“Depends on who’s asking,” Paul said. “There’s one suicide that’s going to be a problem. Maybe you saw the parents. They were parked out in the ID room earlier. They are part of a prominent, well-connected Jewish family. To put it bluntly, they don’t want an autopsy, and they are pretty adamant.” Paul glanced around the edge of his paper at Jack to make sure he’d heard.

“Does the case really need an autopsy?” Jack asked. By law, suicides demanded autopsies, but the OCME tried to be sensitive to families, especially when religion was involved.

Paul shrugged. “I’d say yes, so there needs to be some finesse involved.”

“That leaves out Dr. Stapleton,” Vinnie commented.

Jack roughly flicked the back of Vinnie’s paper with his fingernails, causing the man to jump. “With that kind of recommendation, mind if I take the case?” Jack asked Paul.

“Be my guest,” Paul said.

“Has Calvin arrived yet?” Laurie asked.

Paul lowered his paper so he could look at Laurie with an exaggerated questioning expression that said, Are you crazy?

“Jack and I are possibly having to take some emergency leave starting later today,” Laurie said to Paul. “If it’s not a problem, which it doesn’t look like it will be, I’d like to take a paper day to sign out any and all cases I can.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Paul agreed.

“I’m heading out to talk with these parents,” Jack said to anybody and everybody while holding the case file aloft.

Laurie grabbed his arm. “I’m going to wait for Calvin. I want a yes or a no as early as possible. If it’s yes, I’ll pop down to the pit before heading out to get our visas.”

“Okay,” Jack said, but it was apparent he was already preoccupied by the purported case.

After a quick detour out to Marlene at reception to ask to be informed the minute Calvin arrived, Laurie took the elevator up to her fifth-floor office. Sitting down, she dove into the stack of cases she had pending. But she didn’t get far. It was only twenty-two minutes later that Marlene informed her that Calvin had just come in through the front door, much earlier than usual.

The deputy chief medical examiner’s office was sited next to the chief’s much larger one near the building’s front entrance. At that time, prior to eight, the secretaries had yet to arrive, and Laurie had to announce herself.