Alexis and Isabelle walked over to the embalming table and looked around. Something that looked like a pump was sitting on the floor. Neither one knew what it was other than that a plug was in a socket. Alexis turned it on to see if it made noise.

It did. She turned it off. The silence in the room was deafening.

"Where's your share of the money, Owens? This is the last time I'm going to ask you."

"And this is the last time I'm telling you to go to hell."

"Greed is a terrible thing, Mr. Owens," Myra said.

The three men attached to the caskets were jabbering about where their money was. "He has a safe in his office, and that's where he keeps his computer. He sends it all offshore," one of the men said.

Annie walked over to them and stooped so she was eye level with the men. "You know, just because you're hooked up to these particular caskets doesn't mean they're the ones you have to go out in. Take your pick. Silver and peach, bronze and lavender, mahogany with quilted lining. Owens gets the one that's left, and may I say it is the bottom of the line. It wouldn't be my choice at all. Or, anyone's I know, for that matter."

Quintera blacked out. Oliver's eyes rolled back in his head, and Richards started to whimper.

Annie continued, "Your buddy Stu Franklin had his laptop hand-delivered to Peter Udal at the NGC earlier today. Udal, in turn, gave it to their legal counsel, Cosmo Cricket. Now," she said, turning to Richards and Oliver, "if you tell us everything we want to know, like the password to Owens's computer and the combination to his safe, we'll let you go, and this will all be just a nightmare you want to forget."

"Are you nuts?" Richards barked. "Do you think for one minute that crazy son of a bitch would tell us that? Think again."

"He's probably right," Kathryn said. "You better come up with something fast, or one of you is next on that table." She turned around, and said, "So, it's back to you, Mister Owens. Last chance."

Nikki peered down at a stainless steel tray and picked up what looked like a scalpel. "Does it make a difference where we slice him to insert the tubes?"

"They always do it in the groin area on CSI," Annie chirped.

"Then the groin it is," Nikki said as she sliced away at Owens's five-thousand-dollar suit. "Ah, tighty whities. I would have taken him for a boxer guy. Hey, Yoko, what did the book say about the blood?"

"The book assumed the person was dead, so no blood. As he's alive, it's going to spurt. Even if you get the hose in quickly, it's still going to shoot all over and make a mess. How do they combat that on CSI, Annie?"