Page 155 - Labelle Gramercy, Detective

Slow Burn

“Yes, but we would like to know which fingerprints in the
apartment are not yours.”
“Oh.” This made enough sense to calm down the cleaning lady,
and I jotted down her particulars. I had a notebook just like
Labelle’s—not because I was copying her, but because I discovered
that it was a convenient size for recording the minutiae of my
existence. Nevertheless, I rarely showed it around the squad room.
When I caught up to my partner she was opening the hall door to
Apartment 5. She was wearing latex gloves. I put on a pair and
joined her. The first thing I noticed was the smell.
“God, how can you stand it?” I was almost gagging. “This is like
that time we opened the hatboxes in that madwoman’s millinery—
but worse. Cooked and rotten. Yuk!”
“Look at this, Duncan: a small galley kitchen. The door is closed,
and the porthole window is covered with—”
“Yes, yes, I see: a dark reddish film. Can’t see through the damned
thing.”
She pushed the door open and a strong wave of the odor of
charred and putrefying flesh assaulted our nostrils. Labelle did not
hesitate. I wanted a gas mask. She bent over what were probably
human remains lying on the narrow floor.
“All right, Duncan. We can save time if you take down my
comments. This is a very confined space and we’ll have to give way
soon to the crime lab boys.”
That was fine with me. I whipped out my notebook and pen and
prepared for dictation. Such is the lot of a junior detective.
“First, we observe the classic characteristics of what is called
spontaneous combustion. The non-consumed parts of the victim
consist of a skull, two hands and two feet. These five items are badly
burned at the edges where they meet the rest of the body, which is
ash. The flesh is slightly caseinated and the bones show incipient
eburnation from the slow application of heat. The knob to one of the
front burners on the gas stove is turned on, but there is no flame.
The pilot is probably extinguished, as well, but the distinctive odor of
ethyl mercaptanate is effectively masked by volatile organic
compounds. A saucepan containing spaghetti sauce has fallen to the
floor, and a bottle of bourbon and a glass are on the counter.”

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