The scarf almost caught around her neck but Anna wrangled out and left it hanging on the rack as she removed her coat. Another hand brushed hers and Anna smiled as Jane joined her. They both took a breath as Jane shivered.

"Does it have to be this cold?"

"Until Spring decides to come around, yes." Anna shook her head. "At least in the north we'd get snow. Here it's just cold and rainy. Dismal and gray."

"It could be worse I guess." Jane sighed, "I can't imagine how since there are already too many colds and sniffling noses on my end. Freddie's always a step away from picking something up from school and then he'll be down for a week."

"I can't imagine the difficulty of living with that in terms of children." Anna shivered, grabbing for a lab coat. "I have a hard-enough time managing myself."

"And someone else, unless I'm mistaken."

Anna raised an eyebrow, "Something you'd like to infer, Ms. Moorsum?"

"Just the close relationship between you and an Inspector Bates." Jane winked at Anna, "We're all entitled to our fun, Anna. You'll get no reprimand from me if you're enjoying yourself."

"I rather am." Anna shrugged, "And I think he is as well."

"Then there's nothing to do with it but envy it." Jane consulted the notes on her desk. "Have you had time to look over the bodies again?"

"Since the autopsies, no. Why?"

"Just a note from Doctor Clarkson here that you might want to take another look at them." Jane handed it over, "Maybe you can take your Inspector with you."

"Maybe I can." Anna read the note, "This doesn't look like his handwriting."

"Perhaps he was in a hurry?"

"Perhaps." Anna frowned and pulled the phone toward her, rotating the numbers for the morgue. "Yes, this is Doctor Smith for Doctor Clarkson please."

She waited a minute, continuing to frown at the card as a voice answered. "Yes, this is Doctor Smith and I received a card from you this evening saying you wanted me to come and take another look at those bodies we autopsied."

"I did notice something but…"

The furrows in Anna's brow only deepened, "But?"

"But I never left a note. I was about to send one over or even call your office."

"Then who…" Anna held the card up again and let out a sigh. "Have you had any new employees Doctor? Anyone from a medical school looking for training or-"

"We had one yes. Lanky fellow from medical school. Came by to look at the bodies for a report."

Anna sighed, closing her eyes. "I'll be right over."

"But someone said you came and saw them this morning." Anna stopped, her hand clutching tighter to the phone. "You're all signed in on the forms and-"

"I can most assuredly say I was not at the morgue this morning."

"Then I think you'd better come down here now and see where the mix-up lies. Something about this doesn't sit right with me."

"Nor me." Anna replaced the phone on the receiver and went for her coat. "Jane, please make sure that all of our notes and files are logged properly."

"We just did it yesterday when-"

"Someone is interfering with this investigation." Anna held up a hand to stop Jane continuing. "They've impersonated me at the morgue and they're making evidence disappear at the police station. We need to make sure they'll not do the same to the only evidence we have."

"Dr. Smith I don't think-"

"There's cause to worry?" Anna wrapped her scarf around her neck. "There's plenty of cause to worry Jane and we need to start doing it."

"I'll get Alfred and William to help sort the evidence."

Anna barely nodded before hurrying out the door.

The bite of the wind gnawed through her clothes as Anna hurried through the streets to the morgue. She was barely through the doors before her scarf was off and her coat dangled over one arm. Whatever attention she attracted was nothing to her as she hurried to Doctor Clarkson's office.

"Dr. Smith?" He came to her side in a moment, almost dropping the coat she thrust at him before cupping her hands in front of her face to try and warm the frigid end of her nose. "I'm sure whatever worries you have aren't enough to force you to brave the chill to come and-"

"Doctor Clarkson, there's been enough about this case that's odd and off to warrant far more worry than I've yet expressed." Anna exhaled a few more times, rubbing her nose to test for feeling, and took her coat and scarf back more calmly than she divested herself of them. "And your medical students, the visitor, isn't a medical student."

"Friend of yours?"

"In a way, yes."

"Saboteur of some kind?"

"I'd hazard he was doing a bit of investigating on his own and didn't want to be disturbed." Anna calmed a moment, "I recognized his handwriting on the card left for me at the lab."

"If he left you a card then why come in like the Devil was whipping at your heels?" Doctor Clarkson shook his head. "I don't know much about what is going on here, Doctor, but I do know the dead aren't going anywhere."

"Mr. Pamuk did."

"That was a release of the dead to his family. The rest of them are still in our freezers waiting for the paperwork to release them to theirs." Doctor Clarkson sighed, "There wasn't any hurry for you to come here and see them again."

"But you do have something to show me about them?"

"Yes. Something the… The not-medical student noted." Doctor Clarkson motioned for Anna to follow him and they moved through the corridors toward the freezer. "He thought there was something odd in the bodies."

"Odd how?"

"The same symptoms, for the most part. All poisoned."

"Mr. Pamuk's reactions?"

"Slightly different but all administered orally." Doctor Clarkson turned the lock on the door and led Anna inside. They both shivered a moment before he went for the larger freezer. "The hanging victims, for instance, didn't die that way."

"I did notice the trauma to their throats was post-mortem. Blood pooling due to position instead of breaking their necks or choking." Anna folded her arms around herself, clutching at her coat as she debated putting it back on as Doctor Clarkson opened the door for the freezer. "But James Kent was shot."

