“Precisely,” Gordon said. “That’s why this is so irregular. I’ve been in this business for almost thirty years, and my father for a lifetime before that, and nothing like this has ever happened in either of our experience.”

“Who were these men?” Yuri asked. He put the phone in the crook of his neck so he could get a glass. From the freezer he got the vodka and poured himself a slug. He needed it.

“One of them was a medical examiner,” Gordon said. “Dr. Jack Stapleton. He had an assistant...”

“What was the doctor’s name?” Yuri demanded, interrupting the funeral director mid-sentence. Even in Yuri’s sleepy state the name rang a discordant bell in his mind.

When Gordon repeated the name, Yuri took another belt of his vodka. Jack Stapleton had been the man in the Corinthian Rug Company office!

“The medical examiner was also accompanied by a relative of your late wife,” Gordon went on to say. “At least that was what we were told. He was introduced as Frank Thomas, although I heard Dr. Stapleton refer to him by the sobriquet ‘Flash.’“

Yuri felt a chill down his spine. He grabbed one of the kitchen chairs and pulled it over to the phone so he could sit down. His legs had suddenly turned to rubber. Flash Thomas was the one person in the world who Yuri truly feared. Not only was he a big, muscled man, he’d threatened Yuri on several occasions. The last time had been on the telephone, when he’d said that if Yuri ever hit Connie again he’d come out there to Brighton Beach and kill him.

“Are you still there?” Gordon questioned. Yuri had not responded to his last statement.

“Yes, I’m still here,” Yuri managed. His pulse was racing. What could it mean that Flash Thomas was with this mysterious Jack Stapleton? What kind of weird coincidence could this be?

“We’re going to need some directions from you,” Gordon repeated. “Were you intending to have an open casket?”

“No!” Yuri yelled. Then he calmed himself. “No. I just want to do this as simply as possible. That’s what Connie would have preferred.”

“But you will have to come and choose an appropriate casket.”

“What is the least expensive?” Yuri asked.

“It would be far better if you were to come in,” Gordon said in his unctuous business voice. “We could show you our whole line, with descriptions of the benefits and disadvantages of each.”

“What about cremation?” Yuri asked.

“That can be arranged,” Gordon said. “But there is still the issue of choosing an appropriate vessel.”

“I want her cremated,” Yuri said. “And I want it soon. Today, in fact! “

“There’s to be no viewing or service?” Gordon questioned.

“No,” Yuri said. “It is my religious belief it should be done as soon as possible.”

“Very well,” Gordon said.

“What kind of samples did Dr. Stapleton take?” Yuri demanded.