The Requester’s Signature

Ada kept one hand on the file Ruth had brought and the other on Peter’s missing-person flyer.

“Before we talk about the cremation,” she said, “I want the report.”

Ruth set a thin folder on the county conference table. “This is the copy I promised. It’s the report and the attached identification material. The preservation hold lets us keep it with the remains review.”

“Does it say he was missing before the county released him?”

“It gives the dates.”

Ada opened the folder. Her eyes moved over the first page, then the next. She checked the phone number on the report against the one printed on the old flyer. The paper had softened at its folds, but the number was still legible.

“Eleven days,” she said.

Ruth leaned over enough to see the page. “The missing-person report was filed eleven days before the release.”

“And the dentist’s name is here.” Ada tapped the attached form. “The X-rays were offered. That’s what I gave them.”

Ruth nodded. “They’re in the file.”

No one offered an explanation for why the county had called Peter unclaimed. The room held a plastic cup of pens, two untouched bottles of water, and the empty space where a sentence might have been useful.

Edwin sat across from Ada. He had signed his correction the day before, admitting he had knowingly used an unclaimed man’s remains to support his false death. The statement had stopped short of saying how the body reached Calloway & Sons. Now he watched Ada read the report without asking her to look up.

Ruth turned a second folder toward him. “The release record is here. It came in with the contractor’s tag and the county transfer form.”

Iris saw the date before she saw the signature. The same date appeared on the intake entry in the ledger she had surrendered. The county’s scan showed a transfer from its holding facility to Calloway & Sons. Under REQUESTING PARTY, someone had typed EDWIN CALLOWAY.

Below it, a narrow line carried Edwin’s signature.

He looked at it for several seconds.

“You recognize it?” Ruth asked.

“Yes.”

Ada closed Peter’s file. “You asked for him.”

“I asked for an unclaimed body.” Edwin kept his voice low. “I knew what I was asking for.”

Iris looked at his signature again. It was steady, familiar from the papers he had signed when he transferred the business to her. The county copy showed no name for the person who had approved the release, only two initials in a box marked REVIEWED.