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"Heellloo!"

No response He’d buzzed me in, so he had to be around here sohting was harsh, giving the illusion of winter sunlight There was a door to my left I crossed and knocked before I opened it to find an euy on the graveyard shift snagged so on There was a desk and a swivel chair The outside of the as covered with ornaht blocked out by a mass of unruly shrubs I closed the door and erated rooht Inside, the light was constant, occupants laid out on blue fiberglass berths, engaged in their eternal, motionless naps, some wrapped in sheets, some in plastic, necks and ankles wound hat looked liketape Somehow, it reminded me of quiet time at summer ca at the autopsy table My customary procedure would have been to snoop into every cabinet, drawer, and storage bin, but it felt disrespectful here Or rotesque: trays of dentures, a Mason jar chock-full of floating eyeballs I don’t knohat I thought I’d see I shifted restlessly I felt as if I asting ti

"Alfie?" I called I listened again, then shrugged and closed the door It occurred toas I was there, I could at least verify that the number Bobby’d written doas, in fact, the sa That wouldn’t do any har and turned to the penciled entry on the back cover I went into the cold-storage roos This was like so was ot to the third body, the nuht Bobby’d shifted the hyphen over so the seven-digit code looked like a telephone number I stared at the body, or what I could see of it The plastic that Franklin rapped in was transparent but yellowing, as though stained with nicotine Through the swaddling, I could see that he was a ht, slinificant? I was feeling anxious I figured Alfie would be back shortly and I really didn’t want to be caught nosing around in here I went back to e roo an air-conditioned theater Ititchy to explore I couldn’t help myself I was irritated that no one was there to help y from the quiet This was not a fun place Ordinarily, I don’t hang out inme tense

Just to soothe ainst the grisly ies I’d conjured up This one contained scratch pads, order blanks, arid miscellaneous paper supplies Reassured, I tried the next drawer: ss, the na up here and I checked on down the line Everything appeared to be related to the business of dissecting the dead; not surprising, given the locale, but not very enlightening

I straightened up and looked around the room Where were the files? Didn’t anybody keep records around this place? Somebody had mentioned that there were medical charts stored out here, but where? This floor? Somewhere on one of the floors above? I didn’t relish the idea of creeping through the e Alfie Leadbetter at ht start I’d even pictured slipping him a twenty-dollar bill if that’s what it took to enlist his aid

I glanced at my watch I’d now been here forty-fiveand went out in the hall, looking in both directions It was getting darker down here, although I could see through aat the end of the hall that it was still light outside I found a wall switch and flipped on the lights and then I wandered along the corridor, reading the sy offices were right next to theoffices I wondered if Sufi Daniels had occasion to co to stir at the back ofabout the cardboard box full of Bobby s belongings What was in it? Medical texts and office supplies and two radiologywith those? He hadn’t even been a medical student and I couldn’t think why he’d need thefor years, if ever He’d indicated no particular interest in radiology