A/N Thank you PerryLovesDella for beta checking this.

Part of a series of interconnected MSW fics. You can go ahead and assume that any fic sharing a title with a song from an AL musical takes place within the same universe.

You should probably go ahead & read Met A Man Chapter 1 first.

I Don't Want To Know

Chapter One

"My daughter, Margie, is coming for a visit this week. She'll be here on Thursday."

"Oh that's wonderful! I'm sorry I missed her the last two times she was here. I would love to finally meet her. Why don't you bring her to my house for dinner?"

"That would be nice. I'm sure Margie would be thrilled. You are her second favorite author … from Maine."

Jessica chuckled. "Stephen King?"

"Ayuh." A moment later, Seth made a face as he added. "She's bringing her boyfriend."

"Less wonderful?" Jessica inferred.

"That, woman, is the understatement of the century, but my opinion doesn't matter."

"I see." Jessica smiled into her coffee cup.

Seth cleared his throat and told Jessica. "Before she gets here, there is something that I wanted to ask you."

"Oh?"

Seth reached a hand into the coat pocket that he had draped over one of the extra chairs of the table for four .

The bell over the door rang as someone entered the diner.

Spotting them, Amos made a beeline right for their table. "Miz Fletcher." Almost as an afterthought, he added. "Doc. "

Taking his hand out of the pocket - empty - Seth returned the greeting. "Amos."

Jessica smiled. "Hello Amos."

A rolled up map and a folder of papers clutched in his hands, Amos asked. "Doc, you mind if I borrow Miz Fletcher for a minute?"

Seth replied. "I don't think I actually get a say in that, Amos."

Seth's eaten and Jessica's half eaten lunch still on the table, Amos moved to the diner's only empty table - one near to the door - to lay out his papers for Jessica to look at.

"I'll be right back." Jessica told Seth.

"Will you though?" Seth asked a bit skeptically.

"Possibly not." Jessica admitted with a chuckle, but still left her coat and purse behind as she stood.

Seth gestured to the uneaten half of her brisket pastrami sandwich and her bounty of french fries. "Are you going to finish that?"

Jessica invited him. "Help yourself."

Seth had tried to be good and order a salad, but try as he might, the truth was, he wasn't a rabbit.

OoOoO

As Amos rolled out his map of the counties of Maine, Jessica started going through the file full of photographs and typed reports from the events of the day before.

She asked. "Still no luck in finding the body that was taken from the refrigerated drawer at Cobb's Mortuary and replaced with Elias?"

"No." Amos shook his head. "I can't find hide nor hair of it. Not only that, but I can't even figure out whose body it was or where it came from."

Amos seemed at a loss. "There was no paperwork for drawer 3. I checked with every local and even not so local hospital for any recent deaths. Same with nursing homes, ambulance companies, coroner's offices, and even other mortuaries. So far I don't have any missing reports - not for people dead or alive. Every stiff, even as far as three counties over, is accounted for."

Seeing all the locations checked off on the Sheriff's map, Jessica didn't doubt him.

The situation was quite curious. While not all deaths were necessarily attended or officially reported, to end up at a mortuary they did have to be. A mortuary wasn't like an emergency room. You couldn't exactly just drop off a body no questions asked.

Amos recapped what they did know. "It was Sunday night. Elias was there by himself and with his hernia, he couldn't have lifted a body on his own - and anyway, Silas had the hearse so he couldn't have gone anywhere."

"That body didn't just walk into Cobb's Mortuary by itself. Somebody had to have delivered it." Jessica agreed.

Amos agreed. "It's the only way it could have got there."

.

Continuing to look through the crime scene photos, seeing Elias Cobb laid out on a slab in one of the drawers in his own mortuary where Silas had discovered him, Jessica couldn't recall ever having seen a more peaceful looking murder victim.

The bell over the door again rang. Jessica and Amos both looked over. It was just Corinne from the beauty parlor.

Amos continued. "With no intake paperwork for the body, if it weren't for that message Elias left on Silas Pike's answering machine Sunday evening telling Silas to come in right away to work on the new arrival in drawer 3, I would swear it never existed."

Elias had left the message Sunday night, but Silas hadn't listened to the message until early Monday. Rushing over and opening the drawer, poor Silas had gotten quite the surprise.

Jessica had an epiphany. "Maybe that's the point."

