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"Doesn’t it bother you?" The words jumped out of me of their own volition Oliver lowered his chin and tilted his head to the side, the very i about "This Cos"

He shook his head "No," he said, and then, "should it?" I said nothing, just stared at him with my mouth open

"Do you really want to do this here and now?" he asked "I " He poked his head closer to me and raised his eyebrows Sometimes I loved him so much, and other times I could just throttle him It struckshorter

We stepped into the hly tiled room I had ever seen Gray tiles on the walls, tan tiles on the floor, the ones on the floor slanting in slightly around drains I shuddered at the thought of what had been washed away through those drains over the years Several doors lined the beige wall of refrigerated units I knew Peadar’s remains still lay sealed behind one of those doors Jilo had tried her best to convince ret

"Tucker?" Oliver asked, pro Don to open first one door and then a second He closed each in quick succession Even though there’d been nothing in the news, it occurred to ht be here as well "Third time’s a charm, Don"

Theopen another door He checked the toe-tag on the body and nodded again, pulling the body tray out of the refrigerator Oliver assisted hiurney; then he pushed the tray back and shut the cooler’s door

"You can return to your desk now We’ll put hiood," Don said, practically bowing as he returned to the door without ever turning his back on us

Oliver crossed over to the gurney that held Tucker’s body, but then called out, "Oh, Don?" The man stopped in his tracks "Let’s keep this little visit between us, okay?"

"Sure thing Of course," Don said and left the room

I joined Uncle Oliver near the body I’d hoped to have a few more seconds to prepare myself I’d expected that the sheet would have been pulled up over Tucker’s face, but it was turned down around his clavicle, leaving his neck and head exposed His skin showed a light purplish-blue cast

"Ah, Tucker, you bastard," Oliver said, an odd affection for the deceased playing in his voice "You were a total prick, but ould’ve wanted to hurt you like this?" His lack of respect for the dead made me uncomfortable I looked at Oliver, and he read the distaste onme you didn’t think of him as a jerk?"

"Well, yeah, but he’s dead now"

"So he’s a dead jerk"

"Ellen loved hiret I felt for the way I had acted about their engage ized to Tucker Later, I’d do the same to Ellen, this time out loud