“Just start the van!” Laurie said.
“Come on,” Lou said. “Don’t argue.”
“You’re the one who’s arguing,” Laurie snapped. “Let’s go!”
“Nobody’s going nowhere!” a voice said to Lou’s left.
With a sinking feeling, Laurie and Lou looked out the window on Lou’s side. A number of faceless men in hats were standing in the dark. A flashlight snapped on and played over Lou’s face, then over Laurie’s. They each blinked in its glare.
“Out of the truck,” the same voice ordered. “Both of you.”
With hopes dashed, Laurie and Lou climbed back out of the van. They could not see the men for the bright light shining at them, but there seemed to be three.
“Back to the office,” the same voice commanded.
Discouraged, Laurie and Lou led the way back. Neither of them said a word. Neither wanted to think about Cerino’s fury.
The scene at the office was still chaotic. Smoke still hung heavily in the air. One of Cerino’s goons had helped his boss into the desk chair. Angelo was still sitting on the floor with his back against the wall. He looked confused, and a trickle of blood was dripping down his chin from the corner of his mouth.
An additional light had been turned on, and the extent of the damage was more apparent. Laurie was surprised by the amount of charring. That old pharmacology text hadn’t been kidding: when it said ethylene was flammable it meant flammable. She and Lou were lucky not to have been injured more severely.
Laurie and Lou were given the same seats they’d occupied only minutes before. Sitting down, Laurie got a glimpse of Tony’s burned remains. She grimaced and looked away.
“My eye hurts,” Paul wailed.
Laurie closed her eyes, not wanting to think what the consequences were to be of her having ignited the ethylene.
“Someone help me,” Cerino cried.
Laurie’s eyes opened again. Something was wrong. No one was moving. The three men who’d accompanied them back to the office were ignoring Cerino. In fact they were ignoring everyone.
“What’s happening?” Laurie whispered to Lou.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Something weird is going on.”
Laurie looked up at the three men. They appeared nonchalant, picking at their nails, adjusting their ties. They hadn’t lifted a finger to help anyone. Looking in the other direction, Laurie saw the man who’d run back into the office just after she and Lou had gone out. He was sitting in a chair with his head in his hands, looking at the floor.
Laurie heard the sound of footsteps approaching. It sounded as if whoever was coming had metal taps on his heels. Out the blasted doorway, Laurie saw beams from several flashlights bobbing toward them.
Presently a rather dapper, darkly handsome man came to the blown-out door. He stopped to survey the scene. He was dressed in a dark cashmere coat over a pin-striped suit. His hair was slicked back from his forehead.
“My God, Cerino,” he said with derision. “What a mess you have made!”
Laurie looked at Cerino. Cerino didn’t answer; he didn’t even move.
“I don’t believe it,” Lou said.
Laurie’s head spun around. She looked at Lou and saw the shock registered on his face. “What’s happening?” she asked.
“I knew something weird was going on,” Lou said.
“What?” Laurie demanded.
“It’s Vinnie Dominick,” Lou said.
“Who’s Vinnie Dominick?” Laurie asked.
Vinnie shook his head, surveying what was left of Tony, then walked over to Lou. “Detective Soldano,” Vinnie said. “How convenient that you’re here.” He pulled a cellular phone from his coat pocket and handed it to the detective. “I imagine you’d like to contact your colleagues to see if they’d be so good as to come over here. I’m sure the D.A. would like to have a long talk with Paul Cerino.”
In the background Laurie was aware of the three men who had been lounging around before Vinnie Dominick arrived. They were now going around the room collecting guns.
One of them brought Lou’s over to Vinnie, having retrieved it from Angelo. Vinnie proceeded to give it back to Lou.
In disbelief Lou looked down at the phone in one hand and his gun in the other.
“Come on, Lou,” Vinnie said. “Make your call. Unfortunately I’ve got another appointment, so I can’t be around when the men in blue arrive. Besides I’m kind of a shy sort of guy and I wouldn’t feel comfortable with all the acclaim the city would want to throw my way for saving the day. Obviously you know what Mr. Cerino has been up to, so you don’t need my help there. But if you don’t, don’t hesitate to give me a call. You know how to get ahold of me, I’m sure.”
Vinnie started for the door, motioning for his men to follow him. As he passed Angelo he turned back to Lou. “You’d better call an ambulance for Angelo here,” he said. “He doesn’t look so good.” Then, looking down at Tony, he added: “The mortuary van out there will be fine for this dog turd.” With that, he left.
Lou handed Laurie his gun while he used the cellular phone to call 911. He identified himself to the 911 operator and gave the address. When he was finished, he took back his gun.
“Who is this Vinnie character?” Laurie asked.
“He’s Cerino’s main rival,” Lou said. “He must have found out what Cerino was up to and this is his way of turning him in. Very effective, I’d say, with us here as witnesses. It’s also a clever way to get rid of his competition.”
“You mean Vinnie knew Cerino was behind all these overdoses?” Laurie asked. She was stunned.
