Love Songs from a Shallow Grave

heart had been pierced? What was the murderer doing as she staggered around? Did he watch her? Had he already fled, assuming she was dead?
    Siri would leave Sergeant Sihot to photograph the scene but the pictures would never capture the menace that lurked there in this musty room. Nor could they recall the scents of sweat and blood and fear. He walked to the door and, like a painter stepping back to admire his work, he turned around to take in the scene one last time. And that was when he saw it, a small white speck on the window ledge above the mats. He hurried back and dragged a balance bench over to them. He angled it against the window ledge, being careful not to disturb the mats or the pool of blood, and shimmied up it. As he neared the top he could see that the object was a small brown medicine bottle with a white label. He pulled a tissue from his pocket, took hold of the bottle by its cap and read the handwritten lettering: ‘vitamins’.
    In front of the auditorium, under the porch roof, Sihot and Phosy were questioning the woman who’d found the body. Her face was still blanched from the awful discovery. The Vietnamese were nowhere to be seen but on the far side of the street, beneath a small shelter, sat the gardener with his chin perched on the handle of his broom. He raised his hand when he saw Siri but the doctor felt oddly uncomfortable returning the wave. Siri approached the policemen and raised his brow to Sihot who broke away and went into the building to take his photographs. Phosy thanked the woman and she headed off into the rain on wobbly legs.
    “Anything?” Siri asked.
    “The witness is a cleaner here,” Phosy said. “She recognised the victim. Says she’s a medic, based out at the old Settha Hospital at Silver City. But she comes here to K6 three times a week to man a clinic they opened for the staff. She has a little office at the old youth club. Yesterday was one of her regular days. The cleaner unlocked the hall at eleven to get it ready for tonight’s lecture. Any idea how long the medic’s been dead?”
    “I’d say sometime last night. Around ten?”
    “Damn.” He looked at the bottle in Siri’s hand. “Find something?”
    “It might not be connected. I found it on the window sill above the sports equipment. The label says it’s vitamins but labels have been known to tell fibs.”
    “You haven’t opened it?”
    “Not yet. I want to take it back to the morgue…”
    “And perform more of your fingerprint magic?”
    “Don’t mock. One day, that magic will solve one of your cases, Inspector.”
    “I’ll believe that when I see it. So, is she ready to go?”
    “As ready as she’ll ever be.”
    “I’ll go and take a look around. Did you find anything unusual in there?”
    “It’s all unusual, Phosy. All of it.”
∗
    Nurse Dtui and Mr Geung were still waiting in the morgue office when Siri and the third victim arrived. They’d been waiting all day, not knowing where their boss was. Waiting and bailing. There were steps leading to the front door of the morgue, which was just as well because the building was surrounded by sixty centimetres of water Most of the lower buildings were barricaded with sandbags and Mahosot was taking on the appearance of a hospital deep in the heart of Venice. X-ray had already brought in a rowing boat to ferry patients back to the ward. The morgue would have held up to the flood but for a slight crack in the back wall which allowed water to seep into the cutting room. Dtui and Geung had failed to patch it up with adhesive bandage so they resorted to surrounding it with a semi-circular orchestra pit of sandbags. It refilled every half hour and looked like a small ornamental pond.
    They walked into the vestibule to watch the arrival of the new body.
    “My adoring husband isn’t with you?” Dtui asked Siri.
    “He had to go straight to police HQ with Sihot,” Siri replied.
    “I’m sure he did.”
    On any other day, Siri would have followed up on Dtui’s comment, but this was far from any other day. Two orderlies carried the corpse past the office door and into the autopsy area. The body was wrapped in a tarpaulin in an attempt to preserve the blood trails.
    “Ano…another guest f…for room one,” smiled Geung. He liked to keep busy. He followed the orderlies and barked at them to be careful.
    “Oh, Doc. That isn’t – ” Dtui began.
    “It’s another one. Yes, Dtui.”
    “The same MO?”
    “I get the feeling it would