Li Morris

“We love the dead... Despite whoever they were when they were alive, we love them because they were cheated and misused. The ultimate underdogs.” -- Li Morris, Imitation in Death, Chapter 2

Li Morris
Occupation	Chief Medical Examiner NYPSD; Doctor
Gender	Male
Age	Unknown (over 40 - see History section below)
Hair	Long black (charcoal)
Eyes	Green or dark
Residence	SoHo, New York, NY

Introduction

Dr. Morris first appeared in Rapture in Death, on August 23, 2058, when he pages Eve Dallas on her ’link.

Descriptions

• He had heavy-lidded hawk eyes in a vivid shade of green (see Morris’s YANNIs), a squared-off chin that was generously stubbled, and a slicked-back mane of charcoal hair. His eyes were slanted and oddly sexy. At the peak of his left eyebrow was a small, shiny silver hoop.
• Exotic almond eyes; dark eyes; the rage in his eyes burned them black.
• Handsome, somewhat exotic face with his hair usually worn in a ponytail or in queues. He has luxurious hair and a duo of gold and silver hoops in his right ear. He often wears clear protective gear over his street clothes and a cap while he works.
• His ink-black hair drew back from his exotic face in a single, gleaming braid.
• Has a tattoo under his left nipple (or on his upper thigh - see Morris’s YANNIs) of the Grim Reaper.
• He has a clever face with hard planes, long eyes, and skilled fingers; he is elegant with a long, black ponytail, and exotic eyes.
• His dark hair was pulled back in a sleek tail; he has an exotically sexy face and dark eyes.
• Eve thought Morris was hot and Peabody described him as severely sexy.
• Promises in Death was the first time, on page, Morris’s hair was worn loose - it was the first time Eve ever saw it loose.

Personality

• Thorough (though Dallas was sometimes frustrated with his lack of “stellar speed”).
  • He made delicate, precise, and effective Y cuts.
• Enjoyed bright colors and stylish, nice clothes (snappy dresser).
• Cared for the dead - he once said that he and Dallas both loved the dead.
• Enjoyed quizzing Dallas on what she saw when looking at a body in Autopsy.
  • Eve thought he dressed like an uptown rock star and had a mind full of interesting, often incomprehensible trivia.
• He had humor, depth, great respect for the dead, and great compassion for those left behind by death. There was something bohemian, exotic, artistic about the man who’d chosen to doctor the dead.

History

• Morris was close to his brother, Jin Morris, who drowned when he was a boy.
  • His brother was twelve, Morris was ten at the time and was not a strong swimmer. His brother was a daredevil and a strong swimmer but, when they went swimming in the ocean, without their parents present, his brother disappeared after Morris grew fatigued and returned to shore.
  • Morris said he wanted answers, after his brother died, but no one could tell him how or why it had happened – so he looks for truth now in his work.
• Morris was raised Buddhist and, as he grew up, he experimented and toyed with a variety of faiths. He said the organized sort didn’t stick with him. He said he feels the dead, he said they (or that feeling) linger awhile.
• During his examination of Fitzhugh, Morris said he’d never seen anything like what he was seeing in his thirty years of exploring the dead (the burn spot on his brain).
• Morris had no children though there was a woman once, and they had been together long enough to consider it. “But that was... long ago.”
• He was falling in love with Detective Amaryllis Coltrane when she was murdered (see Li_Morris#Amaryllis_Coltraine).
• Morris was “roughly 10” years older than Eve Dallas.

