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are unblanched. Frank checks the boy’s lividity. His is completely anterior.
    A picture forms in Frank’s mind and she quickly commits it to paper. Noah, Gail, even her drink is forgotten as Frank immerses herself into the world of Ladeenia and Trevor Pryce. She will be a long time leaving them.

Chapter 9
    When Frank walks into Gail’s apartment, Gail swivels from her computer and removes her glasses. She says hello and offers her lips to Frank. Frank kisses her cheek, calculating how soon she can get back to her murder books.
    “What came up?” Gail asks.
    “A cold case, actually.”
    “You stood me up for a cold case?”
    “It’s not just any case. It’s one Noah’s been working on for years. I’ve been meaning to get to it and finally opened it this afternoon. Once I started looking I got on a roll and couldn’t stop. I needed to see it all at once, just like a fresh scene.”
    Gail bites her lower lip.
    “It’s important,” Frank insists. “A brother and a sister, six and nine. Jamie and Leslie were about six when Noah caught the case. It hit him hard. I’d just gotten promoted and couldn’t help him with it.” Frank hefts a shoulder.
    “I see. So you’re helping him now.”
    “Something like that.”
    “Isn’t that kind of like closing the barn door after the horse is out?”
    “Meaning what?”
    “Never mind.”
    Gail turns back to the computer screen, but Frank justifies, “It’s still an open case. The parents moved up the coast but No still keeps in contact with them …” She trails off, realizing her mistake. “He worked it off and on when he could, but he couldn’t get anywhere with it. Maybe I can see it with fresh eyes. See something he couldn’t. In fact, would you look at this for me?”
    Frank digs through her briefcase, producing an anterior autopsy photo of Ladeenia Pryce’s body.
    “Look at this blanching. My first thought was she’d been moved before lividity set, but see how it’s only on the torso and a little on the upper thighs?”
    Despite her indifference, professional curiosity makes Gail peek at the photo.
    Frank explains, “I’m thinking she was on her back but that there was something on top of her. A weight that caused the anterior blanching, because look at this.” Replacing the picture with a closeup, she points to the extensive pallor along the girl’s backside. “Do you think that could account for such a pattern?”
    “It could.”
    She shows Gail another photograph. “This is the brother. I’m thinking the perp put him on top of her. Laid them face to face. See the blanching on her chest? And on her hip and thigh? Maybe that’s where his legs draped over hers. Think that’d fit?”
    Looking more closely at Frank now than the picture, Gail says, “Sure.”
    She turns back to her computer and Frank packs up the photographs. She heads to the kitchen for a beer. Sipping it at the sink, deciding what to do with the rest of the night, she’s surprised when Gail joins her.
    “Baby, I know this is a hard time for you. And it’s hard watching you go through this. I wish there was something I could do, but I can’t. I feel like most of the time you don’t even want me around. I know you’ve got to do your own thing, but I hate being so completely shut out.”
    “You’re not shut out. I’m here, aren’t I?”
    “Are you?”
    Because Frank doesn’t like the answer to that question she takes an offensive tack. “Look. I’m sorry I’m not dealing with this the way you’d like me to. Maybe—”
    “Oh, don’t you dare put this on me, Frank. Don’t even think about it. How you deal with this is your business and I’m trying to give you the latitude to do that, but you’ve got to understand how frustrating it is watching you cope by drinking and working to excess. We don’t talk about anything more significant than the weather, and when I push for something more you get sarcastic and combative. I’m trying to be patient, but I don’t