Taking off her glasses, Jessica told him. "What if whoever took the body also took the paperwork?"

Amos tilted his head in thought.

"Amos, you need to find that body. If the killer went through all the trouble of killing Elias to retrieve the body and the paperwork with it, it seems likely to me that there is some obvious tie between the killer and that body."

"Don't think I haven't thought of that!" Amos assured her, but then frowned. "I just haven't come up with a way to do it."

Jessica bit on one of the earpieces of her glasses while she pondered the situation.

"I'm going to head over to Cobb's Mortuary now. If you aren't too busy …" Amos started.

Seeing Corinne, who was there to pick up the take out orders for the beauty parlor, reminded Jessica. "I do have an appointment at Loretta's, but I wouldn't mind having myself another look if the crime scene is done being dusted for prints."

"The lab boys from Portland are all gone." Amos told her.

Jessica looked at her watch. "We should have plenty of time. Let me just take care of my lunch bill and we can go."

Jessica called out to the proprietress. "Mona, could I get my check, please?"

"Doc took care of it." Mona told her.

"Oh." A bit surprised, Jessica looked at an already approaching Seth. "Thank you."

"Seemed only fair." Seth told her as he handed her her purse and helped her into her coat. "After all, I ate more of it than you did."

Unable to deny that, Jessica had to laugh.

Seth stated the obvious. "So I take it that you two are taking off?"

Amos offered. "You're welcome to come along too if you like, Doc."

Seth declined. "I need to get over to Zimmerman's. Besides, I don't know what use I would be since the body is no longer there.

"Well if you did want to be useful," Amos suggested. "I have your preliminary report, but the one that comes after that sure would be useful."

Seth told him. "The one that comes after the preliminary report would be the coroner's report which would be the coroner's job."

"Coroner is in Vancouver until Thursday. Family reunion."

"Then that would be the assistant coroner's job." Seth suggested.

"She's also in Vancouver. Did you not just hear me say it's a family reunion?"

A slightly exasperated Seth offered. "Well, I suppose I could take a drive over to the medical examiner's office and do some poking around."

"No need to. Coroner's van hasn't been by yet to collect it. Body is still at the mortuary."

"The Coroner's office still hasn't picked the body up?!" Seth balked. "Let me guess - "

Amos & Seth said it together. "- family reunion."

Amos nodded. "Couldn't leave little Dewey at home all alone now, could they?"

"Heaven forbid." Seth agreed.

As if it made it somehow better, Amos pointed out. "We've moved Elias to a different drawer."

Seth had to ask. "Not to point out the obvious, but has anyone checked in with our vacationing coroner family to see if they know anything about this mysterious appearing and disappearing body?"

"According to the answering machine message, the body came in on Sunday night. They'd already been out of town since Saturday morning." Amos told him.

"And yes, Amos did speak to them to confirm that they had no knowledge about any bodies scheduled to be taken to Cobb's Mortuary over the weekend." Jessica assured him.

"So about that report?" Amos looked at him expectantly.

Seth shook his head and told him. "I'll see what I can do … after I run my errand."

Ooo

"What can I do you for, Doc? Might be time for a new watch if you are back for another watch battery already."

"No battery." Seth shook his head. "I wanted to have this cleaned."

Seth fished the small jeweler's box out of the pocket of his overcoat.

Tobias Zimmerman, proprietor of Zimmerman's Jewelry, put out his hand.

Seth opened the box and stared at the contents a bit wistfully a moment before handing it over.

Zimmerman's eyes widened seeing not a pair of cufflinks as he expected, but what was clearly a diamond engagement ring.

"If you could also make sure the stone is secure in the setting."

Tobias nodded.

"How soon could you have it ready?"

"I'll have it ready for you tomorrow this time." Tobias told him while he finished filling out the claim ticket.

Seth nodded as he accepted the ticket.

Almost to the door, Seth paused. "Oh, one more thing … There's an inscription on the ring."

Using his jeweler's loupe to examine it, Tobias quickly suggested. "You want me to buff it out? Probably should. Women tend to be a bit fussy about things like that."

Seth frowned and admitted. "I'm not sure."

He thought about it for a minute before not deciding. "Don't do anything about the inscription just yet. I just wanted to know if it could be removed."

Tobias nodded.

No sooner than Seth was out the door, Tobias Zimmerman was reaching for the phone.

tbc