Relationships

Amaryllis Coltraine

• In Innocent in Death, when asked if he was smitten with Amaryllis Coltraine, Morris asked, “Who wouldn’t be?”
• In Salvation in Death, he was given at least two dozen roses from a woman who was a “very good friend.” Eve speculated they were given by Coltraine.
• When he walked Coltraine out (of the morgue), his hand skimmed lightly down her back and they kissed good-bye.
• After Eve notified him of Coltraine’s murder, Morris said he had been falling in love with her. They were planning to go away for a few days, to Graceland.
• After Amaryllis’s murder, Morris kept the silky, white droid cat – which she named for Louis Armstrong, spelling it Sachmo rather than Satchmo – he had given her.
• Morris thanked Eve for finding justice for Amaryllis. He said to her: “We deal with death, you and I, and with that death leaves grieving. We believe - or hope - that finding the answers, finding justice will help the dead, and those the dead leaves grieving. It does. Somehow it does. I no longer believe it, or hope it, but know it. I loved her, and the loss.... Immense. But you were there for me. As a cop, and as a friend. You held my hand during those first horrible steps of grief, helped me steady myself. And by finding the answers, you gave me, and her, some peace... The job you and I do is often ugly and thankless. I need to thank you.”
• Before Eve requested him for Deena, Morris wasn’t sure if he was ready to go back to work; he considered taking another week, maybe two.
• By October 2060 (Celebrity in Death), Morris brushes his hand across his heart and says “I think I’ll always miss the potential of what we could have been together. But I’m better than I was.”

Friends

• Eve considered Morris a friend – a good one.
  • Morris said there was no one he trusted more than Eve.
  • After discussing a gruesome mutilation that disturbed both he and Eve, Morris did something he rarely did and reached out and touched her on the back of her hand. Eve considered it a kind of intimacy and affectionate contact between comrades.
  • The first thing Amaryllis bought herself when she came to New York was a small glass butterfly with its jeweled wings lifted. She said it always made her smile. Morris gave the butterfly to Eve and kissed her.
  • While Eve and Morris were examining Deena’s body, Eve visualized the rape, the process, by which Deena was brutalized. As she did, Morris commented that Eve had gone pale, touched her arm, and told her to sit. Eve brushed him off and continued to visualize it, going through the steps, until she finished. Morris wondered, after seeing Eve’s reaction and explanation, And what were you? What were you to the one who used you this way? But he didn’t ask. He knew her too well, understood her too well, to ask.
• Father Chale López becomes a friend
  • After Amaryllis was murdered, Eve said that if Morris wanted to talk to someone outside the circle, outside the job, he could talk to Father Chale Lopez [sic].
  • He thanked Eve for “suggesting I speak to Father Lopez [sic].” López helped him with those next steps of grief.
• He developed a friendship with forensic anthropologist Dr. Garnet DeWinter.
  • “We like each other’s company, particularly without the tension of ‘Will there be sex?’”

Interesting Facts

• The character of Morris did not, as yet, have a first name! According to Nora: “I’m sure ME Morris has a first name--he’s probably got a middle name, too! And there’s likely going to be a time when he’ll use it.”-November 21, 2004
  • Morris’s first name was revealed to be “Li” as of Promises in Death.
• Worked at the Lower Manhattan City Morgue (see also NYPSD).
• Played the tenor saxophone. He played the sax at Roarke and Eve’s Christmas party in Memory in Death.
  • He liked music and was especially fond of jazz and blues. He had an extensive music selection.
  • He played sax in a band called The Cadavers - they played together in college and still get together sometimes for private gigs.
• Morris had just returned from vacation around September 20, 2059 in Divided in Death.
• Moris liked Dr. Death, a show about an ME. Nixie Swisher described it as “...a show about a man who does work on dead bodies. I’m not really supposed to, but Coyle can, and sometimes I sneak.” Morris told her “It’s a little more entertaining than it is accurate. I don’t chase the bad guy, for instance - I leave that in the capable hands of the police.”
• “I like daffodils myself. I always think of the trumpet as a really long mouth, and imagine they chatter away at each other in a language we can’t hear.”
• He drinks his coffee with a little milk and drinks brandy.
• He was part of the sting to obtain Cleo Grady’s DNA. He sharpened the rhinestones on the droid cat’s collar so that when Cleo handled it, she was cut and used his handkerchief.
• Morris rarely used Eve’s first name.
• Preferred ginger ale (“Morris took the ginger ale Peabody knew he usually preferred”)
• In Encore in Death, Morris says he preferred Comistar, iced, if he was drinking vodka.

