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There wasn’t a better man to have on a case

Whenever a death was suspicious, there had to be an autopsy, and it always felt like the last, the ulti that had once been part and parcel of a living soul was not just spread out naked, but sliced and probed

At least an autopsy had not been required for Margaritte She had been pumped full of morphine, and at the end, her eyes had opened once, looked into his, then closed A flutter had lifted her chest, and she had died in his ar, but truly at rest at last

Doc Martin finished intoning the time and date into his recorder and shut off the device for a ht to Jed, though He spoke to Jerry Dwyer, at his side

"Lieutenant What’s he doing here?"

Inwardly, Jed groaned

"Doc…" Jerry murmured unhappily "I think it’s his…conscience"

The ME hiked a bushy gray eyebrow "But he’s not a cop anymore He’s a writer"

He ed to say the riter as if it were a synony a little bit like a scu

Doc Martin sniffed "He used to be a cop A good one, too," he adive hiot his private investigator’s license, too He’s still legit"

This time Martin ot that license so he could keep sticking his nose into other people’s business--so he could write about it He working for the dead girl? He know her folks? I don’t think so"

"Maybe I want to see justice done," Jed said quietly "Maybe the entire force rong twelve years ago"

"Maybe we’ve got a copycat," Martin said

"And uy," Jed said

"Technically, we didn’t get any guy, exactly," Jerry reminded the written about it, as if the cop as killed really did do it, huh?" Doc Martin asked Jed

"Yeah, if that’s the case, I feel like shit," Jed agreed

Jerry caht he was guilty Hell, he was the one who shot him And Robert Gessup, the ADA, compiled plenty of evidence for an arrest and an indictment" Jerry cleared his throat "And so far, no one has been proved wrong about anything We all know about copycats"

"Thing about copycats is, they always , some little trick," Doc Martin said "Unfortunately, I wasn’t the ME on the earlier victims Old Dr Mackleby was, but he passed away last suer felloas working the case, Dr Austin, was killed in an auto off-kilter here, I’ll find it I’ dryly, "Hell, Doc, we knew that before you told us"

Martin grunted and turned the tape recorder back on Jerry gave Jed a glance, shrugging He’d warned Jed that they ht out that if Martin said he had to leave, he had to leave

An autopsy was a long, hard business, and Jed knew it In his five years in Homicide, he’d learned too well just how much had to be done meticulously and tediously And messily

He’d never expected to attend one when his presence wasn’t necessary in solving a case, but the truth was, he didn’t have to be here today

Except in his ownThere had been no need to inspect her clothing She hadn’t been found with any