“Well, who was it that came to pick them up?”

Mike grabbed the mortuary logbook from the corner of his desk and cracked it open. His index finger traced down the column then stopped. “Spoletto Funeral Home in Ozone Park and Dickson Funeral Home in Summit, New Jersey.”

“What were the names of the deceased?” Laurie asked.

Mike consulted the book. “Frank Gleason and Dorothy Kline. Their accession numbers are 100385 and 101455. Anything else?”

“Were you expecting these particular funeral homes to come?” Laurie asked.

“Yeah, of course,” Mike said. “They’d called beforehand just like always.”

“So you had everything ready for them?”

“Sure,” Mike said. “I had the paperwork all done. They just had to sign off.”

“And the bodies?” Laurie asked.

“They were in the walk-in cooler as usual,” Mike said. “Right in the front on gurneys.”

Laurie looked at Jack. “Can you think of anything else to ask?”

Jack shrugged. “I think you’ve pretty well covered the bases except when Mike was off the floor.”

“Good point!” Laurie said. Turning back to Mike she said: “Carl told us that when he left for the men’s room twice last night, he contacted you. Do you contact Carl whenever you need to leave your post?”

“Always,” Mike said. “We’re often the only ones down here. We have to have someone guarding the door.”

“Were you away from the office very long last night?” Laurie asked.

“Nope,” Mike said. “No more than usual. Couple of times to the head and a half hour for lunch up on the second floor. I’m telling you, it was a normal night.”

“What about the janitors?” Laurie asked. “Were they around?”

“Not during my shift,” Mike said. “Generally they clean down here evenings. The night shift is upstairs unless there is something out of the ordinary going on.”

Laurie tried to think of additional questions but couldn’t. “Thanks, Mike,” she said.

“No problem,” Mike said.

Laurie started for the door but stopped. Turning around she asked: “By any chance did you happen to see Franconi’s body?”

Mike hesitated a second before admitting that he had.

“What was the circumstance?” Laurie asked.

“When I get to work Marvin, the evening tech, usually briefs me about what’s going on. He was kind of psyched about the Franconi situation because of all the police and the way the family carried on. Anyway, he showed me the body.”

“When you saw it, was it in compartment one eleven?”

“Yup.”

“Tell me, Mike,” Laurie said. “If you had to guess, how do you think the body disappeared?”

“I don’t have the foggiest idea,” Mike said. “Unless he walked out of here.” He laughed, then seemed embarrassed. “I don’t mean to joke around. I’m as confused as everybody else. All I know is only two bodies went out of here last night, and they were the two I checked out.”

“And you never looked at Franconi again after Marvin showed him to you?”

“Of course not,” Mike said. “Why would I?”