“I’m very sorry about your mother,” Barney told Rain. “She was a colorful lady, and I know you’ll miss her. She made quite an impression on this little community in the short time she was here. She’ll be long remembered.”

That was a model of tact, I thought. Though Manfred was lying there pale and in pain, a twitch of a smile crossed his face.

“I appreciate your saying that,” Rain said, not to be outdone in courtesy. “Thank you for taking such good care of her. Manfred said you came by to see her. Her health was so poor that both Manfred and I know she was due to go anytime, and we don’t blame the hospital for anything.” She cast a quelling look at Manfred, who had closed his eyes, absenting himself from the whole conversation.

“Manfred thinks she should have an autopsy,” Rain said. “And she hadn’t been under a doctor’s care here in Doraville. Though of course she had doctors in Tennessee, and she saw her cardiologist right before she left for Doraville. What do you think?”

Dr. Thomason came in then, said, “It’s raining outside, folks,” and shook a few droplets off his umbrella. “Just rain, not ice,” he added reassuringly.

“It’s good you came in here now,” Barney said. “Let me tell you what we’ve been talking about.” Barney repeated Rain’s question. “What about it, Len?” he asked.

“Depends on what we hear from her doctor in Tennessee,” Len Thomason said, considering. “If her doctor there is of the opinion that her death was expectable, not a surprise, no questions to be answered about it, then I think it would be reasonable to assume we didn’t need an autopsy, and that’s what I’ll recommend to the coroner. On the other hand,” he went on, raising both his hands to show us “caution,” “if that doctor isn’t satisfied—and he knew her best—we’ll have to check into it.”

Dr. Thomason had put it in such a matter-of-fact way that you felt quite sane and reasonable after listening, and you were sure this was the right course. That manner of his must have been invaluable to his practice. It was almost enough to make me ashamed I’d suspected he might have had something to do with the boys’ deaths. Now, as I watched him smile gravely at some question of Rain’s, I could only imagine all over again how easily Len Thomason could persuade a boy to go with him anywhere. Everyone trusts a doctor. There were a hundred things he could have said to induce a young man to go off with him. Right now I couldn’t think of any, but I was sure given time I would.