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“In that case,” he mused, “maybe I’d try a funeral home Buy a fresh body off an unscrupulous undertaker”

“Hoould he explain the e or the service?”

He thought for a mo, then swap the body for two or three concrete blocks, so the pallbearers don’t get suspicious”

“Why wouldn’t this undertaker report you to the cops?”

“Because he’s unscrupulous?”

“So unscrupulous he’s going to help a notorious killer who’s just escaped? That seehty risky,” I said

“Okay, I give up,” he said “You’re fishing for an answer that I’ up with What is it you’re after?”

I told hiht try to procure a standin if I were trying to fake my death

“That could work,” he said finally

“Could you checkon file?”

“Sure,” he said “Oh, and Bill?”

“Yeah?”

“Remind me never to turn my back on you in a dark alley”

I laughed as he hung up

A half hour later, he called me back “Only one new report in

the past teeks,” he said “Teenage girl-a runaway You sure those burned bits of skull are male?”

“The pelvic bones are in pretty good shape,” I said, “so it’s definitely ot two fully erupted third molars in what’s left of the hteen Harder to estie because of the condition of the bones, but I’ns of osteoarthritis on the vertebrae, which suggests he was ed”

“That could fit with your theory,” he said, “though it sure doesn’t prove it I called Evers and ran it past hiood news, sort of, is that he said it’s possible”

“The bad news?”

“He said it sounds like the ulti, they’re not likely to tell the cops”

“Well, da that a lot lately, I noticed I thanked Art and hung up But I wasn’t ready to let go of the idea I dug out the phone book and looked for a number

“Public Defender’s Office,” said the woman who answered the phone

“Is Roger Nooe in?” His name, despite the double o, rhymed with “Chloe,” not “kablooey,” I realized while I was on hold The thought of Chloe and her speed dating ood prospects

Roger had taught for years in the UT College of Social Work; he’d retired several years before, but when he did, he took a job in social services at the Public Defender’s Office The PD’s clients were the polar opposite of the well-heeled crier’s work put him in daily touch with people ere poor, unes, or h the widening gaps in America’s safety net by the er and his colleagues seerimness is in the eye of the beholder; over the years-always to arded er a few tiized by the chance to develop programs and services to keep low-inco doard through poverty, crime, and imprisonment

We played catch-up for a few ues and friends do when it’s been a year or so between conversations We traded progress reports on our grown children and speculated about UT’s prospects in the upcoiven howRoger didn’t mention Jess’s murder or Garland Hah I was about to bring up the subjects forensically rather than personally, and that er, you know more about street people and hoan