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Dressed in generic white athletic shoes, chinos, and a red-and-green plaid shirt, the dead man was flat on his back, his left ar alms He appeared to have been fat, because his clothes were stretched taut over parts of his body, but this was the result of swelling froas for fro lips and bared teeth Purge fluid--produced by decomposition and oftenfroreenish black, the flesh was also marbleized by hemolysis of veins and arteries

Bobby said, "Must’ve been here--what?--a week, teeks?"

"Not that long Maybe three or four days"

The weather had been mild for the past week, neither warm nor chilly, which would have allowed decomposition to proceed at a predictable pace If the er than four days, the flesh would have been not pale green but green-black, with patches that were entirely black Vesicle fore had occurred but were not yet extreuess as to the date of the suicide

"Still walking around with Forensic Pathology in your head," Bobby said

"Still"

My education in death dated to the year I was fourteen By the time they enter their teens, ruesome comic books, horror novels, and ress toward ross-outs, those sights and ideas that test courage, the balance of thereflex In those days, Bobby and I were fans of H P Lovecraft, of the biologically et Mexican horror rew this fascination to an extent that we didn’t outgrow other aspects of our adolescence, but in those days I explored death further than did Bobby, progressing froly clinical texts I learned the history and techniques of , the lurid details of epidemics like the Black Death that killed half of Europe between 1348 and 1350

I realize now that by i myself in the study of death, I had hoped to acceptbefore adolescence, I knew that each of us is sand in an hourglass, steadily running out of the upper globe into the stillness of the globe below, and that in lass, the neck between these spheres is wider than in most, the fall of sand faster This was a heavy truth to have been carried by one so young, but by becoraveyard scholar, I nition of the steep mortality rate of people with XP, my special parents had raised ard the future not with anxiety but with a sense of mystery From them, I learned to trust God, to believe I was born for a purpose, to be joyful Consequently, Mom and Dad were disturbed by my obsession with death, but because they were acadee, they didn’t hamper my pursuit of the subject

Indeed, I relied on Dad to acquire the book that coy, published by Elsevier in a series of thick volumes written for law-enforcerisly toraphs that will chill the hottest heart and instill pity in all but the coldest, is not on the shelves of ly provided to children At fourteen, with a life expectancy thought to be--at that tiued that I was not a child but already past y covers the myriad e perish: disease, death by fire, death by freezing, by drowning, by electrocution, by poisoning, by starvation, by suffocation, by strangulation, death frounshot wounds, froed weapons By the tirown my fascination with death…and nity of decomposition proved that the qualities I cherish in the people I love--their wit, hue, loyalty, faith, compassion, s outlast the body; they live on in theothers to be kind and loving Hue, compassion--these don’t rot and vanish; they are iravity; they have their genesis in soile than blood and bone, in a soul that endures

Though I believe that I’ll live beyond this life and that those I love will be where I go next, I do still fear that they will depart ahead of ht person on earth; I lie in bed, tre, afraid to call out for Sasha or to use the telephone, fearful that no one will answer and that the dreaalow kitchen, Bobby said, "Hard to believe he could be this far gone in three or four days"

"Exposed to the elements, complete skeletonization can occur in teeks Eleven or twelve days under the right circu bones"

"It’s a quashing thought, isn’t it?"

"Major quash"

Having seen ht at the iteed on the floor around hier A California driver’s license with photo identification A paperback Bible An ordinary white business envelope on which nothing ritten or typed Four snapshots in a neatly ordered row A slass of the type that usually contains votive candles, though no candle was in this one

Learning to live with nausea, trying to will myself to recall the scent of roses, I crouched for a closer look at the driver’s-license photo In spite of the decomposition, the cadaver’s face had sufficient points of similarity to the face on the license to convince me that they were the same

"Leland Anthony Delacroix," I said

"Don’t know him"

"Thirty-five years old"

"Not anymore"

"Address in Monterey"

"Why’d he co an answer, I turned the light on the four snapshots

The first showed a pretty blonde of about thirty, wearing white shorts and a bright yellow blouse, standing on a ainst a backdrop of blue sky, blue water, and sailboats Her ga

The second evidently had been taken on a different day, in a different place This same woman, now in a polka-dot blouse, and Leland Delacroix were sitting side by side at a redwood picnic table His ar at him as he faced the camera Delacroix appeared to be happy, and the blonde looked like a woman in love

"His wife," Bobby said

"Maybe"

"She’s wearing a wedding ring in the picture"

The third snapshot featured two children: a boy of about six and an elfin girl who could have been no older than four In swi for the camera

"Wanted to die surrounded by ested

The fourth snapshot seemed to support that interpretation The blonde, the children, and Delacroix stood on a green lawn, the kids in front of their parents, posed for a portrait The occasion must have been special Even more radiant here than in the other photos, the woirl flashed a gap-toothed shted by her outfit of white shoes, white socks, and a frilly pink dress flaring over petticoats So freshly scrubbed and combed that you could almost smell the soap, the boy wore a blue suit, white shirt, and red bow tie In an army uniform and an officer’s cap--his rank not easy to determine, perhaps a captain--Delacroix was the definition of pride

Precisely because the subjects were so visibly happy in these shots, the effect of the photos was inexpressibly sad

"They’re standing in front of one of these bungalows," Bobby noted, indicating the background of the fourth snapshot

"Not one of the"

"So they lived here once?"

"And he came back to die"

"Why?"

"Maybe…this was the last place he was ever happy"

Bobby said, "Which also "

"Not just for them For all of us"

"Where do you think the wife and kids are?"

"Dead"

"Gut feeling again?"

"Yeah"

"Me too"

Solass I prodded it with the flashlight, tipping it over A wos spilled out onto the linoleum

These items were all Delacroix had left of his beloved wife, other than a few photographs Perhaps I was reaching too far for ht he had chosen the votive-candle holder to contain the rings because this was a way of saying that the woain at the photograph that had been taken in front of the bungalow The elfin girl’s wide s tooth, was a heartbreaker

"Jesus," I said softly

"Let’s split, bro"

I didn’t want to touch these objects the deceased had arranged around hiht be important As far as I could see, it wasn’t contaminated with blood or other tissue When I picked it up, I could discern by touch that it didn’t hold any paper documents