The Day My Family Left Me to Die novel · Chapter 10 of 24
Chapter 10: The Dock
We got to the loading dock at ten past three, and the van was already backing in.
It was a plain white van with no lettering and a gurney strapped in the back.
The mortuary man stood beside the bay door with a clipboard held against his chest.
Two night nurses had come out for a smoke and stood under the awning, watching.
Heidi had called my mother's cell and my brother's, one after the other, and then she had put the phone in her pocket and said, "That's all I can do."
Seth was already there.
He stood in the middle of the dock with his feet apart and his hands loose, and the van driver was leaning out of his window.
"Sir," the driver said, "I've got a signed transfer."
"I've seen it," Seth said. "It's been superseded. The county has a hold on that body."
"Not according to this."
"According to the pathologist's tag on the toe, it does."
The mortuary man spoke without looking up from his clipboard.
"The attorney for the family authorized release at two forty. The hold hasn't been filed."
"Then it's not filed yet," Seth said, "and it's three a.m., and I'm not letting a gurney out of this building until someone in a white coat tells me to."
He did not raise his voice.
I had stopped in the doorway, with the cart held tight in both hands.
The mortuary man looked at Seth.
He looked at the door behind Seth where the gurney waited under a sheet, and I saw him count the steps.
"Move," he said quietly.
"No."
"You're security. This isn't your hospital."
"That's right," Seth said. "It's hers."
He nodded toward the road.
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