“All right,” Jack said, after getting Laurie seated on the couch. “Tell me what happened.”

“They killed Tom,” Laurie whimpered. After the initial shock, Laurie had cried for her pet, but her tears had dried until Jack’s question.

“Who?” Jack demanded.

Laurie waited until she had her emotions under control. “There were two of them, but I only knew one,” she said. “And he’s the one who struck me and killed Tom. His name is Angelo. He’s the person I’ve had nightmares about. I had a terrible run-in with him during the Cerino affair. I thought he was still in prison. I can’t imagine how or why he is out. He’s horrid to look at. His face is terribly scarred from burns, and I’m sure he blames me.”

“So this visit was for revenge?” Jack asked.

“No,” Laurie said. “This was a warning for me. In their words I’m to ‘leave the Franconi thing alone.’”

“I don’t believe this,” Jack said. “I’m the one investigating the case, not you.”

“You warned me. I’ve obviously irritated the wrong people by trying to find out how Franconi’s body was lifted from the morgue,” Laurie said. “For all I know it was my visit to the Spoletto Funeral Home that set them off.”

“I’m not going to take any credit for foreseeing this,” Jack said. “I thought you would get in trouble with Bingham, not mobsters.”

“Angelo’s warning was presented in the guise of a favor for a favor,” Laurie said. “His favor was to tell me who killed Franconi. In fact, he wrote the name down.” Laurie lifted the piece of paper from the coffee table and handed it to Jack.

“Vido Delbario,” Jack read. He looked back at Laurie’s battered face. Both her nose and lip were swollen, and she was developing a black eye. “This case has been bizarre from the start, now it’s getting out of hand. I think you’d better tell me everything that happened.”

Laurie related to Jack the details from the moment she’d walked in the door until she’d called him on the phone. She even told him why she’d hesitated calling 911.

Jack nodded. “I understand,” he said. “There’s little the local precinct could do at this point.”

“What am I going to do?” Laurie asked rhetorically. She didn’t expect an answer.

“Let me look at the back door,” Jack said.

Laurie led him through the kitchen and into the pantry.

“Whoa!” Jack said. Because of the multiple dead bolts the entire edge split when the door had been forced. “I’ll tell you one thing, you’re not staying here tonight.”

“I suppose I could go home to my parents,” Laurie said.

“You’re coming home with me,” Jack said. “I’ll sleep on the couch.”

Laurie looked into the depths of Jack’s eyes. She couldn’t help but wonder if there were more to this sudden invitation than the issue of her safety.

“Get your things,” Jack said. “And pack for a few days. It will take that long to replace this door.”