Chapter 6

In the year 2087 a demolition crew makes a gruesome discovery

Several police cars made their way through the construction of Shady Acres Condominiums, a new housing development that the town board agreed would be a marked improvement over the slum that it replaced.

Detective Merrill from CSI: Piscataway walked up to one of the police officers looking down into the bare foundation of one of the demolished houses, "What do we have here, officer?"

The officer replied, "Sir, the construction crew found a body in the basement of this old house."

"Where, officer?"

"You won't believe it, sir!"

"Show me."

The police officers and the CSI detectives climbed down the ladder into the open basement. Passing through the rooms of the basement they came to a body of a frail elderly woman lying on the crumbling concrete floor.

"She was found here?"

"No, sir. The construction crew was removing some kind of septic tank and when they pulled it out, they found her shackled inside it."

"Who found her?"

The police officer pointed to a group of construction workers wearing sweaty tee shirts and dented hard hats standing in the far corner of the basement.

The officer approached the group and returned with one of the men. "Detective Merrill would like a word with you, Joe."

The officer stepped back, leaving the worker face to face with the detective.

"You found her?" the detective asked.

"Yup!" Joe slapped the concrete block wall. "We were pulling out some kind of septic tank hanging from this well. But it was all rusted out, see, so when we pulled on it, it all fell apart, like, and she fell out of it."

"I see," said the detective.

"We all puked our guts out!" said Joe.

"Anything else?"

"Well, yeah," said Joe. "She had all kinds of pipes connected to her body inside the septic tank. Gruesome! We all puked!"

"You said that already," said the detective.

"Oh."

The detective continued to grill the worker, making note of the time and other particulars reported by the construction worker.

A while later, the coroner arrived and took the body to the morgue in Somerville while the detective returned to his lab in New Brunswick.

The following day, the CSI chief called the detective into his office for a status report on the body.

"Sir," Detective Merrill began, "the coroner reports that the subject died two years ago in 2044 at the approximate age of 72. That's about the time the State Police shut down a brothel running out of the house in question. The house remained empty ever since."

"Go on," said the chief.

"Her body was badly decayed. The cause of death was determined to be starvation; she apparently starved to death after the house was shut down, but the coroner found traces of human excrement in her stomach contents. This tank she was in was connected to the drains of the toilets in the house. And the drain entering the pipe fed directly into her mouth. It seems that, while she was alive, she had been living by consuming the toilet waste for some time."

"I see. Then our subject is a pro who was being punished for some transgression?"

"We don't think so, sir. We brought the Madame, and some of her former employees, in for questioning, but they all knew nothing about the woman in the tank. Cross questioning was consistent. They're telling the truth."

"The how did she get there? Who the hell is she?"

"Investigation of the demolition debris shows that the tank was sealed in some kind of secret room. We ran dental profiles against the national directory. It took a while because the search went back over forty years, sir!"

"Forty years? You're kidding!"

"No, sir! She matches the dental records of one Sherry Kobie, who disappeared in 2006 at the age of 34."

"Go on," the chief said."

"At that time, the house was owned by a small family, surname of Guy. The house passed ownership a few times until the neighborhood began to deteriorate and it became a brothel in 2035. At this point, that's all we know."

"At this point, I'm recommending that we close the case."

"Sir?"

"This redevelopment project is a political hot-potato. The mayor doesn't want to stall the project over a tortured prostitute from 40 years ago, if you get my drift."

"Yes, sir," said the detective.

"Carry on,"

"Yes, sir," said the detective, and returned to his desk.