with evident distress. “It makes no sense. No sense whatsoever.
Given our procedures, it’s an impossibility.”
Rachael realized that she was clutching the purse in her lap so tightly
that her knuckles were sharp and white.
She tried to relax her hands, folded them. Afraid that either Kordell
or Benny would suddenly read a fragment of the monstrous truth in her
unguarded eyes, she closed them and lowered her head, hoping the men
would think she was simply reacting to the dreadful circumstances that
had brought them here.
From within her private darkness, Rachael heard Benny say, “Dr. Kordell,
is it possible that Dr. Leben’s body was released in error to a private
mortuary?”
“We’d been informed earlier today that the Attison Brothers’ firm was
handling funeral arrangements, so of course we called them when we
couldn’t find the body.
We suspected they’d come for Dr. Leben and that a day employee of the
morgue had mistakenly released the cadaver without authorization, prior
to autopsy. But they tell us they never came to collect, were in fact
waiting for a call from us, and don’t have the deceased.”
“What I meant,” Benny said, “was that perhaps Dr. Leben’s body was
released in error to another mortician who had come to collect someone
else.”
“That, of course, was another possibility that we explored with, I
assure you, considerable urgency.
Subsequent to the arrival of Dr. Leben’ 5 body at 12,14 this afternoon,
four other bodies were released to private mortuaries. We sent
employees to all of those funeral homes to confirm the identity of the
cadavers and to make sure none of them was Dr. Leben. None of them
was.”
“Then what do you suppose has happened to him?”
Benny asked.
Eyes closed, Rachael listened to their macabre conversation in darkness,
and gradually it began to seem as if she were asleep and as if their
voices were the echoey phantom voices of characters in a nightmare.
Kordell said, “Insane as it seems, we were forced to conclude the body’s
been stolen.”
In her self-imposed blackness, Rachael tried unsuccessfully to block out
the gruesome images that her imagination began to supply.
“You’ve contacted the police?” Benny asked the medical examiner.
“Yes, we brought them into it as soon as we realized theft was the only
remaining explanation. They’re downstairs right now, in the morgue, and
of course they want to speak with you, Mrs. Leben.”
A soft rhythmic rasping noise was coming from Everett Kordell’s
direction. Rachael opened her eyes. The medical examiner was nervously
sliding his letter opener in and out of its protective sheath. Rachael
closed her eyes again.
Benny said, “But are your security measures so inadequate that someone
could waltz right in off the street and steal a corpse?”
“Certainly not,” Kordell said. “Nothing like this has happened before.
I tell you, it’s inexplicable. Oh, yes, a determined person might be
clever enough to find a way through our security, but it wouldn’t be an
easy job. Not easy at all.”
“But not impossible,” Benny said.
The rasping noise stopped. From the new sounds that followed, Rachael
figured that the medical examiner must be compulsively rearranging the
silver-framed photographs on his desk.
She concentrated on that image to counteract the mad scenes that her
darkly cunning imagination had conjured up for her horrified
consideration.
Everett Kordell said, “I’d like to suggest that both of you accompany me
to the morgue downstairs, so you can see firsthand exactly how tight our
security is and how very difficult it would be to breach it. Mrs.
Leben? Do you feel strong enough to take a tour of the facility?”
Rachael opened her eyes. Both Benny and Kordell were watching her with
concern. She nodded.
“Are you sure?” Kordell asked, rising and coming out from behind his
desk. “Please understand that I’m not insisting on it. But it would
make me feel ever so much better if you would let me show you how
careful we are, how responsibly we fulfill our duties here.”
“I’m okay,” she said.
Picking at a tiny piece of dark lint that he had just spotted on his
sleeve, the medical examiner headed toward the door.
As Rachael got up from her chair and turned to follow Kordell, she was