“Well, that’s just fantastic.”
Jai’s words dripped with sarcasm as I delivered the news. Cain’s reaction to the news was to remain completely stone-faced.
“Does this not creep you out?” I asked him.
He said nothing, just stared at me in thought.
How could someone still be practicing medicine thirty years postmortem?
“How do you know this?” Daniel asked me.
“I called around and found out all of the missing men had been seen by the same doctor then I called the hospital and the nurse informed me that he had been dead for thirty years.”
Cain crossed his arms. “Did the nurse happen to mention how he died?” He asked.
I shook my head. I probably should have asked her, but I was too shocked by the news to think of anything in that moment.
“I need to see that certification of death and the M. E’s report if there is one,” Cain said to Priya.
She shook her head “He died thirty years ago,” she argued. “Those records won’t be online. I’m sure they’re in a hospital somewhere, but I can’t get you virtual access to them.”
“We’ll need to exhume the body then,” Jai said, looking at Cain.
“Hell no,” Daniel said. “I’d rather be pecked to death by a flock of hummingbirds than dig up a grave.”
“We’ll need to figure out if he’s even dead before we do something like that,” Cain said shaking his head.
“You think the nurse lied?” I asked him.
Cain looked at me with apprehension. “I need to make sure she didn’t,” he said. “If someone is impersonating this man I need to know why and I need to know who is. Someone is making all of these men disappear and this is the only lead we have so far.”
I nodded in agreement.
Narrative P. O. V.
Priya took Ella with her as they left to go investigate further. Daniel and Jai looked at Cain expectantly.
“Go with them,” he said. “They’ll need all the help they can get.”
Jai looked at Daniel and sighed before turning his attention back to Cain.
“Are we not going to talk about it?” He asked.
Cain crossed his arms.
“Talk about what?”
“About the fact that your girlfriend is getting closer and closer to finding out there is a possibility this man could have died thirty years ago and still be walking this earth,” Daniel said.
“Never mind that,” Jai said. “Can we talk about how she called around to get all this information and risked the discrepancy of this entire pack.”
Cain drew in a deep breath.
“Or we could talk about how the entire hospital could be in on this and she just notified them that we were looking for a dead man,” Daniel added.
Cain shook his head and unfolded his arms as he walked around the table he had been leaning against.
“She doesn’t know any better,” he said defensively.
“Which is exactly why you need to tell her,” Jai said.
“You know I can’t do that,” Cain said through a clenched jaw.
The thought of telling her made him feel extremely uneasy. She’s just now getting to where she is comfortable around me, Cain thought. Telling her would ruin that.
“Listen, man,” Daniel said, “I know you have reservations about telling her, we both do.” He gestured to Jai who nodded in agreement.
“But if she stays here, she’s going to find out sooner or later. It would be best for the both of you if you’re the one who told her.”
Cain stared at the both of them with narrowed eyes.
“I’Il tell her eventually,” he said.
“Until then, I’m standing by the original plan. Stick with the both of them and don’t let them do anything else stupid. Find out if this man is really dead and we’ll move from there.”
Jai and Daniel both sighed. They knew this was a mistake. But they had their orders and they had to obey them. They turned and left the room to follow the girls back to Cain’s office.
As they walked away, they pretended not to hear the sound of the concrete smashing as Cain punched the wall.
Cain withdrew his hand and observed it closely.
The skin was smooth and unbroken and it made him want to punch something harder.
He wished he bled.
He wished he could feel pain.
Maybe if he could, he would know how to tell Ella what was going on.