“What about meals?” Laurie asked.

Carl pulled open a file drawer of his metal desk and lifted out an insulated lunch box. “I eat right here.”

Laurie thanked him and moved on. Jack followed.

“The place certainly looks different at night,” Jack commented as they passed the wide hall that led down to the refrigerators and the autopsy room.

“It’s a bit sinister without the usual daytime hubbub,” Laurie admitted.

They looked into the mortuary office and found Mike Passano busy with some receiving forms. A body had recently been brought in that had been fished out of the ocean by the Coast Guard. He looked up when he sensed company.

Mike was in his early thirties, spoke with a strong Long Island accent, and looked decidedly Southern Italian. He was slight of build with sharply defined facial features. He had dark hair, dark skin, and dark eyes. Neither Laurie nor Jack had worked with him although they had met him on multiple occasions.

“Did you docs come in to see the floater?” Mike asked.

“No,” Jack said. “Is there a problem?”

“No problem,” Mike said. “It’s just in bad shape.”

“We’ve come to talk about last night,” Laurie said.

“What about it?” Mike asked.

Laurie posed the same questions she’d put to Carl. To her surprise, Mike quickly became irritated. She was about to say as much when Jack tugged on her arm and motioned for her to retreat to the hall.

“Ease off,” Jack recommended when they were beyond earshot.

“Ease off from what?” Laurie asked. “I’m not being confrontational.”

“I agree,” Jack said. “I know I’m the last person to be an expert in office politics or interpersonal relations, but Mike sounds defensive to me. If you want to get any information out of him, I think you have to take that into consideration and tread lightly.”

Laurie thought for a minute then nodded. “Maybe you’re right.”

They returned to the mortuary office, but before Laurie could say anything, Mike said: “In case you didn’t know, Dr. Washington telephoned this morning and woke me up about all this. He read me the riot act. But I did my normal job last night, and I certainly didn’t have anything to do with that body disappearing.”

“I’m sorry if I implied that you did,” Laurie said. “All I’m saying is that I believe the body disappeared during your shift. That’s not saying you are responsible in any way.”

“It sort’a sounds that way,” Mike said. “I mean, I’m the only one here besides security and the janitors.”

“Did anything happen out of the ordinary?” Laurie asked.

Mike shook his head. “It was a quiet night. We had two bodies come in and two go out.”

“What about the bodies that arrived?” Laurie asked. “Did they come in with our people?”

“Yup, with our vans,” Mike said. “Jeff Cooper and Peter Molina. Both bodies were from local hospitals.”

“What about the two bodies that went out?” Laurie asked.

“What about them?”