and two go out.’
‘What about the bodies that arrived?’ Laurie asked. ‘Did they come in
with our people?’
‘Yup, with our vans,’ Mike said. ‘Jeff Cooper and Peter Molina. Both
bodies were from local hospitals.’
‘What about the two bodies that went out?’ Laurie asked.
‘What about them?’
‘Well, who was it that came to pick them up?’
Mike grabbed the mortuary logbook from the corner of his desk and
cracked it open. His index finger traced down the column then stopped.
‘Spoletto Funeral Home in Ozone Park and Dickson Funeral Home in Summit,
New Jersey.’
‘What were the names of the deceased?’ Laurie asked.
Mike consulted the book. ‘Frank Gleason and Dorothy Kline. Their
accession numbers are 100385 and 101455. Anything else?’
‘Were you expecting these particular funeral homes to come?’ Laurie
asked.
‘Yeah, of course,’ Mike said. ‘They’d called beforehand just like
always.’
‘So you had everything ready for them?’
‘Sure,’ Mike said. ‘I had the paperwork all done. They just had to sign
off.’
‘And the bodies?’ Laurie asked.
‘They were in the walk-in cooler as usual,’ Mike said. ‘Right in the
front on gurneys.’
Laurie looked at Jack. ‘Can you think of anything else to ask?’
Jack shrugged. ‘I think you’ve pretty well covered the bases except when
Mike was off the floor.’
‘Good point!’ Laurie said. Turning back to Mike she said: ‘Carl told us
that when he left for the men’s room twice last night, he contacted you.
Do you contact Carl whenever you need to leave your post?’
‘Always,’ Mike said. ‘We’re often the only ones down here. We have to
have someone guarding the door.’
‘Were you away from the office very long last night?’ Laurie asked.
‘Nope,’ Mike said. ‘No more than usual. Couple of times to the head and
a half hour for lunch up on the second floor. I’m telling you, it was a
normal night.’
‘What about the janitors?’ Laurie asked. ‘Were they around?’
‘Not during my shift,’ Mike said. ‘Generally they clean down here
evenings. The night shift is upstairs unless there is something out of
the ordinary going on.’
Laurie tried to think of additional questions but couldn’t. ‘Thanks,
Mike,’ she said.
‘No problem,’ Mike said.
Laurie started for the door but stopped. Turning around she asked: ‘By
any chance did you happen to see Franconi’s body?’
Mike hesitated a second before admitting that he had.
‘What was the circumstance?’ Laurie asked.
‘When I get to work Marvin, the evening tech, usually briefs me about
what’s going on. He was kind of psyched about the Franconi situation
because of all the police and the way the family carried on. Anyway, he
showed me the body.’
‘When you saw it, was it in compartment one eleven?’
‘Yup.’
‘Tell me, Mike,’ Laurie said. ‘If you had to guess, how do you think the
body disappeared?’
‘I don’t have the foggiest idea,’ Mike said. ‘Unless he walked out of
here.’ He laughed, then seemed embarrassed. ‘I don’t mean to joke
around. I’m as confused as everybody else. All I know is only two bodies
went out of here last night, and they were the two I checked out.’
‘And you never looked at Franconi again after Marvin showed him to you?’
‘Of course not,’ Mike said. ‘Why would I?’
‘No reason,’ Laurie said. ‘Do you happen to know where the van drivers
are?’
‘Upstairs in the lunchroom,’ Mike said. ‘That’s where they always are.’
Laurie and Jack took the elevator. As they were riding up, Laurie
noticed Jack’s eyelids were drooping.
‘You look tired,’ Laurie commented.
‘No surprise. I am,’ Jack said.
‘Why don’t you go home?’ Laurie said.
‘I’ve stuck it out this far,’ Jack said. ‘I think I’ll see it to the
bitter end.’
The bright fluorescent lighting of the lunchroom made both Laurie and
Jack squint. They found Jeff and Pete at a table next to the vending
machines, poring over newspapers while snacking on potato chips. They
were dressed in rumpled blue coveralls with Health and Hospital
Corporation patches on their upper arms. Both had ponytails.
Laurie introduced herself, explained about her interest in the missing
body, and asked if there was anything unique about the previous night,