“So they killed him,” Jack said. “Why take the body?”

Laurie shrugged. “I’m not going to pretend I can put my mind into a mobster’s,” she said. “I don’t know why they wanted the body. Maybe to deny him a proper burial. Maybe they’re afraid an autopsy would provide a clue to the killer’s identity. Hell, I don’t know. But ultimately it doesn’t matter why.”

“I have a sense the ‘why’ might be important,” Jack said. “I think by getting involved you’ll be skating on thin ice.”

“Maybe so,” Laurie said. She shrugged again. “I get caught up in things like this. I suppose part of the problem is that at the moment my main focus in life is my job.”

“Here comes a free cab,” Jack said, deliberately avoiding having to respond to Laurie’s last comment. He sensed the implications and was reluctant to get drawn into a more personal discussion.

It was a short cab ride down to the corner of First Avenue and Thirtieth Street. Laurie climbed out and was surprised when Jack did the same.

“You don’t have to come,” Laurie said.

“I know,” Jack said. “But I’m coming anyway. In case you haven’t guessed, you have me concerned.”

Jack leaned back inside the cab and paid the driver.

Laurie was still insisting that Jack’s presence was not needed as they walked between the Health and Hospital’s mortuary vans. They entered the morgue through the Thirtieth Street entrance. “I thought you told me your bed was beckoning?”

“It can wait,” Jack said. “After Lou’s story about your getting carted out of here nailed in a coffin, I think I should tag along.”

“That was a totally different situation,” Laurie said.

“Oh, yeah?” Jack questioned. “It involved mobsters just like now.”

Laurie was about to protest further when Jack’s comment struck a chord. She had to admit there were parallels.

The first person they came to was the night security man sitting in his cubbyhole office. Carl Novak was an elderly, affable, gray-haired man who appeared to have shrunk inside his uniform that was at least two sizes too big. He was playing solitaire but looked up when Laurie and Jack passed by his window and stopped in his open doorway.

“Can I help you?” Carl asked. Then he recognized Laurie and apologized for not having done so sooner.

Laurie asked him if he’d been informed of Franconi’s body’s disappearance.

“By all means,” Carl said. “I got called at home by Robert Harper, head of security. He was up in arms about it and asked me all sorts of questions.”

It didn’t take Laurie long to learn that Carl had little light to shed on the mystery. He insisted that nothing out of the ordinary happened. Bodies had come in and bodies had gone out, just the way they did every night of the year. He admitted having left his post twice during his shift to visit the men’s room. He emphasized that on both occasions, he’d only been gone for a few minutes and that each time he’d informed the night mortuary tech, Mike Passano.