—
When Jack got to the corner of 26th Street and First Avenue, he glanced over toward the entrance of 421 that was set back behind a small patch of greenery. Milling about were a good portion of the hordeof reporters who had earlier been camped out in front of 520. Their presence outside meant Laurie had yet to start the news briefing she had promised and was most likely still in her office. Accordingly, Jack headed north up First Avenue.
As he had noticed en route to the Public Health Laboratory, the traffic was still far lighter than normal. And only because he was looking at the traffic did he see a black Suburban moving slowly along the curb several blocks behind him. Could it have been the same vehicle he’d seen that morning? Jack had no idea, but it made him feel uneasy.
Since the reporters outside of the OCME had dispersed, the front door was unlocked and Marlene, the long-term receptionist, was sitting behind her raised countertop desk. It was always a pleasure for Jack to see her, and she greeted him with her signature warmth. There were a few other people in the lobby. Jack didn’t know if they were reporters or grieving family members. He ignored them.
After being buzzed into the interior of the OCME by Marlene, Jack walked into the front office. Now both secretaries were at their respective desks. Laurie’s private office door was closed, which Jack did not interpret as a positive sign. He stopped in front of Cheryl’s desk. She was on the phone but quickly finished her call and hung up.
“What’s the story?” Jack asked, gesturing toward Laurie’s closed door.
“You’re to go right in,” Cheryl said.
“Fair enough,” Jack said. He didn’t know how to interpret such an order. What it suggested was that Laurie had anticipated his return. He didn’t know if that was good news or bad. He opened the door, stepped in, and pulled the door closed behind him. Things hadn’t changed since he’d left in a bit of a huff. Paul Plodget was still there, and he and Laurie were still sitting in the same positions as they had been earlier. There was obvious tension in the air.
“You people don’t look very happy,” Jack said.
“There’s not a lot to be happy about,” Laurie said.
“Is the city getting itself back to a semblance of normal?” Jack asked. Although Laurie was looking directly at him, Paul wasn’t. Jack wondered why.
“Hardly,” Laurie said. “Not with subways shut down and schools closed. But be that as it may, there is something I need to ask you.”
“Well, here I am,” Jack said, smiling in a cocky fashion while spreading his hands with his palms up. He knew it was a mildly provocative gesture that probably should have been avoided, but he couldn’t help himself. Laurie’s tone and Paul’s avoidant behavior were suggestive that something unpleasant was coming along the lines of whether he had contacted theDaily News. Jack wasn’t one to face adversity sitting down.
“What do you know of Carlos Sanchez?” Laurie demanded.
“Nice boy,” Jack said. It was a quote from David Ben-Gurion, the founder of Israel, when asked about Ariel Sharon after Sharon had annihilated a Jordanian village as a reprisal. The quote had stayed in Jack’s mind for the perfect situation. He thought this was it.
“Jack!” Laurie snapped. “Please be serious for a moment.”
“I assume you are referring to one of our mortuary techs in training,” Jack responded. “Am I getting close?”
“Yes,” Laurie said with exasperation. “The police have learned that he was the source of the information that led to theDaily Newsheadline and article. He made no attempt to deny it, nor the fact that he had been paid. He claims that you were the direct source of all the information. Is that true?”
“I had a sneaking suspicion that Mr. Sanchez had to be the one who’d spoken to the tabloid. Actually, I had forgotten his last name, so thank you for reminding me.”
“You are avoiding my question,” Laurie snapped. “Were you the one who gave this erroneous information to Mr. Sanchez, so he would call theDaily News?”
“Let’s put it this way,” Jack said. “I didn’t say a word about the Black Death.”
Laurie closed her eyes for a moment. Jack had the sense she was probably counting to ten, and he tried to convince himself to restrain the sarcasm. The problem was that accusing him of being the source via Carlos Sanchez wasn’t that different from being accused of being the source who called theDaily News. He couldn’t believe that Laurie could think he was capable.
“What in heaven’s name did you say to this man?” Laurie demanded.
“All right,” Jack said, now holding up his hands, palms out, as a calming gesture. “Let’s put this all into context. Carlos Sanchez had been hired as a mortuary tech by our chief of staff. He was under Vinnie Ammendola’s wing for training. Unfortunately, Vinnie quickly learned Carlos was not up to the job, something I sensed when we three worked together Monday on the first subway death, which, by the way, Carlos found very distasteful. As Vinnie said, the man was squeamish and a germaphobe. Anyway, Vinnie went to the chief of staff to get the man fired for being unsuitable as a mortuary tech, but Twyla wouldn’t take Vinnie’s word. Twyla ordered Vinnie to give the guy another chance.”
“Please!” Laurie said, interrupting. “Please get to the point! What did you say to Mr. Sanchez?”
“To understand what I said, you have to understand the situation,” Jack snapped back. “Do you want to hear or not?”
“I want to hear,” Laurie said, struggling to control her impatience.
“When I called Vinnie to set up for the second subway death, he asked me if I could help dissuade Carlos from becoming a mortuary tech. Since we both knew his response to the first subway death autopsy, we thought we could emphasize what the second one suggested—namely, that the problem was contagious on some level. So that’s what we did, and he decided being a mortuary tech was not in his future and stormed out.”
“Did you use the termsubway pandemic?” Laurie asked, losing patience.
“Yes,” Jack finally admitted. “I said something like, ‘Now we know we could be facing a real subway pandemic.’ It was a little like those signs you see on Forty-seventh Street for ‘genuine artificial diamonds.’”
