T he filing cabinet sat by the window framing downtown Austin for months — locked, heavy, unyielding. No key fit. And no one who worked in the office of the state agency that polices the business of death knew what was inside.
Until one afternoon in May, when the watchdog agency’s new lawyer, longtime Texas government attorney Christopher Burnett, strode toward it, clutching a hammer and a screwdriver.
The Texas Funeral Service Commission’s other lawyer, Sarah Sanders, then 33 years old, stood behind him, watching closely…