he, for the first time in his often lonely life, was a complete man with
a hope of lasting happiness.
Impulsively he put down the knife with which he had been slicing a
tomato, took the knife from her hand and set it aside, turned her toward
him, pulled her against him, slipped his arms around her, and kissed her
deeply.
Now her soft mouth tasted of champagne instead of chocolate. She still
smelled faintly of jasmine, though beneath that fragrance was her own
clean and appealing scent. He moved his hands slowly down her back,
tracing the concave arc to her bottom, feeling the firm and exquisitely
sculpted contours of her body through the silky robe. She was wearing
nothing underneath.
His warm hands grew hot-then much hotter-as the heat of her was
transmitted through the material to his own flesh.
She clung to him for a moment with what seemed like desperation, as if
she were shipwrecked and he were a raft in a tossing sea. Her body was
stiff. Her hands clutched tensely, fingers digging into him. Then,
after a moment, she relaxed against him, and her hands began to move
over his back and shoulders and upper arms, testing and kneading his
muscles. Her mouth opened wider, and their kiss became hungrier. Her
breathing quickened.
He could feel – her full breasts pressing against his chest. As if with
a will and intention of their own, his hands moved more urgently in
exploration of her.
The phone rang.
Ben remembered at once that they had forgotten to put it on the
answering machine again when they had finished contacting people with
the news of Eric’s death and funeral, and in confirmation it rang again,
stridently.
“Damn,” Rachael said, pulling back from him.
“I’ll get it.”
“Probably another reporter.”
He took the call on the wall phone by the refrigerator, and it was not a
reporter. It was Everett Kordell, chief medical examiner for the city
of Santa Ana, phoning from the morgue. A serious problem had arisen,
and he needed to speak to Mrs. Leben.
a family friend,” Ben said. “I’m taking all calls for her.”
“But I’ve got to speak to he\,personally,” the medical examiner
insisted. “It’s urgent.
“Surely you can understand that Mrs. Leben has had a difficult day.
I’m afraid you’ll simply have to deal with me.”
“But she’s got to come downtown,” Kordell said plaintively.
“Downtown? You mean to the morgue? Now?”
“Yes. Right away.”
“Why?”
Kordell hesitated. Then, “This is embarrassing and frustrating, and I
assure you that it’ll all he straightened out sooner or later, probably
very soon, but.. . well, Eric Leben’s corpse is missing.”
Certain that he’d misunderstood, Ben said, “Missing?”
“Well. .. perhaps misplaced,” Everett Kordell said nervously.
“Perhaps?”
“Or perhaps . . . stolen.”
Ben got a few more details, hung up, and turned to Rachael.
She was hugging herself, as if in the grip of a sudden chill. “The
morgue, you said?”
He nodded. “The damn incompetent bureaucrats have apparently lost the
body.”
Rachael was very pale, and her eyes had a haunted look. But, curiously,
she did not appear to be surprised by the startling news.
Ben had the strange feeling that she had been waiting for this call all
evening.
DOWN WHERE THEY KEEP THE DEAD To Rachael, the condition of the medical
examiner 5 office was evidence that Everett Kordell was an
obsessive-compulsive personality. No papers, books, or files cluttered
his desk. The blotter was new, crisp, unmarked. The pen-and-pencil
set, letter opener, letter tray, and silver-framed pictures of his
family were precisely arranged. On the shelves behind his desk were two
hundred or three hundred books in such pristine condition and so evenly
placed that they almost appeared to be part of a painted backdrop. His
diplomas and two anatomy charts were hung on the walls with an
exactitude that made Rachael wonder if he checked their alignment every
morning with ruler and plumb line.
Kordell’s preoccupation with neatness and orderliness was also evident
in his appearance. He was tall and almost excessively lean, about
fifty, with a sharpfeatured ascetic face and clear brown eyes. Not a
strand of his graying, razor-cut hair was out of place. His