I had his number on a slip of paper and called it. I was told he had left for the day.

‘It’s very important that I reach him,’ I explained to the answering service. ‘Perhaps he can be reached at home?’

‘I’m not at liberty to give that out. But if you’ll give me your phone number, when he calls in for his messages …’

‘I can’t do that,’ I said as my frustration grew. ‘I’m not at a number he can call.’ I told her who I was, adding, ‘What I’m going to do is give you my pager number. Please have him call me and then I’ll call him.’

That didn’t work. An hour later my pager remained silent.

‘She probably didn’t get it straight about putting pound signs after everything,’ Lucy said as she cruised around inside CAIN.

‘Any strange messages anywhere?’ I asked.

‘No. It’s a Friday afternoon and a lot of people are on holiday. I think we should send something out over Prodigy and see what comes back.’

I sat next to her.

‘What’s the name of the group?’

‘American Academy of Gold Foil Operators.’

‘And their highest concentration is Washington State?’

‘Yes. But it can’t hurt to include the entire West Coast.’

‘Well, this will include the entire United States,’ Lucy said as she typed Prodigy and entered her service ID and password. ‘I think the best way to do this is through the mail.’ She pulled up a Jump Window. ‘What do you want me to say?’ She looked over at me.

‘How about this? To all American Academy of Gold Foil Operators. Forensic pathologist desperately needs your help ASAP. And then give them the information to contact us.’

‘All right. I’ll give them a mailbox here and carbon copy it to your mailbox in Richmond.’ She resumed typing. ‘The replies may come in for a while. You may find you get a lot of dentists for pen pals.’

She tapped a key as if it were a coda and pushed back her chair. ‘There. It’s gone,’ she said. ‘Even as we speak, every Prodigy subscriber should have a New Mail message. Let’s just hope someone out there is playing with their computer and can help.’

Even as she spoke, her screen suddenly went black, and bright green letters started flowing across it. A printer turned on.

‘That was quick,’ I started to stay.

But Lucy was out of her chair. She ran to the room where CAIN lived and scanned her fingerprint to get in. Glass doors unlocked with a firm click and I followed her inside. The same writing was flowing across the system monitor, and Lucy snatched a small beige remote control off the desk and pressed a button. She glanced at her Breitling and activated the stopwatch.

‘Come on, come on, come on!’ she said.