His feet need to pull the door shut. If he's hiding quickly, there isn't time to McGuyver it.

Perhaps the door doesn't latch all the way, the morgue attendants notice, check it out (in a cursory way), and latch it. He's getting colder and colder, and can barely manage to push the door open, when they've gone.

Hey, Harley, your idea resonates with me.

As you may have seen above having the attendants start to use the box is a definite. While I'd to have it closed, having it ajar can work.there are a few ways that can go. They can assume it's empty, but before they open it fully find an easier box to load the body into and kick the one my protagonist is in shut.

Or the can start to check it out, see his ankles, feel them and sense the warmth and think it was a double screw-up--no tag and partially open door. They close the door not wanting to get involved in all the paper work. They know the body would rechill and leave it to others to identify whose corpse it is.

Trained by Houdini he's learned how to acclimate to the cold for a while although it would still weaken him enough to, as you suggest, make the task of pushing the door open more difficult.

I'm going to give the permutations of this scenario a lot of thought tonight.

Thanks much!

Let me run this by you.

Station10 mentioned using a string or ribbon to draw the hatch closed, although unless I read it wrong he would have the string or ribbon remain in place for the escape, and that wouldn't work because it would be too noticeable.

However, combined with Harley's post above and my response, he could pull the door almost closed, quickly maneuver the string/ribbon off the handle and oull it into the box leaving the door slightly ajar. (He might be able to pull the string into the box once the door was closed, but that would mean he'd have to get it off the handle while the door was closed, which wouldn't be a quick maneuver.}

Or he could use the end of the corpse sheet loosely lopped around the handle to pull the door almost closed and then pull the sheet into nthe box and hope for the best. (This would eliminate the need for him to find string/ribbon and cost him valuable time.)

Thoughts? Comments?

String? Ribbon? When you have to have the sheet there?

If the end of the sheet is hanging out of the door (which is slightly ajar), the attendants have to toss it into the drawer, shut the door, and leave. Maybe they stay long enough to have a conversation, with either a clue or some critical information that your hero overhears.

Etc.

Another idea is to have him grab a piece of wire (maybe a coat hanger he unraveled. He can either us it to pull the door shut or as others have suggested have the end of the sheet hanging out the door and have the attendants toss it inside when they shut and latch the door. He can then wiggle it through the gasket lining the door and out and then hook the latch lifting it up and opening the door.

Harley and Station10, thanks much!

Getting very, very close. Will sleep (sleep? Yeah, right) on your comments and respond tomorrow.

Gary, I just checked out the description for The Zodiac Deception, I will definitely have to get that book to read. I've always wanted to be a writer. I studied literature in college but knowing what good literature is and being able to write it are two different things. Anything more than a few pages and my writing looses all cohesiveness and fluidity. (although for a few short paragraphs I can sound pretty good).

Hey, John, I've always wanted to be a writer too and I still do. Tha-s why, even though, like you, I know what good literature is and writing are two different things, I keep trying.

I hope you do as well (and don't sell yourself short!) Writing is storytelling and storytelling is the original form of magic so you're already ahead of the game!

Best,
gary