Spilling Guts

Part 1 - Dead Ends

The search started with a photo. It ended with a body.

Twenty-four year old Parker Lenore lay gray on a metal drawer. Her hair had been pixie cut with streaks of pink and orange that looked dull in the morgue's light. The medical examiner pulled the white sheet over the young woman's face. The body slid back into the cold chamber.

Parker Lenore died four days ago. An overdose, the report had said. Authorities were still trying to track down next of kin. To the morgue she was another case waiting to be picked up.

To the two badge-carrying agents of the Watch, it was a failure.

"I hate dead ends," said Agent Megan Shiloh. She slumped down on a bench outside the viewing room.

Agent Teegan Carry groaned and covered her face in shame, her black braids swinging over her shoulder. "You had to say that in a morgue?

Megan winced. "In my defense I just realized what a bad pun that was."

Teegan took another look at the file. "She was young."

"I've seen younger," said Megan. Too many trips to the morgue when she had worked in the police force. She wished she had adapted more of the black humor fellow officers had shared with her. Something to lighten the mood, to make mortality look further away than it really was. The only thing that had sunk in were the unintentional puns. "What did she overdose on?"

"Oxycodone."

"Accidental or suicide?"

"Not conclusive." Teegan sat down next to her and shared the open manila folder over their laps. "She had chronic pain and as of her last doctor's appointment an increased dosage. The amount in her system was a borderline overdose. It's still up in the air."

"Did she have a permit for medical marijuana?" Megan flipped to another page. "Yep, registration went through four months ago after a three month wait. That's when she went to a higher dose of Oxy."

"You think that's important?"

"If someone wanted to use cannabis as an assist for pain relief and finally got a permit, why would they get a higher prescription?" Megan was tired, and it wasn't even noon.

"Pain got worse?" guessed Teegan. She glanced back at the file and then pointed to further back in the prescription history. "Or... latest prescription change came with a pill splitter. She was probably splitting the higher dosage pills to last longer and used cannabis to supplement the pain relief."

"Oh." Megan mulled over the little revelation to her question. "I'm still thinking homicide."  

Teegan drew car keys from her pocket, a bright yellow fish charm clinking amongst metal. "We don't know that Retten had her killed."

"We don't know he didn't either."

Teegan tugged Megan's green corduroy sleeve. "C'mon, back to the drawing board. We'll think through the next steps in the car."

Three months ago Megan Shiloh and Teegan Carry had been part of a co-strike unit; Watch Base Two partnered with FBI. Their goal had been to take down Freewill, a militant terrorist organization that had taken over an abandoned military base. At the forefront of Freewill was a "scientist" named Yanif Retten. After the raid they realized one of their own had gone missing, Agent Louis Patriarch. Not only did Megan and Teegan have to console Louis' partner, the newbie Agent William Rowe, but they had to search for a possibly dead missing agent.

They had been lucky that Louis had returned to the Watch; tired and a little worse for wear, but whole. Megan and Teegan still weren't privy to the details on how he got back. Teegan guessed he had been held hostage by the missing Freewill members. Megan figured Retten had a more personal hand in Louis' absence.