Frank, Kevin and the Chief bent close to the center monitor. It showed a man of similarly thin build to Cloutier, but with a slightly fairer complexion. What jumped to everyone's eye was the mole.

"Two men in our city with cancer on the same part of their necks?" the Chief said. "Smack a gator's tongue. I hope you've got a still of this, and Facial Recognition going."

"Yes sir," Vertiz said. "But the cams where he is aren't that great. FR pulls up five to ten names on each shot. A few names appear more often than others, but we're not yet able to pin any one name."

"Our infallible technology," Kevin said.

"Don't write it off. He's heading to Park Avenue. The cams there are the best and we should be able to get a single name."

"Keep at him," the Chief said.

The blond man pulled off his shades, revealing slightly bulgy blue eyes, very different from Cloutier's deep-set browns. Dani took a still, and FR spat three names. One of them — Darren Troy — was among the more frequent names from earlier shots.

"Let's make like Troy's our man. Find out all you can, especially contact info."

"On it, Chief."

Frank turned his attention to the interrogation room. Atlanta and Olivia were reading Cloutier's looseleaf. Cloutier, still scared but not shitless as he had been with Frank, rubbed the back of his neck.

"Don't scratch that," Atlanta said. "Know what? I have an oncologist friend who works at Mount Morris . . . well not now, she's isolating at home. But she's always up by this time and she'd be glad to give her opinion. There just might be good news. First, I need to take a picture."

"Yeah, do it."

Chief McGrath said, "Atlanta, give us your friend's email and we'll send our pic, too."

Dr. Gracia Baradez appeared on Atlanta's phone two minutes later. Even on the small screen she had Covid stamped all over, Frank thought. From her body language plus Frank's recollection of the Covid sweep through his house, including himself, last Christmas, she was dealing with a ferocious headache. There was pallor beneath her olive complexion and a light sheen over her face.

Atlanta said, "Doctor, I'm with a bunch of fellow cops, including Chief of Police Tommy McGrath. To get your message across as clearly as possible you should be on our big screen, if that's okay."

"Go ahead."

Seconds later, Dr. Baradez and her coral pink housecoat were magnified in 5K detail. She said, "Without a biopsy report no one can be sure. But from your images I'm better than 90% sure about Troy and 99.9% sure about Cloutier. They need treatment with all possible speed. Cloutier must keep tomorrow's appointment if at all possible, or failing that let Troy take his place. Their cancers may be entering a more dangerous stage, and that damn virus is wreaking havoc again. Not so much with Alexander — they got hit early and most of their staff are back. But other clinics and surgeries are likely to close over the coming days and remaining places will be swamped."

"So noted, Dr. Baradez," the Chief said. "Thank you and throw it off quick."

Something chimed at Baradez's end. She said, "That's Benita, my sister. Chief of Medicine at Morris, she is. The pest." With that the screen went dark except for the CALL ENDED icon.

Frank's phone buzzed. It was Dr. Alba Zerbe at Cedars-Sinai. She had news about 'Jane Doe' and Frank put her on widescreen.

"Her name is Ursula," the doctor said, "and she has a relative named Bruno."

"She's awake?"

"She was." The image reversed to show Ursula's dark swollen face. She was heavily festooned with leads and tubes. Gasps rose from some of the cops, and Chief McGrath hissed an intake of breath. Zerbe panned her camera down to show what Ursula had written.

It was Frank's turn to hiss. His kids had written better before entering kindergarten. It took several seconds to decipher each of URSULA, WHERES LILLI? and CALL BRUNO.

Frank said, "Thanks," then something else hit him. "She wrote English!"

"Not unheard of for people recovering from traumatic brain injury to be better with their secondary language."

"About that injury, what can you tell us?"

"She has some motor dysfunction on her right side, probably not long-term disabling and even now her family would have to fight to get checks. She'll be in and out until more of that sedative leaves — right now she still has enough to keep most dogs asleep."

"Not that Cujo our witnesses have, who scared off her attacker. Look, Doc, I'm going to send a couple of pics. Let Ursula see them next time she's up."

As Frank rang off, he noticed that Chief McGrath was talking on his phone. His voice was calm but his eyes sparkled with excitement. "Sergeant, my lead detective is right here." He covered the mouthpiece and added, "Bruno Meidenger, USMC."