Mr. Chalk 5

5

The next day, Sergeant Forester walked through the steel metal doors of the morgue.

“God I hate this place,” was Sergeant Forester’s mantra every time he walked through those doors.

He has seen the aftermath of many shootings, beatings and car accidents but the morgue was the only place that really bothered him. The antiseptic smell of death, the chill in the air and the reduction of a person to a piece of organic material always bothered him.

Dr. Harper, the County’s forensic coroner, stood silently beside the remains of Lester Hawkins on the shiny stainless steel examination table. “Where to begin?” the doctor said quietly to himself.

“What’s that Doc?” replied Sergeant Forester.

Dr. Harper involuntarily flinched.

“Sorry Doc,” apologized Forester, “you were really deep in thought there.” 

“Jeezus,” said Dr. Harper clearly shaken.

After a couple of seconds, Dr. Harper motioned the Sergeant to come closer to the autopsy table. As the Sergeant approached, the doctor reached behind him and grabbed the preliminary autopsy report from the counter.

“Let me read you my findings so far Sergeant,” said Dr. Harper focusing on the report attached to the clipboard. “What we have here is Lester Hawkins,” read the doctor, “male, Caucasian, height 6 feet 2 inches, eye color blue, weight …” and then his voice trailed off. “Who are we kidding here?” said the doctor in obvious frustration. “We have a man on this table who measures 6 feet 2 inches in length, 12.5 inches in width and 4 inches in depth,” exclaimed the doctor. “We also have a man whose shape is now a rectangular solid complete with right angle sides.” The doctor turned and looked directly at Sergeant Forester. “How do you explain that?” asked the doctor.

“Well,” replied Forester, “even though we found the body outside the cell, we did find lots of human pieces, such as skin and bone and teeth and tissue in the cell ...”

“Yes, yes I’m well aware of that Sergeant,” interrupted Dr. Harper. “From the traumatic condition of the body you would expect such evidence.”

“What I was leading up to Doc,” replied Sergeant Forester “was the amount of human detritus found on the transfer slot in the cell door.”

“What’s a transfer slot?” asked Dr. Harper.

“I’m getting to it Doc,” replied Forester, “it’s just a name we use for the slot to transfer food into the cell or to handcuff prisoners without opening the door and,” emphasizing the last word for the full effect, “it measures 12.5 inches in width and 4 inches in height.”

The aftermath of that meeting between Mr. Chalk and Lester Hawkins is still discussed by the Dodd County police force. Lester succumbed to an unnatural demise while Mr. Chalk disappeared. How Lester died and what happened to Mr. Chalk is still an open case.