Morris’s Outfits/Appearance/Music

Rapture in Death

• S.T. Fitzhugh: “He wore a white lab coat that fluttered to the floor. Beneath it he wore stovepipe pants and a T-shirt in loud, clashing colors.”

Vengeance in Death

• Thomas X. Brennen: “His waist-length braid made a curling line down the back of his snowy white lab coat. Under it he wore a skin suit of virulent purple.”

Conspiracy in Death

• Snooks, on-scene: “He wore his hair slicked back and braided with a siren red ski cap snugged over it. His long, matching coat flapped madly in the breeze. Morris, Eve knew, was quite the snazzy dresser.”

Witness in Death

• Allyanne Preen: “His hands were quick and skilled and seemed to keep time to the beat of the rebel rock music playing over the speakers.” “He disposed of his [puke-green] protective suit to reveal the stunning pink of his shirt and electric blue of his trousers.” Eve “imagined he habitually chose snazzy clothes to distance himself from the starkness of his job, the brutality of it.”

Interlude in Death

• At the Olympus Resort: “His long, dark braid was threaded through with silver rope, and the lapels of his calf-length jacket sparkled with the same sheen. For a dead doctor, Eve thought, he was a very snappy dresser.”

Seduction in Death

• Unnamed stabbing victim since he had finished Bryna Bankhead’s autopsy: “He wore his long, dark hair in half a dozen braids, covered now with a clear surgical cap. A natty plum-colored shirt and slacks were protected from distressing splashes of body fluids by a transparent lab coat.”

Purity in Death

• Louis K. Cogburn: “He wore goggles over his pleasant face, a plastic hood over his long, dark braided hair, and a clear protective coat over a natty blue suit.”

Portrait in Death

• Rachel Howard: “He wore a long green cover over his lemon yellow suit. His hair was pulled into a trio of ponytails that waterfalled, one over the other down his back.”

Imitation in Death

• Jacie Wooten: “He worked along as he often did, suited up in clear protective gear over a blue tunic and skin-pants. His long hair was corded back in a shiny ponytail and covered with a cap to prevent contamination of the body. There was a medallion, something in silver with a deep red stone around his neck. He often played music while he worked, but today the room was silent but for the quiet hum of machines and the spooky whirl of his laser scalpel. ‘Every now and then, I see something in here that goes beyond. Beyond the human. And we know, don’t we, Dallas, that the human has an amazing capacity for cruelty to its own species? But every once in a while, I see something that takes even that one hideous step beyond.’”

Divided in Death

• Chloe McCoy: “He had a nice golden tan and a trio of colorful balls dangling from a temple braid. It reminded [Eve] that he’d just returned from vacation.”

Visions in Death

• Elisa Maplewood: “[Eve] found him in autopsy, with his protective gear over a steel blue three-piece suit. On closer look, she saw the vest was decorated with abstract line drawings of naked women. Morris wasn’t considered a fashion plate without cause. His long, dark hair was drawn back in a glossy braid that hung neatly between his shoulder blades. He still carried his vacation tan and he hummed a jaunty tune under his breath as he worked.”
• Annalisa Sommers, a second look: “He stepped over in his pristine blue shirt and red necktie, offered his arm.”

Survivor in Death

• Linnie Dyson, Inga Snood, and Grant, Keelie, and Coyle Swisher: “There was music playing. Morris rarely worked without it, but this was somber, funereal. One of those composers who’d worn white wigs.”
• Linnie Dyson: “She studied his face, slickly framed by black hair pulled cleanly back in one sleek tail that was bound in crisscrossing silver twine. Under the clear, protective suit, stained now with body fluids, his shirt was silver as well.”

Origin in Death

• Dr. Wilfred B. Icove: “He wore a suit the color of walnuts, with a dull gold shirt. His dark hair was pulled back into two queues, one stacked on the other and twined with gold cord.”
• Dr. Wilfred B. Icove, Jr. at his house: “He wore a clear gown over a shimmery deep purple shirt and narrow black pants. His hair was pulled back in three stacked tails, perfectly aligned.”

