CHAPTER
FIVE
The Lake County Coroner's office sits in an unassuming building on MLK Blvd in Waukegan.
Two levels down, MOPEC KA 501 three bay, two-tier, refrigeration units hold the recently deceased of Lake County. Next door are examination rooms, each equipped with a MOPEC CE 100 autopsy pedestal table, complete with downdraft ventilation, irrigation, and fluid collection.
I’m here to witness Faith Wesley’s postmortem, conducted by Dr. Joyce Hong, Senior Lake County Coroner. Anyone who’s ever visited a coroner’s office in full swing will tell you the sights aren’t what get you. There’s a top note, the strong astringent odor of formaldehyde. This is followed by the sharp pine fragrance of disinfectant. Finally, a darker base note resonates somewhere between last week’s chicken giblets
