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sure of what? That you’re a good investigator? I know that you used to be, and unless something happened to you down in Cuba that made you forget everything you used to know, then I’m sure you’ll be able to help with this.”
    â€œI haven’t forgotten anything,” he insisted. “I wasn’t gone
that
long.”
    Frank grinned. “Well, then, you need to go home and change into some regular clothes and meet me at the coroner’s office to find out if this fellow was poisoned or not.”
    â€œAnd if he wasn’t?”
    Frank shrugged. “Then we’ll find another case to keep us busy.”
    â€¢Â Â Â â€¢Â Â Â â€¢
    G ino was waiting for him outside Titus Wesley’s storefront office. He wore a brown suit, neatly pressed but a little tight in the shoulders, Frank noticed. Gino’s time in the army had put some muscle on him. His shirt collar was new and his tie neat. He even wore his bowler hat down low on his forehead instead of perched on the back of his head, as so many young men did. He was taking the private detective business seriously.
    â€œWhy didn’t you use Doc Haynes for the autopsy?” Gino asked by way of greeting.
    â€œHe’s too busy. Besides, when I started, I only had a dead cat. Doc wasn’t too happy about wasting his time on a cat.”
    â€œWhy didn’t the family just go to the police in the first place?”
    Gino had clearly been thinking about the case while he’d been off changing his clothes. “The father, Mr. Oakes, didn’t want to alarm the women. There’s a wife and a mother andmaybe a grandmother, too. No sense getting them all upset for no reason, at least until he’s sure.”
    Frank pushed open the door to Wesley’s shop, setting the bell to jangling. The sickening smell of death enveloped them. Frank hadn’t noticed it before, since he’d just carried a dead cat halfway across town the first time he’d been here. He’d blamed the smell on that.
    â€œWesley, you here?”
    Gino, he noticed, was looking a little green.
    Wesley came out from the back room, once again wiping his hands on a filthy rag, and greeted them. Frank introduced Gino, and the young man didn’t offer to shake hands. Frank couldn’t blame him.
    â€œDonatelli here is going to be assisting me,” Frank explained. “Did you find out anything?”
    â€œOh yes. The undertaker wasn’t too happy with me, I can tell you that, but I got the dead man’s organs. They hadn’t even removed them, thank God. They were able to sew him back up, as good as new, so no one will ever suspect that not all of him went into the ground. They complained bitterly about the extra work, though.”
    â€œAnd was he poisoned?”
    Wesley frowned. “You have to understand that coroners don’t automatically look for traces of poison. Unless it’s something obvious, like the mouth and throat are burned from something caustic, we never assume someone’s been poisoned.”
    â€œHow do you find out, then?” Frank asked.
    â€œMost of the time we don’t. I suspect that there are hundreds of people poisoned every year, and the killer is never even suspected because no one looked for it at autopsy or no autopsy was even performed.”
    â€œOr the coroner was paid not to notice it,” Frank guessed.
    Wesley gave him a small nod of acknowledgment. “In this case, however, someone did suspect, so I looked for it especially.”
    â€œAnd what did you find?”
    â€œI didn’t have much to work with, you understand. I could see the stomach and throat were irritated, but from what you described of his last hours, that’s what I would’ve expected. I didn’t see any ulcers or other damage, so if I was looking for a poison, I suspected arsenic. It’s very easy to obtain and doesn’t leave much trace unless the person has