SLPAD - 68

[Michael Bailey]

…and/or going on a three day drunk.

The pier at the end of their ride is on the Gulf. From McNeese to Creole
(not quite all the way to the Gulf) is 36 miles.
Maybe an hour over a bad road?


.
The oil company tugs would bring in a bunch of corpses, the work detail
would
               offload them, the corpsmen would spray them with embalming
fluid to keep them from
               falling apart, another detail would load them into
deuce-and-a-halfs and the deuce-and-a-halfs
               would cart them off. “They’re keeping them in some junior
high gymnasium,” Douglas
               informed Levine, “ice all over the place. Having a hell of a
time identifying them.
               Water screws up their faces or something.” The smell of
decay hung in the air, like
               vermouth, it seemed to Levine, after you’d been drinking it
all night.


Smooth teamwork, occasionally interrupted by a corpsman turning aside to
vomit.

They aren’t really there to help, it seems.

“Levine and Douglas sat watching them.”