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“I’ve got it written down somewhere. Blackstone’s of Fifth Avenue, I think“
    “Why is this your first thing to check?“ Lily asked. “Can’t anybody around here recognize him?”
    The men exchanged a glance. Robert was the first to speak. “I guess you’re not a good eavesdropper after all, Lily. He’s pretty well preserved. The icehouse must have been almost airtight and he’s more or less a mummy—except for his face and hands.“ Robert paused for a moment but went on before she could ask. “There were apparently animals in there who did a bit of nibbling.”
    Lily gasped, hugged herself, and said, “I wish you hadn’t told me that.“
    “You asked,“ Robert said.
    Lily drew a deep breath and took another sip of her beer, which was already warming up. “Have you any idea how long he’d been there? Or if he was local? Did he have any identification, maybe a suitcase or wallet? Maybe he was just passing through and we’ll never know who he was.”
    Her voice was nearly drowned out by a fast freight train approaching and blowing its whistle deafeningly.
    “Nothing else,“ Howard Walker shouted over the noise. He put up a hand to signal that he’d finish when the train had passed. “Someone had bashed him in the back of the head, and if he had anything with him to say who he was, it’s probably washed down the river into the Atlantic long ago,“ he said, when the train was gone. “But they or he or she must have missed the label in his suit. It’s all we’ve got to go on.“
    “Did he have teeth?“ Lily asked.
    “Yes,“ Walker said. “Good dental work, the guy in Albany says. But until we have some idea of where he came from, and unless we get information on his clothing, there’s no way to know who did the work or where they live.“
    “We’ll take the suit to the city tomorrow,“ Robert said, “if we can borrow the suit today from the forensic guy in Albany.“
    “Tomorrow’s Saturday,“ Walker said. “Will the shop be open?“
    “I suppose so,“ Robert said. “Most men who can afford to buy a suit these days probably only have Saturday afternoons and Sundays off.“
    “I’m not sure this is worth the trouble,“ Walker said. “The guy in Albany doesn’t believe that he was even in the icehouse for very long. He said mummification takes a year-round hot, dry, windy climate. Like deserts. That certainly doesn’t describe the Hudson River Valley.”
    Robert said, “But if he was put in the icehouse during such a spell in the summer it could be. The icehouse was the tightest-built structure I’ve ever come across. It had to be, to keep the ice cold all summer. Or even if he was put there in the coldest, driest part of a very frigid winter long after it was used for storing ice, the same might apply. I can’t imagine someone moved him in that condition from some desert. His body would have been too fragile to move and keep intact.“
    “And besides, you want to go to the city,“ Walker said. “And so do I.”

Chapter 6

    As Lily and Robert were driving up the hill to Grace and Favor, Robert asked, “What’s really on your mind, Toots? You don’t seem to have much interest in the icehouse discovery.“ He slowed the huge automobile to reach around front and brush a squashed bug off the windshield.
    “A conversation with Mr. Bradley,“ she said.
    “The greengrocer? Is that all?“ Robert laughed. “How could that be more interesting than a dead body almost on our doorstep?“
    “It’s more immediate, for one thing.“ Lily recounted the conversation she’d had with Bradley as she passed his shop. “Robert, he was right.”
    Robert had stopped laughing.
    “I don’t know how to bring this up to Mrs. Prinney, or if I even should,“ Lily said. “I told him I would. I guess I have to live up to my promise.“
    “They’re both afraid,“ Robert said. “Bradley’s afraid of his business going under if people grow their own vegetables. Mrs. Prinney’s afraid