Ash and Consent

 Three pounds, one ounce. That's what Arthur Lund's widow carried home. A man his size should have left twice that.

Sent undercover into Mercer Funeral Home, Special Agent Mara Bennett learns the vocabulary fast: care, not custody. Placement, not removal. Legacy options, not theft. She learns it well enough to say it to a grieving son — and watch him sign.

The forms are clean. The permits are clean. The weight is not.

Someone made this case disappear once. He still has a badge, a desk down the hall, and her schedule.