Memory in Death

• Trudy Lombard at the hotel: “[Eve] remembered he’d worn a suit to the party, a kind of muted blue overlaid with a faint sheen. His long, dark hair had been intricately braided and he’d knocked back a few. Now he was in casual pants and a sweatshirt, and his hair was scooped back in a long, shiny tail.”
• Trudy Lombard at the morgue: “He wore his long, dark hair in a braid today, and the braid curled up in a loop at the nape of his neck. His suit was a deep, conservative navy, until you added the pencil-thin stripes of showy red.”

Haunted in Death

• Radcliff C. Hopkins III: “Morris, resplendent in a bronze-toned suit under his clear protective cape, his long dark hair in a shining tail, stood over the body with a sunny smile for Eve.”

Born in Death

• Craig Foster: “He wasn’t tall, but he was built in a way the chocolate brown suit and dull gold T-shirt exploited. He was oddly sexy with those dark, slightly slanted eyes and the ink black hair scooped back in a tight, intricate braid.”

Innocent in Death

• Craig Foster: He was working to “the wicked rhythm of Dixieland jazz” and “wore a sleek black suit under his protective smock, with a silver shirt that shimmered as he moved. His dark hair was in one tightly coiled braid, looped at the neck and twined with silver cord.”
• Reed Williams: “Morris was in pewter today, with a purple shirt and braided pewter tie. His hair was in a long tail that made Eve think of glossy thoroughbreds.”

Creation in Death

• Sarifina York, on-scene: “Which explained the boots, she supposed. The black and silver pattern she assumed had once belonged to some reptile wasn’t the sort of thing a man would normally sport on a crime scene. Not even the stylish Morris. His long black coat blew back to reveal a cherry-red lining. Under it, he wore black pants, black turtleneck - extreme casual wear for him. His long, dark hair was slicked back into a tail, bound top and tip with silver bands.”
• Gia Rossi, on-scene: “Morris was inside. He’d changed, she noted, into gray sweats and black and silver skids she imagined he kept on the premises for working out.”

Eternity in Death

• Tiara Kent: “He wore a snappy suit the color of good claret with a matching tie thin as straw. His dark hair was intricately braided, and curled into a loop at the nape of his neck. Eve often thought Morris’s sharp fashion sense was wasted on his clientele.”

Strangers in Death

• Thomas A. Anders: “He’d teamed a rust-colored shirt with a dull gold shirt, and mirrored those tones with the thin rope worked through his long, dark braid.”

Salvation in Death

• Miguel Flores: “Elegant was the man who hummed along with the choral music [Mozart’s ’Requiem’] drifting through the rose- and death-scented air. Chief Medical Examiner Morris wore black today, but there was nothing ghoulish or funereal in the sharply tailored suit. The lightning-bolt blue T-shirt - probably silk - kicked it up a notch, Eve supposed. He’d pinned one of the red rosebuds to his lapel, and wound red and blue cords through his long black ponytail.”
• Lino, with Teresa Franco: “He wore a suit, the color of polished bronze, without any protective cape.”

Ritual in Death

• Ava Marsterson: “The protective gown covered his silver-edged blue suit. He wore his dark hair pulled back in a long, sleek tail.”

Promises in Death

• At home when Eve came to notify him about Coltraine’s death: “His hair was loose. She’d never seen it loose, raining down his back rather than braided. He wore black pants, a black tee.”
• At home when Eve came to ask if he knew Coltraine had a relationship with Alex Ricker in Atlanta: “He sat, not in one of his sharp, stylish suits, but in a lightweight black sweater and jeans, with his hair pulled back in a simple tail with none of the usual ornamentation.”
• At Coltraine’s memorial: “He wore a simple and elegant black suit, with a black cord winding through his long, meticulous braid.”

Kindred in Death

• Deena MacMasters: “He wore a clear protective coat over a suit of moonless night black. He’d paired it with a shirt of rich gold, and a needle-thin tie where both colors wove together. She frowned at the silver peace sign pinned to his lapel, but had to admit on Morris it worked. His ink-black hair drew back from his exotic face in a single, gleaming braid.”
• Karlene Robins: “Morris wore mourning black today, with a shirt of deep red.”

