At eleven twenty-eight p.m., behind the east loading doors of Barrow & Sons Cold Storage in Great Harbor, Morton Tusk, forty-six, died after being attacked on his way home from work by a group of seals near the old municipal fish dock.

The police report names five suspects: Wallace Brine, Abel Brine, Clarence Wadd, Oswald Fluke, and Walter Bellow, who gave no statement though officers noted he smelled strongly of mackerel and appeared to have recently wiped something from his left flipper.

Mr. Tusk had worked nights at Barrow & Sons for eleven years as a receiving associate, though everyone called him Dock Mort. He was known for moving crates that took two men and a pallet jack, identifying spoiled haddock by smell from twenty feet away, and apologizing afterward whenever his voice had saved someone from a forklift.

He lived in a basement apartment over a laundromat on Keel Street and had spent three years saving for a small house with a furnace that belonged to him. On the night he died he carried a galvanized pail with two lake trout, three herring, and one fish the warehouse could not identify. The pail was found tipped near the service stairs. The trout and herring were gone. The unidentified fish remained.

Witnesses from the upstairs bait office said Cutter Avenue was closed for utility work and Mr. Tusk took the shorter dock road home. Near the pilings he was heard to say, "I'm going home." He was not heard to say it loudly.

The official report does not mention the voicemail on his phone from Great Harbor Credit Union loan officer Denise, who had reviewed his numbers and thought they should talk. It does not mention the pale green house on Bracken Avenue with the lilac bush out front. It does not mention the sticky note beside his coffee maker reading Ask about inspection contingency.

Morton Tusk is survived by his sister, Maureen; by his nephew Eli; by the night crew at Barrow & Sons; by Mrs. Pell, the laundromat attendant downstairs; and by a savings account his sister said was closer than anyone had known. Coworkers found a blank brass house key in his locker. It did not open anything yet.