Shadowfires. By: Dean R. Koontz

longfingered hands were singularly spare of flesh, almost skeletal.

His white shirt looked as if it had been laundered only five minutes

ago, and the straight creases in each leg of his dark brown trousers

were so sharp they almost glinted in the fluorescent light.

When Rachael and Benny were settled in a pair of dark pine chairs with

forest-green leather cushions, Kordell went around the desk to his own

chair. “This is most distressing to me, Mrs. Leben-to add this burden

to what you’ve already been through today. It’s quite inexcusable. I

apologize again and extend my deepest sympathies, though I know nothing

I say can make the matter any less disturbing. Are you all right? Can

I get you a glass of water or anything?”

“I’m okay,” Rachael said, though she could not remember ever feeling

worse.

Benny reached out and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. Sweet,

reliable Benny. She was so glad he was with her. At five eleven and a

hundred fifty pounds, he was not physically imposing. With brown hair,

brown eyes, and a pleasing but ordinary face, he seemed like a man who

would vanish in a crowd and be virtually invisible at a party. But when

he spoke in that soft voice of his, or moved with his uncanny grace, or

just looked hard at you, his sensitivity and intelligence were instantly

discernible. In his own quiet way, he had the impact of a lion’s roar.

Everything would be easier with Benny at her side, but she worried about

getting him involved in this.

To the medical examiner, Rachael said, “I just want to understand what’s

happened.”

But she was afraid that she understood more than Kordell.

“I’ll be entirely candid, Mrs. Leben,” Kordell said.

“No point in being otherwise.” He sighed and shook his head as if he

still had difficulty believing such a screwup had happened. Then he

blinked, frowned, and turned to Benny. “You’re not Mrs. Leben’ s

attorney, by any chance?”

“Just an old friend,” Benny said.

“Really?”

“I’m here for moral support.”

“Well, I’m hoping we can avoid attorneys, Kordell said.

“I’ve absolutely no intention of retaining legal counsel,” Rachael

assured him.

The medical examiner nodded glumly, clearly unconvinced of her

sincerity. He said, “I’m not ordinarily in the office at this hour.”

It was nine-thirty Monday night.

“When work unexpectedly backs up and it’s necessary to schedule late

autopsies, I leave them to one of the assistant medical examiners. The

only exceptions are when the deceased is a prominent citizen or the

victim of a particularly bizarre and complex homicide. In that case,

when there’s certain to be a lot of heat involvedthe media and

politicians, I mean-then I prefer not to put the burden on my

subordinates, and if a night autopsy is unavoidable, I stay after hours.

Your husband was, of course, a very prominent citizen.”

As he seemed to expect a response, she nodded. She didn’t trust herself

to speak. Fear had risen and fallen in her ever since she had received

the news of the body’s disappearance, and at the moment it was at high

tide.

“The body was delivered to the morgue and logged in at 12,14 this

afternoon,” Kordell continued. “Because we were already behind schedule

and because I had a speaking engagement this afternoon, I ordered my

assistants to proceed with the cadavers in the order of their log

entries, and I arranged to handle your husband’s body myself at 6,30

this evening.” He put his fingertips to his temples, massaging lightly

and wincing as if merely recounting these events had given him an

excruciating headache. “At that time, when I’d prepared the autopsy

chamber, I sent an assistant to bring Dr. Leben’s body from the

morgue… but the cadaver couldn’t he found.”

“Misplaced?” Benny asked.

“That’s rarely happened during my tenure in this office,” Kordell said

with a brief flash of pride. “And on those few occasions when a cadaver

has been misplaced-sent to a wrong autopsy table, stored in the wrong

drawer, or left on a gurney with an improper ID tag-we’ve always located

it within five minutes.”

“But tonight you couldn’t find it,” Benny said.

“We looked for nearly an hour. Everywhere. Everywhere,” Kordell said

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