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bodies?
     
     
Sly fox. The other three? Youve IDd one of them?
     
     
From the laundry mark. Harrigan sounded smug.
     
     
Assuming the man was wearing his own underpants.
     
     
According to a logbook at the historical society, patient number 631217 was one James Albert Lyons. Height, race, and age match the skeletal findings. Im trying to locate his next of kin.
     
     
You dont waste any time.
     
     
At my age, times precious. So haul your ass up here and help out.
     
     
Really, I cant. Pederson will have my head if I take time off, and Im being deposed on a double murder on Thursday.
     
     
Jake, its urgent!
     
     
Despite himself, he was getting annoyed. Why? Its routine work. Get one of the hospital staffers to help.
     
     
Its not the identification. I have to talk to you.
     
     
What about?
     
     
Petes voice dropped to a whisper. It has to be in person. Has to be.
     
     
Hes going to tell me about the cancer. Ill come up Friday night, then. Its the soonest I can make it.
     
     
A pause.
     
     
Okay?
     
     
Pete sighed. The sound of despair. I can live with it.
     
     
     

JAKE KNOCKED on the door: no answer. He tried the knob: locked. Pete, you home?
     
     
Silence.
     
     
Jake walked to the back of the house. The kitchen lights were on, the door open. Jake entered. There was a dirty frying pan in the sink, along with a single plate and some cutlery. Pete had made himself a steak for dinner.
     
     
Pete?
     
     
He moved through to the living room. One light was on, but there was no sign of his friend. Frightened now, Jake opened the door to the master bedroom, hoping Pete had simply gone to sleep after his meal. The bedclothes were rumpled, but there was no one on the bed. Jake could feel his heart pounding; the quiet was oppressive.
     
     
Only the study, where just a week ago they had talked of ghost spots and shared the finest scotch in the world, was unexplored.
     
     
You in there? He opened the door.
     
     
Pete was slumped at his desk, a book open in his hands. In two steps Jake was at his friends side, taking his pulse, feeling for life but finding none.
     
     
He let out a little moan. I should have talked Pederson into letting me go. I should have spent more time with him. Told him I loved him like a father. Too late. Dear God, forgive me. Too late.
     
     
Verify. He bent over the body and tried to move the jaw, confirming the presence of rigor mortis. Then he gently lifted Harrigans face from the desktop. Lividity had developed, but it wasnt fixed yet. Jake pressed his thumb against Petes right cheek, noting that an oval of pale skin appeared and then faded away. Time of death, Jake knew, was about three-thirty, four hours before he walked through the door.
     
     
Science finished, he sat in the chair facing the desk and let himself weep.
     
     
    * * *
A small private funeral mass was held for Dr. Peter Harrigan in the local parish of his Catholic church in the Queens neighborhood where he and Dolores spent most of their married life. Given Elizabeths position as New Jerseys U.S. Attorney, there would be a large reception afterward at her home, but Pete had wanted a simple ceremony, and Elizabeth had honored his wishes. Jake spotted her in the front row, her head buried against the shoulder of a man Daniel Markis, Jake figured. He had never met her husband, but who else could it be? There were two girls on one side of her, a boy on Markiss right. Their children, but Jake couldnt remember their names. The sight of them was disconcerting. It had been fifteen years since hed last seen her, and though Pete had told him of her marriage and the births, it still came as a shock to find they were flesh and blood. He recognized Doloress sister Ruth? but none of the other fifteen or so mourners. Just as well. The intensity of his grief would have made small talk even commiseration impossible.
     
     
To Petes delight, Elizabeth, a lawyer, had risen from ten years with the U.S. Justice