out of here nailed in a coffin, I think I should tag along.’
‘That was a totally different situation,’ Laurie said.
‘Oh, yeah?’ Jack questioned. ‘It involved mobsters just like now.’
Laurie was about to protest further when Jack’s comment struck a chord.
She had to admit there were parallels.
The first person they came to was the night security man sitting in his
cubbyhole office. Carl Novak was an elderly, affable, gray-haired man
who appeared to have shrunk inside his uniform that was at least two
sizes too big. He was playing solitaire but looked up when Laurie and
Jack passed by his window and stopped in his open doorway.
‘Can I help you?’ Carl asked. Then he recognized Laurie and apologized
for not having done so sooner.
Laurie asked him if he’d been informed of Franconi’s body’s
disappearance.
‘By all means,’ Carl said. ‘I got called at home by Robert Harper, head
of security. He was up in arms about it and asked me all sorts of
questions.’
It didn’t take Laurie long to learn that Carl had little light to shed
on the mystery. He insisted that nothing out of the ordinary happened.
Bodies had come in and bodies had gone out, just the way they did every
night of the year. He admitted having left his post twice during his
shift to visit the men’s room. He emphasized that on both occasions,
he’d only been gone for a few minutes and that each time he’d informed
the night mortuary tech, Mike Passano.
‘What about meals?’ Laurie asked.
Carl pulled open a file drawer of his metal desk and lifted out an
insulated lunch box. ‘I eat right here.’
Laurie thanked him and moved on. Jack followed.
‘The place certainly looks different at night,’ Jack commented as they
passed the wide hall that led down to the refrigerators and the autopsy
room.
‘It’s a bit sinister without the usual daytime hubbub,’ Laurie admitted.
They looked into the mortuary office and found Mike Passano busy with
some receiving forms. A body had recently been brought in that had been
fished out of the ocean by the Coast Guard. He looked up when he sensed
company.
Mike was in this early thirties, spoke with a strong Long Island accent,
and looked decidedly Southern Italian. He was slight of build with
sharply defined facial features. He had dark hair, dark skin, and dark
eyes. Neither Laurie nor Jack had worked with him although they had met
him on multiple occasions.
‘Did you docs come in to see the floater?’ Mike asked.
‘No,’ Jack said. ‘Is there a problem?’
‘No problem,’ Mike said. ‘It’s just in bad shape.’
‘We’ve come to talk about last night,’ Laurie said.
‘What about it?’ Mike asked.
Laurie posed the same questions she’d put to Carl. To her surprise, Mike
quickly became irritated. She was about to say as much when Jack tugged
on her arm and motioned for her to retreat to the hall.
‘Ease off,’ Jack recommended when they were beyond earshot.
‘Ease off from what?’ Laurie asked. ‘I’m not being confrontational.’
‘I agree,’ Jack said. ‘I know I’m the last person to be an expert in
office politics or interpersonal relations, but Mike sounds defensive to
me. If you want to get any information out of him, I think you have to
take that into consideration and tread lightly.’
Laurie thought for a minute then nodded. ‘Maybe you’re right.’
They returned to the mortuary office, but before Laurie could say
anything, Mike said: ‘In case you didn’t know, Dr. Washington telephoned
this morning and woke me up about all this. He read me the riot act. But
I did my normal job last night, and I certainly didn’t have anything to
do with that body disappearing.’
‘I’m sorry if I implied that you did,’ Laurie said. ‘All I’m saying is
that I believe the body disappeared during your shift. That’s not saying
you are responsible in any way.’
‘It sort’a sounds that way,’ Mike said. ‘I mean, I’m the only one here
besides security and the janitors.’
‘Did anything happen out of the ordinary?’ Laurie asked.
Mike shook his head. ‘It was a quiet night. We had two bodies come in