“Hurry up with that coffee,” Jack said, as he dropped his heavy package onto the metal desk Vinnie used to read his newspaper. “It’s an emergency this morning.”

Vinnie didn’t answer, which was out of character, and Jack noticed. “Are you still in a bad mood?” he asked.

Vinnie still didn’t answer, but Jack’s mind was already elsewhere. He’d seen the headlines on Vinnie’s paper: FRANCONI’S BODY FOUND. Beneath the headline in slightly smaller print was: “Franconi’s corpse languishing in the Medical Examiner’s Office for twenty-four hours before identity established.”

Jack sat down to read the article. As usual, it was written in a sarcastic bent with the implication that the city’s medical examiners were bunglers. Jack thought it was interesting that while the journalist had had enough information to write the article, he didn’t appear to know that the body had been headless and handless in a deliberate attempt to conceal its identity. Nor did it mention anything about the shotgun wound to its right upper quadrant.

After finishing with the coffee preparation, Vinnie came over to stand next to the desk while Jack read. Impatiently, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. When Jack finally looked up Vinnie said irritably: “Do you mind! I’d like to have my paper.”

“You see this article?” Jack asked, slapping the front page.

“Yeah, I seen it,” Vinnie said.

Jack resisted the temptation to correct his English. Instead he said: “Did it surprise you? I mean, when we did the autopsy yesterday, did it ever cross your mind it might have been the missing Franconi?”

“No, why should it?” Vinnie said.

“I’m not saying it should,” Jack said. “I’m just asking if it did.”

“No,” Vinnie said. “Let me have my paper! Why don’t you buy your own? You’re always reading mine.”

Jack stood up, pushed Vinnie’s paper toward him, and lifted the bundle from Janice. “You really are out of sorts lately. Maybe you need a vacation. You’re fast becoming a grumpy old man.”

“At least I’m not a cheapskate,” Vinnie said. He picked up his paper and readjusted the pages that Jack had gotten out of alignment.

Jack went to the coffeemaker and poured himself a brimming cup. He took it over to the scheduling desk. While sipping contentedly, he went through the multitude of Franconi’s hospital admissions. On his first perusal of the material, he just wanted the basics, so he read each discharge summary page. As Janice had already told him, the admissions were mostly due to liver problems starting from a bout of hepatitis he contracted in Naples, Italy.

Laurie arrived next. Before she even had her coat off, she asked Jack if he’d seen the paper or heard the morning news. Jack told her he’d seen the Post.

“Was it your doing?” Laurie asked, as she folded her coat and put it on a chair.

“What are you talking about?”

“The leak that we tentatively identified Franconi as your floater,” Laurie said.

Jack gave a little laugh of disbelief. “I’m surprised you’d even ask. Why would I do such a thing?”