Fantasy in Death

• Bart Minnock at his apartment: “His slick black suit missed being funereal by the touches of silver in the cord braided through is long queue and the subtle pattern of his tie. Still, he seemed to wear black more often these days, and she understood it was a subtle symbol of mourning for his lost lover.”
• At the hospital to discuss Cilla Allen’s injuries: “He wore black, as he had every time she’d seen him since Coltraine’s death, but Eve took hope from the flash of the shimmering red tie that the leading edge of his grief had dulled.”

Indulgence in Death

• Jamal Houston: “She found him at work, a protective cloak over his sharp suit. The midnight blue color rather than the severe black he’d worn since his lover’s murder told her he’d gone to the next phase of grief. For the first time since spring, he’d added a bright touch with a tie of strong, vibrant red. He’d braided his hair with a cord of the same color, drawing it back from his striking face. He worked to music, another good sign. A low and smoky female voice wafted through the cool, sterile air like a warm, perfumed breeze.”
• Ava Crampton: “He wore black again, stark and unrelieved.”

Treachery in Death

• Rickie “Juicy” Keener: “...blood on his protective cloak, and still managed to look stylish in a collarless suit of midnight blue and his hair braided in a looping queue.”

Chaos in Death

• Wilson Bickford, Jennifer Darnell, and Coby Vix: He wore a gray suit and a strong red tie, with the band twining through his braid the same color as his tie. Through the speakers, a sax wailed out a jazzy riff.

Celebrity in Death

• K.T. Harris, but just to discuss - Carter did the autopsy: He wore a navy blue suit with razor-thin lines of silver. He’d twisted his ebony hair into a ladder of sleek tails at the back of his head. Some sort of gritty, back-beating rock played at low volume.

Delusion in Death

• On-scene at On the Rocks: Since he’d gone off shift, he was wearing jeans and some sort of silky crewneck shirt the color of ripe plums rather than one of his snazzy suits, and his hair was pulled back into one sleek tail.
• At the morgue with On the Rocks victims: “He wore a clear work cape over his sweater and pants, and had something soft and sorrowful playing on his speakers.”

Calculated in Death

• Marta Dickenson: Weeping sax, tearful bass, a perfectly cut chocolate brown suit with a cream-colored shirt. He’d braided his hair, left it in one long, complicated black tail down his back.
• “[Eve] found Morris with some sort of bass-heavy rock bumping out of his speakers, working on the seriously bludgeoned Jake Ingersol. Parzarri, chest still wide open, lay on a second slab.

‘Two slabs, no waiting.’”

Thankless in Death

• Barbara and Carl Reinhold: A gray suit with hints of steely blue. He’d tied his long stream of black hair into a trio of descending ponytails and bound them with silver cord.
• For Lori Nuccio, he’d chosen music that was light, kind of breezy, with a high, clear female voice singing hopefully about what lay behind the bend in the road.

Concealed in Death

• Over the remains of the lost girls with DeWinter: A steel gray suit with a shirt a click or two lighter, and his inky hair in a single long braid.
• Over the remains of the lost girls with DeWinter: Snappily dressed in deep, dark plum.

Festive in Death

• Trey Ziegler: A sharply elegant suit of forest green.
• At Eve and Roarke’s Christmas party: A silver shirt, red tie, and silver band through his braid.
• Catiana Dubois: A steel blue suit with steel-gray chalk stripes, a braided tie that twined the two tones, and his dark hair slicked into three slim, stacked tails.

Obsession in Death

• Leanore Bastwick: He wore midnight-blue pants with a silver shirt, a precisely knotted blue and silver tie, with his dark hair in a single thick braid down his back.
• Wendall Ledo: He wore a suit caught somewhere between red and orange - the boldest color Eve had seen him wear since Coltraine’s death. He called it carnelian.

