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"I’ for his bedroo the wounds between us could be healed as easily as the cuts on ot up the next ht frickin’ am despite my intense desire to sleep as much of the day away as possible Or at least until eleven since I wasn’t back on call again until noon

I stared at the ceiling for a while, hoping to fall back asleep, but insteadaround the whole business about ot out of bed After taking a quick shower and pulling on cargo pants and a coroner’s office shirt, I crept out of the house, closing the door quietly behind s were a lot better betweenaround him died hard

The closest bookstore was in Tucker Point, and the only reason I kne to find it was because about a o an elderly patron had been found dead in one of their reading chairs; and apparently had been dead for a few hours before ee in the book in his lap in quite some time

The woht blue streak in it along with pierced lip, eyebrow, and nose But the greeting she gave ed a s absurdly like an utter imposter When had I last been in a bookstore with the intent of actually buying a book? Had I ever? Now that’s pathetic, I thought with a sigh

"Can I help you find anything?" she asked with a bright s," I mumbled, then hurried toward the back of the store Al her help, since I didn’t have the faintest idea where GED study guides would be And if I went back and asked now, I’d look like a double dumbass, since not only could I have asked when I came in, but also because I needed to take the GED in the first place Yeah, I kneas being arational

It took close to ten uides for all sorts of tests--most of which I’d never even heard of MCAT, LSAT, GMAT…? I finally spied the GED guides near the bottorief, there were so damn many I stared in disood one," the clerk said froave me a nice smile as I recovered my composure, then reached to tap the spine of a blue and white voluood explanations of the procedures, the instructional sections are clearly written, and it’s reasonably priced"

"U not to flush in e it for a relative or a friend?" she asked

I realized suddenly that she could tell I was ashaive

"No, it’s for me," I said Screw it It was stupid for me to be eh school At least I was trying to do so about it now

Her so" She chuckled "That’s how I know that one’s a good study guide"

"You were a dropout?" I blurted, then grimaced and shook my head "Sorry, that’s none of my business"

"It’s cool," she reassured me "But yeah, I was a weird kid Was bored with school so I dropped out halfway through my senior year" She rolled her eyes "Dumb move since there are a lot of universities that won’t take the GED and e for a year or two before you can apply to transfer" Then she shrugged "Not the end of the world, though Just took ed a weak s back to jail

"You ready to check out?" she asked "Or do you want to browse soh for now," I said Cripes, as the last time I’d read a book? I was such a painfully slow reader that it felt like it took ot to the end I’d da

She didn’t seem at all fazed by ister with aze wandered over the displays, then paused on the stack of newspapers as the headline caughta paper and setting it on the counter

She added it toout to my car As soon as I was in and had the door closed, I pulled the newspaper out and read the lead story as quickly as I could, all the while feeling as if I’d sed a rock

Coroner’s Office Loses Dead Man

Sheriff’s office personnel are investigating the loss of the body of an accident victiue assistant, Angel Crawford, was responsible for picking up and delivering the body to the ators that the body was stolen frounman However, an unnamed source at the coroner’s office has stated that there is currently no evidence to support her clai theory is that the body was either lost or stolen while in transit froh school dropout who is currently on probation for possession of stolen property, has worked at the St Edwards Coroner’s Office for less than threewithheld at this ti by the time I made it to the end of the article Could they have possibly made me sound any worse? The coroner hadunder investigation and how grateful he was that no one had been hurt, blah blah blah…but nothing about believing ut I also had a pretty dark suspicion that I kneho the "unna Prejean Not that it et off probation, I’ll still always be a felon, and I’ll still always be a high school dropout

I did not--did NOT--want to go in to work and face anyone with a pulse, and it took every fucking ounce of carefully scrounged discipline to actually turn the car in the proper direction and head to the coroner’s office But I also didn’t plan on budging froht miserably