"Frog's sticking to his story. He knew what he knew by word of mouth. According to club lore Gately and Martineau went to a party and walked right in on their own funeral."

"In stocking feet."

"Right. These fel ows tend to underdress. But Frog wasn't there when the hit went down. It was probably his night for charity work. What about the third guy?"

"The third guy is a girl."

"A girl."

"Yes. What does Frog know about her?"

"Not a thing. But Frog would give nothing up if there wasn't a prize in it for him. What can you tel me about her?"

"She was a white female in her mid to late teens.

"She was that young?"

"Yes."

I could hear traffic in the background and figured Claudel was cal ing from the road.

"I'l get a list of missing teenage girls. What time frame?"

"Go back ten years.

"Why ten years?"

"I'd say the victim's been dead at least two years, but with what we recovered I can't real y pinpoint an upper limit. I have a feeling this was a secondary burial."

"What does that mean?"

"I think she was buried somewhere else, then dug up and moved to the place we found her."

"Why?"

"Another perceptive question, Detective Claudel."

I told him about the surgical implant.

"What does that mean?"

"When I find out I'l let you know"

I'd hardly replaced the receiver when the phone rang again. Carolyn Russel could see me at three. I looked at my watch. If the parking gods smiled I could make it.

I wrote the case number on the lid of a plastic specimen container and sealed the implant inside. Pausing only to tel Bergeron that he could have the girl's skul , I hurried to my car and raced across town.

The Royal Victoria Hospital was built before the turn of the century. A sprawling gray stone complex, it lies in the heart of Montreal, looming over the McGil campus like a medieval castle on a Tuscan hil side.

At the Peel end is the Al an Memorial Institute, infamous for CIA drug experiments conducted there in the late fifties. The Montreal Neurological Institute is located to the east of the Royal Vic, across rue Université. Teaching and research units of McGil University, the MNI, the Neurological Hospital, and the new Brain Tumor Research Institute sit haunch to jowl with the footbal stadium, a testimonial in mortar and brick to the priorities of the modern university.

The Neuro, as the research institute and hospital are known, dates to the thirties, the brainchild of Wilder Penfield. Though a bril iant scientist and neurosurgeon, Dr. Penfield was not a visionary in traffic control. Parking is a nightmare.