“I’m not saying it should,” Jack said. “I’m just asking if it did.”
“No,” Vinnie said. “Let me have my paper! Why don’t you buy your own? You’re always reading mine.”
Jack stood up, pushed Vinnie’s paper toward him, and lifted the bundle from Janice. “You really are out of sorts lately. Maybe you need a vacation. You’re fast becoming a grumpy old man.”
“At least I’m not a cheapskate,” Vinnie said. He picked up his paper and readjusted the pages that Jack had gotten out of alignment.
Jack went to the coffeemaker and poured himself a brimming cup. He took it over to the scheduling desk. While sipping contentedly, he went through the multitude of Franconi’s hospital admissions. On his first perusal of the material, he just wanted the basics, so he read each discharge summary page. As Janice had already told him, the admissions were mostly due to liver problems starting from a bout of hepatitis he contracted in Naples, Italy.
Laurie arrived next. Before she even had her coat off, she asked Jack if he’d seen the paper or heard the morning news. Jack told her he’d seen the Post.
“Was it your doing?” Laurie asked, as she folded her coat and put it on a chair.
“What are you talking about?”
“The leak that we tentatively identified Franconi with your floater,” Laurie said.
Jack gave a little laugh of disbelief. “I’m surprised you’d even ask. Why would I do such a thing?”
“I don’t know, except you were so excited about it last night,” Laurie said. “But I didn’t mean any offense. I was just surprised to see it in the news so quickly.”
“You and me both,” Jack said. “Maybe it was Lou.”
“I think that would surprise me even more than you,” Laurie said.
“Why me?” Jack said. He sounded hurt.
“Last year you leaked the plague story,” Laurie said.
“That was a completely different situation,” Jack said defensively. “That was to save people.”
“Well, don’t get mad,” Laurie said. To change the subject she asked: “What kind of cases do we have for today?”
“I didn’t look,” Jack admitted. “But the pile is small and I have a request. If possible, I’d like to have a paper day or really a research day.”
Laurie bent over and counted the autopsy folders. “Only ten cases; no problem,” she said. “I think I’ll only do one myself. Now that Franconi’s body is back, I’m even more interested to find out how it left here in the first place. The more I’ve thought about it, the more I believe it had to have been an inside job in some form or fashion.”
There was a splashing sound followed by loud cursing. Both Laurie and Jack looked over at Vinnie, who’d jumped up to a standing position. He’d spilled his coffee all over his desk and even onto his lap.
“Watch out for Vinnie,” Jack warned Laurie. “He’s again in a foul mood.”
“Are you all right, Vinnie?” Laurie called out.
“I’m okay,” Vinnie said. He walked stiff-legged over to the coffeepot to get some paper towels.
“I’m a little confused,” Jack said to Laurie. “Why does Franconi’s return make you more interested in his disappearance?”
“Mainly because of what you found during the autopsy,” Laurie said. “At first I thought that whoever stole the body had done it out of pure spite, like the killer wanted to deny the man a proper funeral, something like that. But now it seems that the body was taken to destroy the liver. That’s weird. Initially I thought that solving the riddle of how the body disappeared was simply a challenge. Now I think if I can figure out how the body disappeared, we might be able to find out who did it.”
“I’m beginning to understand what Lou said about feeling stupid about your ability to make associations,” Jack said. “With Franconi’s disappearance I always thought the ‘why’ was more important than the ‘how.’ You’re suggesting they are related.”
“Exactly,” Laurie said. “The ‘how’ will lead to the ‘who,’ and the ‘who’ will explain the ‘why.’ ”
“And you think someone who works here is involved,” Jack said.
“I’m afraid I do,” Laurie said. “I don’t see how they could have pulled it off without someone on the inside. But I still have no clue how it happened.”
After his call to Siegfried, Raymond’s brain had finally succumbed to the high levels of hypnotic medication circulating in his bloodstream from the two sleeping pills. He slept soundly through the remaining early hours. The next thing he was aware of was Darlene opening the curtains to let in the daylight. It was almost eight o’clock, the time he’d asked to be awakened.
“Feel better, dear?” Darlene asked. She made Raymond sit forward so she could fluff up his pillow.
“I do,” Raymond admitted, although his mind was fuzzy from the sleeping pills.
“I even made you your favorite breakfast,” Darlene said. She went over to the bureau and lifted a wicker tray. She carried it over to the bed and placed it across Raymond’s lap.
Raymond’s eyes traveled around the tray. There was fresh-squeezed orange juice, two strips of bacon, a single-egg omelette, toast, and fresh coffee. In a side pocket was the morning paper.
“How’s that?” Darlene asked proudly.
“Perfect,” Raymond said. He reached up and gave her a kiss.
“Let me know when you want more coffee,” Darlene said. Then she left the room.
With childlike pleasure Raymond buttered his toast and sipped his orange juice. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing quite so wonderful as the smell of coffee and bacon in the morning.
Taking a bite of both bacon and omelette at the same time to savor the combined tastes, Raymond lifted the paper, opened it, and glanced at the headlines.
He gasped, inadvertently inhaling some of his food. He coughed so hard, he bucked the wicker tray off the bed. It crashed upside down on the carpet.
Darlene came running into the room and stood wringing her hands, while Raymond went through series of coughing jags that turned him tomato red.
“Water!” he squeaked between fits.
Darlene dashed into the bathroom and returned with a glass. Raymond clutched it and managed to drink a small amount. The bacon and egg that he’d had in his mouth was now distributed in an arc around the bed.
“Are you all right?” Darlene asked. “Should I call 911?”
“The wrong way down,” Raymond croaked. He pointed to his Adam’s apple.
It took Raymond five minutes to recover. By that time, his throat was sore and his voice hoarse. Darlene had cleaned up most of the mess he’d caused except for the coffee stain on the white carpet.
“Did you see the paper?” Raymond asked Darlene.
She shook her head, so Raymond spread it out for her.
“Oh, my,” she said.
“Oh, my!” Raymond repeated sarcastically. “And you were wondering why I was still worried about Franconi!” Raymond forcibly crumpled the paper.
“What are you going to do?” Darlene asked.
“I suppose I have to go back and see Vinnie Dominick,” Raymond said. “He promised me the body was gone. Some job he did!”
The phone rang and Raymond jumped.
“Do you want me to answer it?” Darlene asked.
Raymond nodded. He wondered who could be calling so early.
Darlene picked up the phone and said hello followed by several yeses. Then she put the phone on hold.
“It’s Dr. Waller Anderson,” Darlene said with a smile. “He wants to come on board.”
Raymond exhaled. Until then he’d not been aware he’d been holding his breath. “Tell him we’re pleased, but that I’ll have to call him later.”
Darlene did as she was told and then hung up the phone. “At least that was good news,” she said.
Raymond rubbed his forehead and audibly groaned. “I just wish everything would go as well as the business side.”
The phone rang again. Raymond motioned for Darlene to answer it. After saying hello and listening for a moment, her smile quickly faded. She put the phone on hold and told Raymond it was Taylor Cabot.