FOUR
Myka walked up to the mortuary and looked around. It appeared to be deserted at the moment except for a single young man sitting in the back of an open door on what appeared to be some kind of ambulance. The man appeared to be in his mid-20s and was calmly drinking from a water bottle.
"Hello," said Myka, showing her ID to the man, "I'm looking for the owner or manager."
"Mr. Silverman is out of town right now," replied the man. "Been gone about 2 weeks. Some kind of morticians convention or something. I'm Derrick Stapleton. Is there something I can help you with?"
"Have you worked here long?"
"About 8 months or so. The job doesn't have any benefits but the pay's not bad. And Silverman's a pretty decent guy to work for."
"I'm looking for some information on some bodies that were delivered here recently." Myka handed the young man a piece of paper. "These are the names and dates they were delivered here."
"Yeah, we picked them up," said Stapleton. "In fact, I picked up two of them myself."
"You picked them up?" questioned Myka.
"Yeah. I'm a driver here. My job is to pick up the bodies from the local hospitals and deliver them here for burial. Like I said, I picked up two of them myself and brought them here."
"Then maybe you can tell me how they ended up being found in other parts of town after you delivered them here?" questioned Myka.
"Really? I hadn't heard anything about that. Like I said, I just pick them up and deliver them. I don't have anything to do with what they do with them once I drop them off."
"And just what do they do here exactly?"
"Well," said the man thoughtfully, taking another drink from his bottle, "the way it was explained to me, they prepare them for burial. Most of them get embalmed and they make them up so they're presentable at the viewings, that sort of thing."
"Most?" questioned Myka. "Not all of the bodies get embalmed?"
"Oh, no. Some people don't want to spring for the cost of embalming. And some religions prohibit embalming. Like Jews and Muslims. A few others. Same thing with autopsies. Jews and Muslims don't allow for autopsy, except under certain circumstances. Mr. Silverman offers a traditional Jewish funeral and burial. He's the only one in town that does. But like I said, I don't have anything to do with any of that. I just pick up the bodies and drop them off."
"Are you the only one?"
"No, there are three of us. There's me. I work Wednesday through Sunday. Then there's Larry Gordon. He works Monday through Friday. He's been here the longest and he's the owners' nephew so he gets the cream job. He and I picked up the other two bodies. We also have Greg Connors. He's only part time and he works Saturday through Tuesday. He fills in when Larry and I are off."
"So there's always two of you delivering the bodies?"
"Yeah, usually. Sometimes there's only one of us. One of us has to take a day off or something and that only leaves one of us to do the job. It's not usually a problem. To be honest, one of us can do the job pretty easily most of the time."
"So, these two bodies that you picked up. Did you by chance pick either of them up by yourself?"
"No, those two were on Thursdays. Larry and I picked them up together. Like I said. We dropped them off and went out on another run. Some nights we make several trips to local hospitals."
"What about the other one?" asked Myka. "The one you didn't pick up. Do you know if either Gordon or Connors picked up that one by themselves?"
"I don't really know. They didn't mention anything like that. But we don't usually talk about our pickups on our days off. They're usually pretty routine. But Dr. Pendergast didn't mention anything about any of the bodies pulling a Lazarus or anything."
"Dr. Pendergast?"
"Dr. Ulysses Pendergast," replied Stapleton. "He's the doctor here that does all the embalming and medical stuff the bodies require. But like I said, he never mentioned anything about any bodies getting up and walking away."
"What about this Larry Gordon? You said you two work together. Is he around here somewhere? I'd really like to speak to him."
"No, sorry. He had a doctor's appointment so he took the afternoon off. He'll be back tomorrow. You can talk to him then."
"What about Dr. Pendergast? He wouldn't be around would he?"
"The doc only comes in on weekends," replied Stapleton. "He works over at Mercy Hospital during the week. He's an Oncologist. I'm the only one here right now."
"Okay, thanks. I appreciate the information. I'll come back tomorrow."
Myka turned and headed back to her car as Stapleton picked up a fresh water bottle and took a drink from it.
"So the doctor that does the embalming also works at the hospital where the bodies came from," said Artie after they had filled him in on what they had learned. "That makes it convenient. He'd have his pick of bodies to choose from and he'd know where they were going. He'd just have to wait until they were delivered before he used the artifact. No one would be the wiser."
"Yeah, that's what we thought," said Myka. "What I don't understand is why the mortuary is using a medical doctor to do the embalming. Morticians are trained to do that. Why hire an outside doctor to do the work the mortician was all ready capable of doing?"
"Maybe they're working together," offered Pete. "From what we've found out whoever is doing this has gotten away with a lot of money. At least two hundred fifty grand that we know of. Who knows how many people they robbed and how much they've gotten away with?"
"Artie, have you found anything on the artifact yet?" Myka asked.
"I'm still looking," said Artie. "Most artifacts leave some type of physical injury or wound. I'll keep looking and let you know what I find. You two go to the hospital and talk to this Doctor Pendergast. If he has an artifact he probably has it on him."
