Laurie was well acquainted with Warren and knew that he’d never visited the morgue. She and Jack had double-dated with Warren and his girlfriend, Natalie Adams, back when she and Jack had been seeing a lot of each other. They’d even gone on a wild trip to Equatorial Africa together.

“Did you ever meet Flash Thomas?” Jack asked.

Laurie shook her head. “Not that I recall.”

“He’s another one of the basketball regulars,” Jack explained. “His sister suddenly and inexplicably died sometime last night.”

“How awful,” Laurie said. “Did they want you to look into it?”

Jack nodded. “It’s quite a story. Do you want to hear it?”

“I’d love to,” Laurie said. “But first maybe I’ll take you up on the offer of something to drink. I’d love a glass of water.”

While Jack went into the kitchen, he started telling the story of his afternoon. Laurie settled back and was instantly entertained. When she heard about Randolph Sanders’s antics, she was indignant. “The nerve of sending the body out!” she said with emotion. “After you went to the effort of going all the way out there.”

Jack shrugged. “To tell you the truth, I wasn’t all that surprised. In my estimation, he’s always had a chip on his shoulder towards us Manhattan MEs.”

“I think he feels as if he’s been unfairly passed over either as the Brooklyn chief or the deputy chief over here,” Laurie said.

“He’s been passed over, all right, but for good reason,” Jack added.

When Jack got to the part about forcing his way into the funeral home to get the body fluid samples from Connie Davydov, Laurie found herself laughing so hard, she choked on her water.

Jack went on to tell Laurie about all the possible causes of death he’d come up with. He ended by admitting that Peter Letterman had found nothing; all the assays were negative, even the stomach contents.

“Interesting,” Laurie said while she pondered all the points Jack had raised. “Too bad you couldn’t have done a quick autopsy.”

“I was lucky to get the skin sample,” Jack said. “But what specifically would you have been looking for, other than the usual?”

“The EMTs specifically said she was cyanotic?” Laurie questioned.

“Yup,” Jack said. “And they found low arterial oxygen when she got to the hospital to confirm it. That’s why I thought the culprit was some drug that had depressed her respiration. I was so sure that when Peter reported he’d come up with zilch, I was stunned.”

“I would have liked to make sure she didn’t have a congenital right-to-left shunt that had reopened.”

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Jack said.

“Well, it would explain the clinical situation.”

“Any other ideas?” Jack asked. “Does any particular kind of poison or drug overdose come to mind?”