“This is a crime scene, I’ll have to ask you to step back,” he said without looking up. There was a death in town and as the forensic pathologist (or mortician), it was his job to survey the body and its surroundings. He held a pen and paper in both hands as he took notes. A police officer came up to Maddox and commented on what he smelled. Officer Johnson was a vampire with keen senses, so sometimes he assisted the young coroner if there were traces of blood or other toxic residues, be it drugs or poison.
He finally turned towards the onlooker. “I need to see some identification, or... did you know the guy?” he asked, trying but failing to be gentle, looking up to someone who was breathing down his neck. However that may have been an overstatement because of how sensitive Maddox was to intimacy and personal space.