We argued all the way to Ruth’s Chris Steak House, and by the time I parked the car I had a headache and was completely disgusted with myself. Lucy had provoked me into raising my voice, and the only other person who could routinely do that was my mother.

“Why are you being so difficult?” I said in her ear as we were shown to a table.

“I want to talk to you and you won’t let me,” she said.

A waiter instantly appeared for drink orders.

“Dewar’s and soda, “I said.

“Sparkling water with a twist,” Lucy said. “You shouldn’t drink and drive.”

“I’m having only one. But you’re right. I’d be better off not having any. And you’re being critical again. How can you expect to have friends if you talk to people this way?”

“I don’t expect to have friends.” She stared off. “It’s others who expect me to have friends. Maybe I don’t want any friends because most people bore me.”

Despair pressed against my heart. “I think you want friends more than anyone I know, Lucy.”

“I’m sure you think that. And you probably also think I should get married in a couple of years.”

“Not at all. In fact, I sincerely hope you won’t.”

“While I was roaming around inside your computer today, I saw the file called ‘flesh.’

Why do you have a file called that?” my niece asked.

“Because I’m in the middle of a very difficult case.”

“The little boy named Eddie Heath? I saw his record in the case file. He was found with no clothes on, next to a Dumpster. Someone had cut out parts of his skin.”

“Lucy, you shouldn’t read case records,” I said as my pager went off. I unclipped it from the waistband of my abs and glanced at the number.

“Excuse me for a moment” I said, getting up from the table as our drinks arrived.

I found a pay phone. It was almost eight P.M..

“I need to talk to you,” said Neils Vander, who was still at the office. “You might want to come down here and bring by Ronnie Waddell’s ten print cards.”

“Why?”

“We’ve got an unprecedented problem. I’m about to call Marino, too.”

“All right. Tell him to meet me at the morgue in a half hour.”

When I returned to the table, Lucy knew by the look on my face that I was about to ruin another evening.

“I’m so sorry,” I said.

“Where are we going?”

“To my office, then to the Seaboard Building.”

I got out my billfold.

“What’s in the Seaboard Building?”

“It’s where the serology, DNA, and fingerprint labs moved not so long ago. Marino’s going to meet us,” I said. “Its been a long time since you’ve seen him.”