Excerpt

 The victim was a young trans woman surviving by doing sex work, as it sometimes happened for a variety of reasons. A coroner’s report stated the presence of ketamine in the body. Because rigor mortis had taken hold throughout her body, the determination was the murder occurred elsewhere, or someone would have noticed sooner. The body must have been transported to an abandoned alley in Little Burgundy, a Montreal neighbourhood, sometime after. Someone placed her on an old couch thrown out for the garbage pickup.

 Hanging around her neck was a golden pendant with a tree populated by black and white branches. The scene itself mimicked a painting by Édouard Manet. The body rested in a reclining position, from left to right, and her head turned to her right. The placement of her right arm was positioned so that it appeared like she was leaning on it for support. The left hand rested over a note on the pubic region, and her legs crossed left over right, slippers on her feet. Fastened to her hair was a plastic flower. There was only one word on the note—MARY.

Edouard Manet—Olympia