‘I suppose,’ Laurie reluctantly agreed. ‘But don’t tell him that.’
‘I wish the commissioner would let it fade,’ Lou said. ‘Hell, I might
get demoted over this thing.’
‘I did have one thought,’ Laurie said. ‘One of the funeral homes that
picked up a body the night Franconi disappeared is called Spoletto. It’s
in Ozone Park. Somehow the name was familiar to me. Then I remembered
that one of the more grisly murders of a young mobster took place there
back during the Cerino case. Do you think that it’s just a coincidence
they happened to be making a pickup here the night Franconi
disappeared?’
‘Yeah,’ Lou said. ‘And I’ll tell you why. I’m familiar with that funeral
home from my years in Queens fighting organized crime. There is a loose
and innocent connection by marriage with the Spoletto Funeral Home and
the New York crime establishment. But it’s with the wrong family. It’s
with the Lucia people, not with the Vaccarros who killed Franconi.’
‘Oh, well,’ Laurie said. ‘It was just a thought.’
‘Hey, I’m not knocking your questioning it,’ Lou said. ‘Your recall
always impresses me. I’m not sure I would have made the association.
Anyway, what about some dinner?’
‘As tired as you look, how about just coming over to my apartment for
some spaghetti?’ Laurie suggested. Lou and Laurie had become best of
friends over the years. After being thrust together on the Cerino case
five years previously, they’d flirted with a romantic relationship. But
it hadn’t worked out. Becoming friends had been a mutual decision. In
the years since, they made it a point to have dinner together every
couple of weeks.
‘You wouldn’t mind?’ Lou asked. The idea of kicking back on Laurie’s
couch sounded like heaven.
‘Not at all,’ Laurie said. ‘In fact, I’d prefer it. I’ve got some sauce
in the freezer and plenty of salad makings.’
‘Great!’ Lou said. ‘I’ll grab some Chianti on my way downtown. I’ll give
you a call when I’m leaving headquarters.’
‘Perfect,’ Laurie said.
After Lou had left, Laurie went back to her slide. But Lou’s visit had
broken her concentration by reawakening the Franconi business. Besides,
she was tired of looking through the microscope. Leaning back, she
rubbed her eyes.
‘Damn it all!’ she murmured. She sighed and gazed up a at the cob-webbed
ceiling. Every time she questioned how Franconi’s body could have gotten
out of the morgue, she agonized anew. She also felt guilty that she
couldn’t provide even a modicum of help to Lou.
Laurie got up and got her coat, snapped shut her briefcase, and walked
out of her office. But she didn’t leave the morgue. Instead, she went
down for another visit to the mortuary office. There was a question that
was nagging her and which she’d forgotten to ask Marvin Fletcher, the
evening mortuary tech, the previous late afternoon.
She found Marvin at his desk busily filling out the required forms for
the scheduled pickups for that evening. Marvin was one of Laurie’s
favorite coworkers. He’d been on the day shift before Bruce Pomowski’s
tragic murder during the Cerino affair. After that event, Marvin had
been switched to evenings. It had been a promotion because the evening
mortuary tech had a lot of responsibility.
‘Hey, Laurie! What’s happening?’ Marvin said the moment he caught sight
of her. Marvin was a handsome African-American, with the most flawless
skin Laurie had ever seen. It seemed to glow as if lit internally.
Laurie chatted with Marvin for a few minutes, catching him up on the
intraoffice gossip of the day before getting down to business. ‘Marvin,
I’ve got to ask you something, but I don’t want you to feel defensive.’
Laurie couldn’t help remembering Mike Passano’s reaction to her
questioning, and she certainly didn’t want Marvin complaining to Calvin.
‘About what?’ Marvin asked.
‘Franconi,’ Laurie said. ‘I wanted to ask why you didn’t X-ray the
body.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Marvin questioned.
‘Just what I said,’ Laurie remarked. ‘There was no X-ray slip in the
autopsy folder and there were no films down here with others when I
looked prior to finding out that the body had disappeared.’
‘I took X rays,’ Marvin said. He acted hurt that Laurie would suggest