“What are you talking about? Vinnie must have figured out that Cerino was killing off patients ahead of him on Jordan Scheffield’s corneal-transplant waiting list.”
“Oh, my God!” Laurie exclaimed.
“What now?” Lou asked. After the night he’d been having, he wasn’t ready for much more.
“It’s twice as bad as I thought it was,” Laurie said. “The drug overdoses were really homicides to get eyes. Cerino was having people killed who’d signed up with the Manhattan Organ Repository for organ donation.”
Lou glanced at Cerino. “He’s more of a sociopath than I could ever have imagined. My God, he was working both sides of the problem: supply and demand.”
Cerino lifted his head from his hands. “What was I supposed to do? Wait like everybody else? I couldn’t afford to wait. In my business, every day I couldn’t see, I risked death. Is it my fault the hospitals don’t have enough corneas?”
Laurie tapped Lou on the shoulder. He turned to face her.
“There’s a strange irony to this whole affair,” Laurie said, shaking her head. “We argued with one another about whose series was more socially relevant and therefore more important, your gangland-style murders or my upscale overdoses, only to learn that they were intimately connected. They were just two sides of the same horrid affair.”
“You can’t prove a thing,” Cerino growled.
“Oh, really?” Laurie said.
Epilogue
* * *
January
10:15 a.m., Wednesday
Manhattan
Lou Soldano stamped the wet snow off his feet and walked into the morgue. He smiled at the man in the security office, who didn’t challenge him, and went directly to the locker room. Quickly he changed into green scrubs.
Pausing outside the main autopsy room doors, he donned a mask, then pushed through. His eyes traveled from one end to the other, inspecting the people at each table. Finally his eyes spotted a familiar figure that even the bulky gown, apron, and hood could not hide.
Walking over to the table, he looked down. Laurie was up to her elbows in a huge corpse. For the moment, she was by herself.
“I didn’t know you did whales here,” Lou said.
Laurie looked up. “Hi, Lou,” she said cheerfully. “Would you mind scratching my nose?” She twisted away from the table and closed her eyes as Lou complied.
“A little lower,” she said. “Ahhh. That’s it.” She opened her eyes. “Thanks.” She went back to her work.
“Interesting case?” Lou asked.
“Very interesting,” Laurie said. “It was supposed to be a suicide, but I’m beginning to think it belongs in your department.”
Lou watched for a few minutes and shuddered. “I don’t think I’ll ever get accustomed to your work.”
“At least I’m working,” Laurie said.
“That’s true,” Lou said. “Yet you shouldn’t have been fired in the first place. Luckily things have a way of working out for the best.”
Laurie glanced up. “I don’t think the families of the victims feel that way.”
“That’s true,” Lou admitted. “I just meant in relation to your job.”
“Bingham ultimately was gracious about it,” Laurie said. “Not only did he give me my job back, he also admitted I had been right. Well, partly right. I was wrong about the idea of a contaminant.”
“Well, you were right about the important part,” Lou said. “They weren’t accidental, they were homicidal. And your contribution didn’t end there. In fact that’s why I stopped by. We just got an airtight indictment against Cerino.”
Laurie straightened up. “Congratulations!” she said.
“Hey, it wasn’t my doing,” Lou said. “You get the credit. First you were able to match that skin sample under Julia Myerholtz’s fingernail with Tony Ruggerio’s remains. That was critical. Next you exhumed a number of bodies until you made a match with Kendall Fletcher’s teeth on Angelo Facciolo’s forearm.”
“Any forensic pathologist could have done it,” Laurie said.
“I’m not so sure,” Lou said. “Anyway, faced with such incontrovertible evidence, Angelo plea-bargained and implicated Cerino. That was what we needed. It’s downhill from here.”
“You did pretty well yourself,” Laurie said. “You got the Kaufmans’ maid to pick Angelo out of a lineup and Tony out of mug shots.”
“That wouldn’t have been strong enough for an indictment,” Lou said. “Or, even if I’d gotten an indictment, I wouldn’t have gotten a conviction. Certainly not of Cerino. But anyway it’s over.”
“I shudder to think that there are people like Cerino out there,” Laurie said. “It’s the combination of intelligence and sociopathy that is so frightening. As heinous as the whole Cerino affair was, it had some ingenious aspects. Imagine having his thugs put people into refrigerators to preserve the corneal tissue longer! They knew that we’d erroneously ascribe that to the hyperpyrexia that cocaine toxicity causes.”
“The point is,” Lou said, “the vast majority of people who play by the rules and abide by the laws don’t realize that there is a large number of people who do the opposite. One bad side to Cerino’s indictment is that Vinnie Dominick is unopposed. He and Cerino used to keep each other in check, but no longer. Organized-crime activity has gone up in Queens with Cerino’s departure from the scene, not down.”
“Now that it is all over,” Laurie said, “I wonder why it took us so long to figure out what was happening. I mean, as a doctor I knew that New York is behind the times with its medical-examiner laws and that there is a waiting list for corneas. So why didn’t I see it earlier?”
