“Did she come back this afternoon?” Rajish demanded when Kashmira shut his office door and approached his desk. Over the lunch hour she had briefed him about Jennifer’s intransigence that morning and how self-willed she was, but had ended by saying she was optimistic Jennifer would be more reasonable after some sleep. She’d also conveyed to Rajish Jennifer’s brief talk of an autopsy. This new information had provoked Rajish to comment irritably that there would be no autopsy under any circumstances. He added that the last thing he wanted to do was take the risk of some true pathology’s being found that should have been known before the surgery. Kashmira also had told him that Jennifer had brought up the name of Benfatti, and Rajish had questioned how Jennifer had learned about the death. Kashmira had confessed she had no idea. All in all, Rajish was no fan of Jennifer Hernandez.

“She just left,” Kashmira said with a nod in answer to Rajish’s question.

“And?” Rajish snapped. With a second death in so many nights, he was in a foul mood. Once again the night before he’d been called by the powerful Ramesh Srivastava and informed that CNN International had reported another death at Rajish’s hospital before the hospital had called him. Although the highly placed public servant hadn’t actually threatened Rajish directly, the implication of blame had been uncomfortably clear.

“It’s getting worse, I’m afraid. She now says that she wants to wait until Friday before making a decision. Apparently, the dead woman worked for someone who has subsequently become a forensic pathologist. This forensic pathologist is apparently arriving tomorrow night.”

Rajish slapped a hand to his forehead and forcibly rubbed his temples with his thumb and forefinger. “This can’t be happening,” he moaned.

“It gets worse. The woman is bringing her husband, and he is also a forensic pathologist.”

In a minor panic, Rajish lowered his hand and stared at Kashmira. “We’ll be dealing with two American forensic specialists?”

“It appears that way.”

“Did you make it absolutely clear to Ms. Hernandez that there will be no autopsy?”

“I did, both this morning and this afternoon. It’s my understanding that the reason that this woman who is on her way is a forensic pathologist is incidental to why she is coming. So we shouldn’t jump to conclusions.”

Rajish tipped back in his chair until he was looking directly up at the ceiling. “What did I do to deserve these problems? All I’m trying to do is keep it all out of the media beyond the initial CNN segments.”

“In that regard, things are still quiet. There’s been no media people here yesterday or today.”

“Thank the gods for small favors, but that might change at any moment, especially now with two deaths.”

“Ms. Hernandez is potentially interfering in that situation also.”