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She put a hand on my waist and walked me to her office, then settled in behind her desk as I took the chair across from her Claire is African Aes warmth when she performs or oversees twelve hundred autopsies a year is kind of a mystery

She said, “I can’t stop thinking about Joe How’s he doing?”

I had called her while I aiting for Joe to reappear froain from the hospital, but I updated her now

“His doctor tells me it’s still too soon to know”

“I’h It’s Joe we’re talking about”

I took a deep breath and said, “One lass to ‘happy days’ Next minute …”

I putme with deep concern

She reached over the desk and grabbed my hands “Let me kno I can help I can call the doctor Look at fil”

“Thanks, Claire Very much”

I gave her Dr Dalrymple’s card and she put it next to her phone

I said, “You wanted to talk to me?”

“Yeah, well, obviously we’re full up here and overflowing But soht And I need to tell you about it”

“Go ahead”

“A forty-year-old white woman in nice clothes was found in the street just off the Eht in with the blast victims She had some bruises that make me think she was hit by a car, but not the kinds of lacerations people got ere inside Sci-Tron or close to it

“Her handbag was ht she’d died froht could cause some people to have a heart attack, you know?”