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.