Devoted in Death

• Dorian Kuper: Opera - the soaring tragedy in the voices, the mournful blend of instruments (Giselle, which Morris was going to see the following week). Plum-colored suit, with his black hair tied back in one of his complicated braids, twined with silver cord.
• Morris, DeWinter, and Mira examining the remains of previous victims: “Morris had chosen [a] slate-gray [lab coat] over a suit of the same hue, and a single braid coiled up in poppy-red cord.”

Wonderment in Death

• Marcus and Darlene Fitzwilliams: He wore a steel-gray suit today, paired with an electric blue tie. He’d gone silver with the cord that twined through his single thick braid of black hair.

Brotherhood in Death

• Jonas Bartell Wymann and Edward Mira: A suit the color of wet stone, a tie of shimmery lavender, and his black hair twined into a single thick braid. He had music on low, something jazzy.

Apprentice in Death

• The quiet strains of classical music (Mozart), which Ellissa Wyman made Morris think of, steel-gray suit with a royal blue shirt that picked up the needle-thin lines in the suit jacket and twined cord of the same color through the complex braid of his dark hair.

Echoes in Death

• Dr. Anthony Strazza: “He had music on low, something with a lot of bass and a charging drum beat. Over his snappy midnight-blue pin-striped suit he wore a clear protective coat. No tie today, [Eve] noted, but a turtleneck the same hue as the thin gray stripes. He’d twisted his long, dark hair into some sort of complicated knot where a single thin braid spilled from the center.”
• “Eve found Morris completing his Y-cut on Miko Carver, while a voice that sounded like an angel soared through the room. Xavier Carver lay on a second slab, cleaned and prepped for autopsy. ‘I’m sorry to see you again so soon.’ Morris, his midnight-blue suit protected by his cloak, deftly spread Miko’s ribs... He ordered the volume to three, the angel’s voice lowered to a loving murmur.”

Secrets in Death

• “Today’s music, hard-edged rock--beat low. Morris, a clear cape over a navy suit with thin, metallic red stripes, stood over Larinda Mars. His hair slicked back from his interesting face to form a looped braid twined in that same metallic red. The red--mirrored in his tie--told Eve grief hadn’t dogged him when he’d chosen today’s wardrobe.”

Dark in Death

• A chorus of voices singing about... making the match (a cast recording from a play Chanel Rylan worked in), a navy suit with thread-like stripes of maroon, a shirt that matched the stripes, a tie that played both colors together in a paisley pattern, and he’d braided his long, dark hair and twined it with maroon cord.
• Loxie Flash: He’d gone for a black turtleneck rather than a shirt and tie, which gave his steel-blue suit a sort of artsy vibe, and he’d wound his hair into a single, thick braid that hung down the back of his protective cloak.

Leverage in Death

• Low-down blues and a suit of forest green with needle-thin gold stripes, paired with a shirt of dull gold, a deep green tie, and both colors in cords wound through his long, dark braid.

Connections in Death

• Lyle Pickering: A suit not the color of Peabody’s beautiful sky, but softer, more the tone it would take on as dusk crept in, paired with a shirt the color of the salmon Galahad favored. His tie matched the suit, as did the cord woven through the black braid down his back. His tone matched the jaunty music on his speakers.

Vendetta in Death

• Nigel McEnroy: A stylish suit of steely blue with a sharp-collared shirt of the exact same tone, he’d chosen a tie the color of warm apricots, twined his long black braid with a cord to mirror it.
• Morris had one of his favored bluesy numbers going and wore a suit in forest green, a tie in stone gray, and a stone gray cord wound through his the braid he’d doubled up at the back of his head in a loop.

Shadows in Death

• Galla Modesto: He was playing Italian opera and wore a sharp suit of bold blue, a shirt of pale yellow, and a tie that played both colors in slim stripes. His long braid fell down the back of his cape with yellow cord wound through the black.
• One of his excellent suits, a steely gray with pale, delicate pinstripes, offset by the bold blue of his shirt. His dark hair was coiled in a braid with a thin cord of that same bold blue woven through.

Faithless in Death

• Ariel Byrd: His suit made Eve think of ripe peaches; obviously in a springtime frame of mind, he’d paired it with a shirt of the palest green and a tie precisely matching the suit. He’d wound his long, dark hair into braids, all tied back with pale green cord.

