Isle of the Dead

A homeless man finds an unlocked suitcase in an abandoned building.

He opens the suitcase. Inside is the decomposing body of a young woman.

He throws up.

Forensic scientists say that the woman has been asphyxiated.

mahonia
the sweet smell
of advanced decay

Paul Conneally
.
Painting: Isle of the Dead (1880) by Swiss Symbolist artist Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901)