Unceremoniously Artie terminated the connection.
"Sounds about right," said Pete. "Now if we only knew what we were looking for."
"Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll just turn it over to us."
"Yeah, like that's ever going to happen."
Finding Pendegast's office wasn't very difficult. He was one of the staff doctors and his name was on the directory in the hallway. The outer office was currently empty and Pete and Myka figured his secretary was probably out on an errand or at lunch. Seeing Pendergast sitting behind his desk they decided to just announce themselves.
"Dr. Pendegast?" asked Pete, showing his badge. "We're with the . . . ."
Before he could finish Pendergast suddenly jumped up from his desk and ran out a side door.
"We got a rabbit," said Pete, taking off after the man. Myka turned and headed back out into the hallway the way they had come in.
For an older man Pendergast was surprisingly fast. He was over 50 and nearly completely bald and somewhat overweight. Even still, Pete had trouble catching up with him. He was heading for the stairs and Pete knew he'd make the stairs before he could reach him. Just before he got to the stairs, Myka stepped out in front of Pendergast, pointing the Tesla at him.
"That's far enough," she said, blocking his way to the stairs.
Pendergast turned to escape her but the moment's respite had given Pete the time he needed to catch up with the doctor. Pete grabbed the man and unceremoniously pushed him up against the wall.
"Well, I guess that answers one question," said Pete. "Innocent men don't run."
"I haven't done anything," protested Pendergast.
"Look," said Pete, "we aren't interested in you. Just hand over the artifact and we'll leave you in peace."
"Artifact?" questioned the doctor. "What are you talking about?"
"Whatever it is you're using to bring people back from the dead," said Myka. "Just give it to us and we'll leave you alone."
"Bring people back from the dead?" Pendergast sounded incredulous. "Are you out of your mind? I don't have any artifact and I'm certainly not bringing people back from the dead. If I could do that I wouldn't be working here."
"So why did you run?" Pete asked.
"You're cops. I figured you had come to arrest me. I can't afford that. I can't afford to lose my license."
"Lose your license?" questioned Myka. "Lose your license over what?"
"Uh uh, I'm not saying anything," said Pendergast. "I say anything and the next thing you know I'm in jail. I'm not saying anything until I see my lawyer."
"Look," said Pete, pulling out his ID again, "we're Secret Service, not local police. We just wanted to ask you some questions about an artifact."
"Secret Service?" questioned Pendergast. "What's this artifact you keep going on about?"
"Doctor, whatever shady deals you're involved in, we don't know and we don't care," said Myka. "We're just looking for something new that might have shown up at the mortuary where you worked in the last 6 or 7 months. And what you might know about the 3 bodies that have disappeared from that mortuary recently."
"Hey, I don't know anything about missing bodies," said Pendergast. "Okay, I'll admit that I occasionally write a script for someone who's not a patient. But that's not uncommon. Lots of doctors do it. But I don't know about any disappearing bodies."
"So you're saying that when you went to embalm three bodies and they weren't there you just forgot about it?" Pete asked.
"Silverman just tells me he's got bodies I need to take care of," said the doctor. "I get there and sometimes they aren't there. I just figured there had been a foul up and they never arrived."
"They did arrive," said Myka. "Then they just disappear from the mortuary and showed up in another part of town a few hours later."
"You mean those bodies I read about in the paper? Look, I didn't have anything to do with that. I told you, I just go to the mortuary and do the embalming when Silverman needs it. That's it. It's not my fault if the bodies aren't there when I get there. I just charge him for the visit and go home and wait for him to call again."
"You charge for work you don't do?" questioned Pete.
"I get paid for the visit," insisted Pendergast. "Whatever I do. It's not my fault if the bodies aren't there when I get there. Besides, I remember those three. Silverman mentioned them to me. They weren't going to be embalmed. He said something about religious objections or something. All I was supposed to do was make sure they were presentable for the viewing if there was one. That's it."
"You weren't going to embalm them?" Myka asked.
"That's what I said. We get a fair number of those. No autopsy and no embalming. But sometimes they need a little cosmetic fixing up. Something the makeup artist or hair stylist can't handle. So I take care of it. That's all I know. Now, if you aren't going to arrest me, can I go? Mrs. Stapleton's treatment is due and if she doesn't get it her cancer will begin to spread again."
"Stapleton?" questioned Myka. "Any relationship to Derrick Stapleton, the driver at the mortuary?"
"It's his mother. He's a nice kid and doesn't have any insurance so I'm cutting him a deal on the cost of the treatments. But like I said, if she doesn't get her treatments on time, the cancer will begin spreading again. And I really can't be late."
"Go on," said Pete. "I guess we're done with you."
Pendergast straightened his coat and then turned and headed back to his office.
"Well that got us exactly nowhere," said Pete. "And we still have no idea what we're looking for."