“I bet the reason you didn’t see it was because it was too diabolical,” Lou said. “It’s hard for the normal mind to even think of such a possibility.”
“I wish I could make myself believe that,” Laurie said.
“I’m sure that it’s true,” Lou said.
“Perhaps,” Laurie said.
“Well, I just wanted to let you know about Cerino,” Lou said. He shifted his weight clumsily.
“I’m glad you did,” Laurie said. She studied him. He avoided her eyes.
“Guess I’d better get back to my office,” Lou said. He nervously glanced around, making sure no one was paying them any attention.
“Is there something you’d like to say?” Laurie asked. “You’re acting suspiciously familiar.”
“Yeah,” Lou said, finally making eye contact. “Would you like to go out to dinner tonight, purely social, no business?”
Laurie smiled at this replay of Lou’s painful social awkwardness. It was particularly unexpected now that they had worked together on the Cerino case and knew each other better. In all other respects Lou was decisive and confident.
“We could go back to Little Italy,” Lou said in response to Laurie’s hesitation.
“You never give a girl much warning,” Laurie said.
Lou shrugged. “It gives me an excuse to myself if you refuse.”
“Unfortunately I have plans,” Laurie said.
“Of course,” Lou said hastily. “Silly of me to ask. Well, take care.” Lou abruptly turned. “Say hello to Jordan for me,” he called over his shoulder.
Laurie felt a surge of old irritation as she watched Lou stride toward the double doors. She fought against the urge to snap back at him. He had not lost his penchant to be infuriating.
The doors to the autopsy room shut behind Lou, and Laurie turned back to her job at hand. But she hesitated.
Then, stripping off her rubber gloves, her apron and gown, Laurie strode from the autopsy room. The hall was clear. Lou had already disappeared. Guessing he was in the locker room, Laurie pushed directly into the men’s side.
Laurie caught Lou with his scrub shirt half off, exposing his muscled and hairy chest. Self-consciously he lowered the garment.
“I resent your implication that I’d be seeing Jordan Scheffield,” Laurie said, her arms akimbo. “You know full well he was implicated in this whole affair.”
“I know he was implicated,” Lou said. “But I also know the grand jury did not indict him. I also made it a point to learn that the Board of Medicine didn’t even discipline him even though there was a strong suspicion that he knew what was going on. In fact, some people believe that Jordan discussed the affair with Cerino but did nothing because he liked the increase in surgery it provided. So Jordan’s out there pulling in the big bucks like nothing happened.”
“And you think I’d still be seeing him under these conditions?” Laurie asked incredulously. “That’s an insult.”
“I didn’t know,” Lou said sheepishly. “You never mentioned him.”
“I thought it was clear,” Laurie said. “Besides, with as close as we have been working together, you could have asked.”
“I’m sorry,” Lou said. “Maybe it’s more that I was afraid you were still seeing him. You remember that I admitted I’ve always been a bit jealous of him.”
“He is the last person you should feel jealous of,” Laurie said. “Jordan would be lucky to have an ounce of your honesty and integrity.”
“I’d like an ounce of his schooling,” Lou said. “Or his sophistication. He always made me feel like a second-class citizen.”
“His urbanity is superficial,” Laurie said. “The only thing he is truly interested in is money. The embarrassment for me is that I was as blind to Jordan as I was to what Cerino was doing. I was bowled over by the rush he gave me and his apparent self-confidence. You saw through his facade, but I couldn’t, even when you told me directly.”
“That’s not your fault,” Lou said. “You think better of people than I. You’re not the cynical bastard I am. Besides, you’re not laboring under a hangup about your background like I am.”
“You should be proud of your background,” Laurie said. “It’s the source of your honesty.”
“Yeah,” Lou said. “But I’d still rather have gone to Harvard.”
“When I told you I had plans tonight, I was hoping you might have suggested we get together tomorrow night or next week. As prosaic as it sounds, I’m going to my parents’ tonight. What about you coming with me?”
“You’re kidding,” Lou said. “Me?”
“Yes,” Laurie said, warming to the idea. “One of the positive spinoffs of this whole affair with Cerino is my relationship with
my parents has improved dramatically. For once my father even recognized that I’d done something he could relate to in a positive way, and I think I’ve grown up a tad myself. I’ve even stopped rebelling. I think dealing with this affair has finally allowed me to come more or less to terms with my old guilt in relation to my brother’s death.”
“This is starting to sound a bit out of my league,” Lou said.
“I suppose it seems sophomoric and overly analytical,” Laurie agreed. “But the bottom line is that visiting my parents can be fun. Lately I’ve been seeing them about once a week. And I’d love for you to come along. I’d like them to meet someone whom I really respect.”
“Are you pulling my leg?” Lou asked.
“Absolutely not,” Laurie said. “In fact, the more I think about it the more I hope you’ll come. And if you enjoy yourself, maybe you’ll still be willing to take me out to Little Italy tomorrow night.”
“Lady,” Lou said, “you got yourself a deal.”
Contents
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Epilogue
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.