff?' Matthew blasted the officers in the room.

Everybody looked anywhere but at him.

'Here, doctor, Ned'll take it down to the animal shelter.' Matthew held out his hand.

Alice didn't know why she did what she did next, only that it surprised her as much as anyone else.

'It's quite alright, Superintendant,' She kept hold of the creature, 'I'll see to him. Charlie, a saucer of milk, I think.'

Charlie got the milk, as stunned as everyone else and put it on Lawson's desk. Alice put the kitten next to it and it lapped thirstily, then sat and licked it's paws.

'Boss,' Charlie interrupted the silence that had fallen due to the unexpected tenderness of the normally acerbic Dr Harvey, 'that call was from the funeral home, they want to know if we've found a body. Dressed like a Sikh. Apparently it was his last fancy dress costume and he wanted to be buried in the last one he wore.'

'Well that explains the embalming, but not how it ended up in the alley.' Matthew mused.

'More your department than mine, Superintendant,' Alice pointed out picking up the kitten.

'What're you going to do with it.' Matthew asked.

'Keep him.' Alice replied, as if it was obvious. 'Blake always says you should have a memento of your first case. He's mine.'

'Mementoes don't usually need feeding.' Matthew smiled. 'What will you call him?'

She tipped her head and thought, 'Mem.' She decided, 'short for 'memento'.'

'Strange was to relive a case,' Matthew muttered.

'Don't be silly,' she looked up at him, 'there again, he will be a reminder.' She stood up, 'come on Mem, home, via the pet shop.' She sailed out of the office as Matthew shook his head in disbelief.

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Matthew and Charlie interviewed the owner of the Funeral Home and his staff. It turned out it was a prank, played by the driver, bored at the lack of work lately. He was given a strong talking to by his employer and fined for wasting police time. He wouldn't do it again!'

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Alice, now the 'mad cat lady!'