“Now that you’ve had a night’s sleep to think about this trip, do you still feel the same?” Laurie asked.
“Absolutely,” Jack said. “I’m psyched.”
“Are you really going to pay for everyone’s ticket?” she asked. “This could get expensive.”
“What else do I have to spend my money on?” Jack said. He glanced around his apartment. “Certainly not my lifestyle, and the bike is all paid for.”
“Seriously,” Laurie said. “I can understand Esteban to some extent, but Warren and Natalie?”
The previous night when the proposal had been presented to Teodora, she had reminded her husband that one of them had to stay in the city to mind the market and be there for their teenage son. The decision that Esteban would go instead of Teodora had been decided by the flip of a coin.
“I was serious about making it fun,” Jack said. “Even if we don’t learn anything, which is a possibility, it will at least be a great trip. I could see in Warren’s eyes his interest to visit that part of Africa. And on the way back, we’ll spend a night or two in Paris.”
“You don’t have to convince me,” Laurie said. “I was against your going at first, but now I’m excited myself.”
“Now all we have to do is convince Bingham,” Jack said.
“I don’t think that will be a problem,” Laurie said. “Neither of us has taken the vacation time they’ve wanted us to. And Lou said he’d put in his two cents about the threats. He’d like to get us out of town.”
“I never trust bureaucracy,” Jack said. “But I’ll be optimistic. And assuming we’re going, let’s divvy up the errands. I’ll go ahead and get the tickets while you, Warren, and Natalie take care of the visa situation. Also, we’ve got to arrange for some shots and start malaria prophylaxis. We really should have more time for immunizations, but we’ll do the best we can, and we’ll take a lot of insect repellant.”
“Sounds good,” Laurie said.
Because of Laurie, Jack left his beloved mountain bike in his apartment. Together, they cabbed down to the medical examiner’s office. When they walked into the ID room Vinnie lowered his newspaper and looked at them as if they were ghosts.
“What are you guys doing here?” he asked with a voice that broke. He cleared his throat.
“What kind of question is that?” Jack asked. “We work here, Vinnie. Have you forgotten?”
“I just didn’t think you two were on call,” Vinnie said. He hastily took a drink from his coffee cup before coughing again.
Jack and Laurie went to the coffee urn. “He’s been in a weird mood for the last couple of days,” Jack whispered.
Laurie glanced back at Vinnie over her shoulder. Vinnie had gone back behind his newspaper.
“That was a strange reaction,” she agreed. “I noticed he was nervous around me yesterday.”
Jack and Laurie’s eyes met. They regarded each other for a moment.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Laurie asked.
“Maybe,” Jack said. “It kind of fits. He certainly has access.”
“I think we should say something to Lou,” Laurie said. “I’d hate it to be Vinnie, but we have to find out who’s been giving out confidential information around here.”
Conveniently for Laurie, her week-long rotation as the day chief was over, and Paul Plodgett’s was starting. Paul was already at the desk, going over the cases that had come in the previous night. Laurie and Jack told him they were planning on taking vacation time and wanted to skip doing any autopsies that day unless there was a glut. Paul assured them that the case load was light.
Laurie was more politically minded than Jack, and it was her opinion that they should approach Calvin about their vacation plans before they talked with Bingham. Jack bowed to her better judgment. Calvin’s response was to merely grunt that they could have given more notice.
As soon as Bingham arrived, Laurie and Jack went to his office. He regarded them curiously over the tops of his wire-rimmed glasses. He was clutching the morning mail, which he was in the process of going through.
“You want two weeks starting today?” he questioned with disbelief. “What’s the rush? Is this some sort of an emergency?”
“We’re planning on an adventure-type trip,” Jack said. “We’d like to leave this evening.”
Bingham’s watery eyes went back and forth between Laurie and Jack. “You two aren’t planning on getting married, are you?”
“Not that adventuresome,” Jack said.
Laurie sputtered with laughter. “We’re sorry not to have given more notice,” she said. “The reason for the haste is because last night both of us were threatened over the Franconi case.”
“Threatened?” Bingham questioned. “Does it have anything to do with that shiner you’ve got?”
“I’m afraid so,” Laurie said. She’d tried to cover the bruise with makeup but had only been partially successful.
“Who was behind these threats?” Bingham asked.
“One of the New York crime families,” Laurie said. “Lieutenant Louis Soldano offered to fill you in on it as well as talk to you about a possible mole for the crime family here in the medical examiner’s office. We think we have figured out how Franconi’s body was taken from here.”
“I’m listening,” Bingham said. He put the mail down and leaned back in his chair.
Laurie explained the story, emphasizing that the Spoletto Funeral Home had to have been given the accession number of the unidentified case.
“Did Detective Soldano think it wise for you two to leave town?” Bingham asked.
“Yes, he did,” Laurie said.
“Fine,” Bingham said. “Then you’re out of here. Am I supposed to call Soldano or is he calling me?”
“It was our understanding that he was going to call you,” Laurie said.
“Good,” Bingham said. Then he looked directly at Jack. “What about the liver issue?”
“That’s up in the air,” Jack said. “I’m still waiting on some more tests.”
Bingham nodded and commented: “This case is a goddamned pain in the ass. Just make sure I’m informed cf any breaking news while you’re away. I don’t want any surprises.” He looked down at his desk and picked up the mail. “You people have a good trip and send me a postcard.”
Laurie and Jack went out into the hall and smiled at each other.
“Well, it looks good,” Jack said. “Bingham was the major potential stumbling block.”
“I wonder if we should have told him we’re going to Africa because of the liver issue?” Laurie asked.
“I don’t think so,” Jack said. “He might have changed his mind about letting us go. As far as he’s concerned, he wishes this case would just disappear.”
Retiring to their separate offices, Laurie phoned the Equatoguinean Embassy about the visas, while Jack called the airlines. She quickly learned that Esteban had been right about the ease of getting a visa and that it could be done that morning. Jack found Air France happy to make all the arrangements, and he agreed to stop by their office that afternoon to pick up the tickets.
Laurie appeared in Jack’s office. She was beaming. “I’m beginning to think this is really going to happen,” she said excitedly. “How’d you do?”
“Fine,” Jack said. “We leave tonight at seven-fifty.”
“I can’t believe this,” Laurie said. “I feel like a teenager going on my first trip.”
After making arrangements with the travel and immunization office at the Manhattan General Hospital, they called Warren. He agreed to get in touch with Natalie and meet them at the hospital.
The nurse practitioner gave each of them a battery of shots as well as prescriptions for antimalarial drugs. She also urged them to wait a full week before exposure. Jack explained that was impossible. The nurse’s response was to say that she was glad they were going and not she.