Read No Pity For the Dead for Free Online

Ain’t heard that one in a while.” Taylor chuckled, licked the tip of the pencil, and jotted down details.
    â€œNext, I’d like you to learn everything you can about the partners at Martin and Company. Details about their business dealings. Who their enemies might be. Especially Frank Hutchinson’s enemies.”
    â€œWho’s he?”
    â€œA man I used to know very well,” Nick said, massaging his old battle wound. “I haven’t seen Frank since I returned to San Francisco after the war, but I doubt he’s changed.”
    â€œSir, should you be investigating a crime that involves a friend of yours?”
    â€œHe’s not a friend.”
Not anymore.
“And I’ll be impartial, Taylor. Don’t worry.”
    Which was a whopper of a lie. Because Nick hadn’t any doubt he’d be happy to prove that bastard Frank Hutchinson had been mixed up in murder.
    â€œI’ll see you in the morning, Taylor,” said Nick, going inside the building. The beat cop had gone to do his poking around someplace else, taking the lantern he’d been using with him and leaving the room in shadows. Nick hunted around for matches and had just lit a kerosene lamp on one of the desks when Dr. Harris came up from the cellar.
    â€œThere you are, Greaves,” he said, wiping his hands on the dark cloth he carried everywhere with him.
    The coroner was an immaculately groomed man with graying whiskers and clear eyes, but his clothes carried the sickly sweet stink of death. Nick wondered how a man ever got used to that smell; it always reminded him of the battlefield.
    â€œWhat have you learned so far?” asked Nick.
    â€œFrom my examination of what’s left of the body, the victim was a middle-aged man of average build,” said Harris. “In addition, the corpse is missing part of his right arm, just below the elbow. Should help identify him.”
    â€œOld cut? New?”
    â€œIt looks to be an old cut. Maybe from the war. Like so many others.” Harris glanced at Nick’s left arm. The doctor knew about Nick’s wound, the one that had nearly cost
Nick
an arm. “Our victim appears to have been killed by a deep penetrating wound to his abdomen. Likely made by a knife, but the opening has deteriorated to the point I can’t be sure. The implement probably nicked his aorta, if the blood vessel wasn’t severed completely. I’ll know more after my autopsy tomorrow. But I expect he bled to death pretty quickly.”
    â€œThere must be stains around from all the spilled blood.”
    â€œNot that I’ve noticed. The murderer must have spent time cleaning up.” Harris finished wiping his hands, folded his cloth,and tucked it into a coat pocket. “I also think the corpse has been there a little while. Can’t be positive, but I’d estimate a week or two, possibly longer, given how chilly it is in the cellar. The coolness slows the decay, just like storing meat in an icehouse. I wouldn’t want to swear to it in court, though. Just telling you that to help you with your investigation.”
    â€œThanks, Harris.”
    The coroner nodded. “I’ve covered the corpse and am going to leave him here overnight. No point in calling for the wagon at this hour when it’s just as cold down there as it is at the undertaker’s. I’ll have a jury look at the body first thing in the morning. A technicality, since it’s obvious the man was murdered,” he said, crossing the room to retrieve his hat from where he’d left it hung on a nail stuck in the wall. “You’ve got another good one here, Greaves. Rich businessmen and a rotting corpse on the premises. Ought to be interesting.”
    â€œGlad I can always count on your sympathy.”
    â€œWhat are friends for?” Harris asked, chuckling as he took his leave.
    Collecting the lamp, Nick went down into the cellar. He was hit by the smell and