Robin Cook - Chromosome 6

“Ease off,” Jack recommended when they were beyond earshot.

“Ease off from what?” Laurie asked. “I’m not being confrontational.”

“I agree,” Jack said. “I know I’m the last person to be an expert in office politics or interpersonal relations, but Mike sounds defensive to me. If you want to get any information out of him, I think you have to take that into consideration and tread lightly.”

Laurie thought for a minute then nodded. “Maybe you’re right.”

They returned to the mortuary office, but before Laurie could say anything, Mike said: “In case you didn’t know, Dr. Washington telephoned this morning and woke me up about all this. He read me the riot act. But I did my normal job last night, and I certainly didn’t have anything to do with that body disappearing.”

“I’m sorry if I implied that you did,” Laurie said. “All I’m saying is that I believe the body disappeared during your shift. That’s not saying you are responsible in any way.”

“It sort’a sounds that way,” Mike said. “I mean, I’m the only one here besides security and the janitors.”

“Did anything happen out of the ordinary?” Laurie asked.

Mike shook his head. “It was a quiet night. We had two bodies come in and two go out.”

“What about the bodies that arrived?” Laurie asked. “Did they come in with our people?”

“Yup, with our vans,” Mike said. “Jeff Cooper and Peter Molina. Both bodies were from local hospitals.”

“What about the two bodies that went out?” Laurie asked.

“What about them?”

“Well, who was it that came to pick them up?”

Mike grabbed the mortuary logbook from the corner of his desk and cracked it open. His index finger traced down the column then stopped. “Spoletto Funeral Home in Ozone Park and Dickson Funeral Home in Summit, New Jersey.”

“What were the names of the deceased?” Laurie asked.

Mike consulted the book. “Frank Gleason and Dorothy Kline. Their accession numbers are 100385 and 101455. Anything else?”

“Were you expecting these particular funeral homes to come?” Laurie asked.

“Yeah, of course,” Mike said. “They’d called beforehand just like always.”

“So you had everything ready for them?”

“Sure,” Mike said. “I had the paperwork all done. They just had to sign off.”

“And the bodies?” Laurie asked.

“They were in the walk-in cooler as usual,” Mike said. “Right in the front on gurneys.”

Laurie looked at Jack. “Can you think of anything else to ask?”

Jack shrugged. “I think you’ve pretty well covered the bases except when Mike was off the floor.”

“Good point!” Laurie said. Turning back to Mike she said: “Carl told us that when he left for the men’s room twice last night, he contacted you. Do you contact Carl whenever you need to leave your post?”

“Always,” Mike said. “We’re often the only ones down here. We have to have someone guarding the door.”

“Were you away from the office very long last night?” Laurie asked.

“Nope,” Mike said. “No more than usual. Couple of times to the head and a half hour for lunch up on the second floor. I’m telling you, it was a normal night.”

“What about the janitors?” Laurie asked. “Were they around?”

“Not during my shift,” Mike said. “Generally they clean down here evenings. The night shift is upstairs unless there is something out of the ordinary going on.”

Laurie tried to think of additional questions but couldn’t. “Thanks, Mike,” she said.

“No problem,” Mike said.

Laurie started for the door but stopped. Turning around she asked: “By any chance did you happen to see Franconi’s body?”

Mike hesitated a second before admitting that he had.

“What was the circumstance?” Laurie asked.

“When I get to work Marvin, the evening tech, usually briefs me about what’s going on. He was kind of psyched about the Franconi situation because of all the police and the way the family carried on. Anyway, he showed me the body.”

“When you saw it, was it in compartment one eleven?”

“Yup.”

“Tell me, Mike,” Laurie said. “If you had to guess, how do you think the body disappeared?”

“I don’t have the foggiest idea,” Mike said. “Unless he walked out of here.” He laughed, then seemed embarrassed. “I don’t mean to joke around. I’m as confused as everybody else. All I know is only two bodies went out of here last night, and they were the two I checked out.”

“And you never looked at Franconi again after Marvin showed him to you?”

“Of course not,” Mike said. “Why would I?”

“No reason,” Laurie said. “Do you happen to know where the van drivers are?”

“Upstairs in the lunchroom,” Mike said. “That’s where they always are.”

Laurie and Jack took the elevator. As they were riding up, Laurie noticed Jack’s eyelids were drooping.

“You look tired,” Laurie commented.

“No surprise. I am,” Jack said.

“Why don’t you go home?” Laurie said.

“I’ve stuck it out this far,” Jack said. “I think I’ll see it to the bitter end.”

The bright fluorescent lighting of the lunchroom made both Laurie and Jack squint. They found Jeff and Pete at a table next to the vending machines, poring over newspapers while snacking on potato chips. They were dressed in rumpled blue coveralls with Health and Hospital Corporation patches on their upper arms. Both had ponytails.

Laurie introduced herself, explained about her interest in the missing body, and asked if there was anything unique about the previous night, particularly about the two bodies they’d brought in.

Jeff and Pete exchanged a look, then Pete responded.

“Mine was a mess,” Pete said.

“I don’t mean the bodies themselves,” Laurie said. “I’m wondering if there was anything unusual about the process. Did you see anyone in the morgue you didn’t recognize? Did anything out of the ordinary happen?”

Pete glanced again at Jeff then shook his head. “Nope. It was just like usual.”

“Do you remember what compartment you put your body into?” Laurie asked.

Pete scratched the top of his head. “Not really,” he said.

“Was it near to one eleven?” Laurie asked.

Pete shook his head. “No, it was around the other side. Something like fifty-five. I don’t remember exactly. But it’s written downstairs.”

Laurie turned to Jeff.

“My body went into twenty-eight,” Jeff said. “I remembered because that’s how old I am.”

“Did either of you see Franconi’s body?” Laurie asked.

The two drivers again exchanged glances. Jeff spoke: “Yeah, we did.”

“What time?”

“Around now,” Jeff said.

“What was the circumstance?” Laurie said. “You guys don’t normally see bodies that you don’t transport.”

“After Mike told us about it, we wanted to look because of all the excitement. But we didn’t touch anything.”

“It was only for a second,” Pete added. “We just opened the door and looked in.”

“Were you with Mike?” Laurie asked.

“No,” Pete said. “He just told us which compartment.”

“Has Dr. Washington talked to you about last night?” Laurie asked.

“Yeah, and Mr. Harper, too,” Jeff said.

“Did you tell Dr. Washington about looking at the body?” Laurie asked.

“No,” Jeff said.

“Why not?” Laurie asked.

“He didn’t ask,” Jeff said. “I guess we know we’re really not supposed to do it. I mean we don’t usually. But, as I said, with all the commotion, we were curious.”

“Maybe you should tell Dr. Washington,” Laurie suggested. “Just so he has all the facts.”