that he hadn’t. ‘I always take X rays when a body comes in unless one of
the doctors tells me otherwise.’
‘Then where’s the slip and where are the films?’ Laurie asked.
‘Hey, I don’t know what happened to the slip,’ Marvin said. ‘But the
films: They went with Doctor Bingham.’
‘Bingham took them?’ Laurie questioned. Even that was odd, yet she
recognized that Bingham probably was planning on doing the post the
following morning.
‘He told me he was taking them up to his office,’ Marvin said. ‘What am
I supposed to do, tell the boss he can’t take the X rays. No way! Not
this dude.’
‘Right, of course,’ Laurie said vaguely. She was preoccupied. Here was a
new surprise. X rays existed of Franconi’s body! Of course, it didn’t
matter much without the body itself, but she wondered why she’d not been
told. Then again she’d not seen Bingham until after it was known that
Franconi’s body had been stolen.
‘Well, I’m glad I spoke to you,’ Laurie said, coming out of her musing.
‘And I apologize for suggesting that you’d forgotten to take the films.’
‘Hey, it’s cool,’ Marvin said.
Laurie was about to leave when she thought about the Spoletto Funeral
Home. On a whim, she asked Marvin about it.
Marvin shrugged. ‘What do you want to know?’ he asked. ‘I don’t know
much. I’ve never been there, you know what I’m saying.’
‘What are the people like who come here from the home?’ Laurie asked.
‘Normal,’ Marvin said with another shrug. ‘I’ve probably only seen them
a couple of times. I mean, I don’t know what you want me to say.’
Laurie nodded. ‘It was a silly question. I don’t know why I asked.’
Laurie left the mortuary office and exited the morgue through the
loading area onto Thirtieth Street. It seemed to her that nothing about
the Franconi case was routine.
As Laurie commenced walking south along First Avenue another whim hit
her. Suddenly, the idea of visiting the Spoletto Funeral Home seemed
very appealing. She hesitated for a second while considering the idea
and then stepped out into the street to hail a cab.
‘Where to, lady?’ the driver asked. Laurie could see from his hackney
license that his name was Michael Neuman.
‘Do you know where Ozone Park is?’ Laurie asked.
‘Sure, it’s over in Queens,’ Michael said. He was an older man who,
Laurie guessed, was in his late sixties. He was sitting on a foam
rubber-stuffed pillow with a lot of foam rubber visible. His backrest
was constructed of wooden beads.
‘How long would it take to get there?’ Laurie asked. If it was going to
take hours, she wouldn’t do it.
Michael made a questioning expression by compressing his lips while
thinking. ‘Not long,’ he said vaguely. ‘Traffic’s light. In fact, I was
just out at Kennedy Airport, and it was a breeze.’
‘Let’s go,’ Laurie said.
As Michael promised, the trip took only a short time, especially once
they got on the Van Wyck Expressway. While they were traveling, Laurie
found out that Michael had been driving a cab for over thirty years. He
was a loquacious and opinionated man who also exuded a paternal charm.
‘Would you know where Gold Road is in Ozone Park?’ Laurie asked. She
felt privileged to have found an experienced taxi driver. She’d
remembered the address of the Spoletto Funeral Home from the Rolodex in
the mortuary office. The street name had stuck in her mind as making a
metaphorical statement about the undertaking business.
‘Gold Road,’ Michael said. ‘No problem. It’s a continuation of
Eighty-ninth Street. You looking for a house or what?’
‘I’m looking for the Spoletto Funeral Home,’ Laurie said.
‘I’ll have you there in no time,’ Michael said.
Laurie sat back with a contented feeling, only half listening to
Michael’s nonstop chatter. For the moment luck seemed to be on her side.
The reason she’d decided to visit the Spoletto Funeral Home was because
Jack had been wrong about it. The home did have a mob connection, and
even though it was with the wrong family according to Lou, the fact that
it was associated at all was suspicious to Laurie.