'Major fuck-up. When Martin Patrick Veckhoff checked out last February, Roger Lee Fairley was slated for coronation. He was informed of the requirements, and Mitchel was grabbed and kiled. Fairley's sudden death on the way to the Veckhoff funeral created a problem, and Mitchel was put on ice while the succession issue was resolved.'

'By whom?'

'Ralph Stover was told that it would soon be his turn to move from the outer to the inner circle, was advised of the conditions, and was asked to perform a few extra duties.

He stored Mitchel's body in a freezer at the Riverbank Inn.'

I suppressed a shudder.

'That's why the volatile fatty acid readings were off.'

'Exactly. In early September Stover was officialy proposed to succeed Veckhoff, and Mitchel's body was taken back and placed in the courtyard in preparation for an induction ceremony. That's when things began to unravel. Some within the inner circle opposed Stover's promotion, seeing him as too zealous, too unstable. The dispute dragged on, decomposition began, meaning the body couldn't be used for the ritual and the corpse had to be buried in the cave.'

'But not before a coyote visitation.'

'Bless them.'

'Stover did the dirty work again?'

'He's our man.'

McMahon upended another drawer, taped the box, and labeled it with a felt-tip pen.

'Anyway, after weeks of wrangling, the Stover faction prevailed. George Adair was abducted on October first. The crash occurred on October fourth.'

'I retrieved the foot on October fifth.'

He stacked the box with the earlier ones and opened a file drawer. 'As you know, Stover also kiled Primrose Hobbs. Lucy Crowe found Stelazine in his apartment at the Riverbank Inn. The prescription was written by a Mexican doctor for none other than Parker Davenport. Stover had four capsules in his pocket Sunday night. The same drug he used on Primrose.'

He looked at me.

'She also found a length of wire that matches the garrote from Hobbs's neck.'

The cold fist. It stil didn't seem possible that Primrose was dead.

'He told me he did it because he could.'

'An order may have come from the inner circle, or he may have been acting on his own. Perhaps he feared she'd discovered something. He probably stole her key and password to remove the foot from the morgue and alter the file.'

'Has the foot been found?'

'Never wil be, I suspect. Hang on.'

McMahon disappeared into the hal, returned with two more empty boxes.

'How can so much crap accumulate in one month?'

'Don't forget the rubber snake.'

I pointed to an artifact on his desk.

'I'm curious how Crowe found me.'