Forgotten in Death

• Alva Quirk: “On his music system, a throaty female sang about long, sweet goodbyes... He wore a suit under his protective cape. [Eve] supposed the color was lavender or orchid or whatever they decided to call that palest of pale shades of purple. His shirt bumped that hue up a few more shades, and the precisely knotted tie took it back down again. He’d braided his midnight-black hair into three sections, then braided those into one, using both shades in the cording. She supposed, like his musical talents, he considered the various ways he styled his hair a creative outlet.”
• Judge Erin Fester’s 23-year-old junkie daughter: “He stood, the protective cape over a suit of molten blue, a pale pink shirt, and a tie that merged both in minute checks... His music today had a soft voice singing over harp strings.”

Abandoned in Death

• “Music murmured, something with a lot of low-note brass and a woman singing about love lost. [Morris] looked up, smiled. 'An early start on the day for you (Eve), and a very early end for her (Lauren Elder).’ He wore a blue suit, a bold color that told [Eve] his mood hit high. He’d matched it with a shirt the color of ripe pears and a tie that blended the two tones in subtle swirls. He’d braided his long, dark hair in some complicated pattern that formed a coil at the back of his neck.
• Anna Hobe: A pale gray suit with brighter, bolder needle stripes of blue

Desperation in Death

• “Behind the doors of Morris’s autopsy suite, music played. Something Eve found almost obsessively cheerful with a lot of guitars and young female voices harmonizing. With a clear protective cape over his sky-blue suit, Morris closed his Y-cut on Mina with meticulous stitches. He’d done a trio of braids today in his long black hair and joined them together with a thick band that matched his precisely knotted mauve tie”

Encore in Death

• “[Eve] opened the doors of Morris’s arena to the music of Broadway. Even she recognized Broadway as a woman’s voice belted it to the back rows.” [Note: it was Eliza Lane singing, as Morris worked on Brant Fitzhugh.] “[He] wore a blue linen suit under his protective cape, with a crisp white shirt and deep blue tie. His hair, braided and wound into a coil at the back of his neck, left his sharply boned face unframed.”
• Debra Bernstein: A pair of jeans and a bold red shirt, his hair twisted back in a tail - it was casual day.

Payback in Death

• “...his clear protective cape over a somber black suit paired with a black shirt and tie. He’d coiled a long braid into a tight circle at the base of his neck.” This was done out of respect for Greenleaf. “Music played low, something that struck [Eve] as between tribal and military...”

Random in Death

• Jenna Harbough: “The music he played for the dead as much as himself, Eve knew - Avenue A. Rather than his usual suit under the protective cape, he wore jeans - black - a T-shirt - white. He’d twisted his long black hair into a single braid.”
• Arlie Dillon: “The ME wore a suit under his protective cape, one in pale, pale blue with a white shirt that had that same tender blue in needle-thin stripes. His tie, a bolder blue, coordinated with the cord he’d woven through the braid he’d rolled into a loop at the back of his neck. He played rock again.”

Passions in Death

• Erin Albright: “Music played, something soft and bluesy, as he stood beside the body... Under his protective cape, he wore an oatmeal-colored suit with a pale blue shirt and a tie of a deeper shade of blue. He had his black hair in a long braid, starting high on his head and threaded with cord in the deep blue.”

Morris’s YANNIs

• Name
  • His name was incorrectly written as “Morse” in Witness in Death, Judgment in Death, Midnight in Death, and once in Brotherhood in Death.
• Eyes
  • His eyes were described as a “vivid shade of green,” as “dark eyes,” and then “rage burned them black.” (return to section)
• Grim Reaper Tattoo
  • In Seduction in Death, he had a tattoo of the Grim Reaper under his left nipple, but in Devoted in Death, Eve “caught the Grim Reaper tat on his thigh, then a solid glimpse of his very well-toned ass before he moved out of screen range” and in Abandoned in Death, Eve told Roarke Morris’s tattoo was on his upper thigh.

(return to section)