"But that wasn't what killed him." Doctor Clarkson dug into his pocket for a note and handed it to Anna. The writing on it, the slightly spiky but otherwise elegant script, matched the card she carried. "Your friend, the fake medical student, noticed he was poisoned. Right under the noses of the doctors treating him our Mr. Kent died because someone slipped him something not from complications of his gunshot wounds."

Doctor Clarkson opened the deep freezer and the two of them looked in for a moment before Anna turned to him. "Did you move the bodies, Doctor?"

"Mr. Moseley checked them himself when I finished reexamining them." Doctor Clarkson shook his head. "Three bodies don't just go missing."

"What about their reports? The ones you-"

"The original files are with the police and I hadn't created the paperwork to write up anything about possible next conclusions based on the evidence yet." Doctor Clarkson let out a breath, "I owe you an apology, Doctor."

"About?"

"I should've taken you more seriously when you said to worry about this case." He closed the freezer door and shook his head. "But who steals a body? Who steals three bodies?"

"Someone very interested in making sure we don't have any evidence left." Anna played with the cards in her hand and tucked them away. "I'll call the police."

When the police arrived, John and Inspector Crawley with him, Anna waited in the corridor for them to follow procedure. Constables filtered in and out of the freezer trying to collect evidence with slowly chilling fingers while Inspector Crawley and John took the necessary statements. As Inspector Crawley conferred with John a moment, Anna caught his eye and jerked her head once toward a corner of the intersection of corridors.

He split away, Inspector Crawley going to speak to Doctor Clarkson, and joined her. "I'm going to assume you don't think this is a prank."

"Not when I had this on my desk when I arrived at work this evening." Anna held up the first card. "That's not Doctor Clarkson's handwriting. But it does match the handwriting on the log for a medical student that doesn't exist."

"How'd you know that?"

"Because I called the medical school where he claimed his residency and they don't have records for an Adrian Alexander Veidt in any of their programs." Anna shifted to hand John the other card. "But it does match the handwriting of a friend of mine. One I contacted about this case."

"Not your Mr. Ross?"

"No," Anna shook her head. "Ross didn't know the medical school I attended but… But this man did. He chose my medical school to fake his paperwork to get in and see those bodies for himself."

"But he didn't sign in under your name."

"No." Anna narrowed her eyes, "Why would that matter?"

"Because whomever stole the bodies used your name to do it." John held up the carbon copy of the log page. "It's not your handwriting and I can swear to you being… Otherwise occupied during the time or removal."

"Something I desperately hope we don't have to tell anyone about." Anna folded her arms over her chest. "But I get the impression that whomever used my name to gain access here knew that the day staff wouldn't know my face."

"They would have to use a woman, though." John held up a finger. "That gives us a few places to start."

"How'd you mean?"

"If your friend got in here before the false-you did, then maybe he saw something. Perhaps your…" John paused, "I'll call him 'Adrian' for now, saw who it was. Maybe not that they were pretending to be you but they could know where we could start looking for those bodies."

"They'll just tell us what he already figured out." Anna tapped the second card in John's hand. "They were all poisoned. Whoever's doing this prefers their arsenic to asphyxiation, if you understand my meaning."

"It's traditionally considered a woman's weapon." John shrugged, "Not to cast aspersions but maybe the woman who snuck in here under your name also prefers to use her venom."

He paused, brow furrowing. "Like a viper."

"Do you have a lead?"

"I might." John handed the cards back to Anna. "Keep these safe. With the pen and whatever other pieces of evidence you might have socked away about this case. I don't want to lose anything we'll need."

Anna nodded, "What'll you do?"

"I've got to take Robert with me to go… Question someone." John shuddered, "I think I might have an idea about who the woman pretending to be you is."

"Really?"

"The only other woman we had any suspicions about." John sighed, "My ex-wife, Vera."

"She doesn't look anything like me."

"But it would be just like her to use you to…" John shook his head. "She might've been tailing us this whole time. Her jealousy knows no bounds."

"You think she impersonated me?"

"Wouldn't take more than your name."

"I'm only a little flattered and mostly disturbed." Anna shooed John away. "Go on. There are other things we've both got to do to find those bodies."

"Assuming we can find them. Or what to find what's left of them." John nodded at her, "I'll let you know what we find."

Anna watched him go, flicking the cards against her fingers a moment, and paused when she caught something out of the corner of her eyes. Turning her head ever-so-slightly she noted the lanky man in the stairwell passing a coin over his fingers. He caught her staring and nodded at her before pointing toward the next landing as he descended.

Following him away from the bustle, Anna stopped two stairs short of where the man continued playing with the coin. "I thought you had meditation balls."

"I did but they attract too much attention." He clicking his fingernail against the coin. "The noise, see. Besides, they're not common outside China and I don't want to have to explain it in conversations. You know how those drag."

"Telling someone you were a policeman in Shanghai before the war isn't anything to be ashamed of Henry."

"I never said I was ashamed of it. I said I didn't want to explain it." He tucked the coin away, "But you seem to've found yourself a home here."

"You didn't?"

"Well," He shrugged up a shoulder, "It's hard to be a 'Talbot' in today's political climate, if you know what I mean."

"Being a war hero isn't enough for you?"

"Your brother didn't advocate against fighting the Nazis." Henry shrugged, "But that's not why I'm here."

"You impersonated a medical student."

"A victimless crime."

"You referenced my medical school, Henry."

"How else could you be sure it was me?" He smiled at her before focusing on his hat to pluck at invisible debris there. "Besides, Ross told me you ignored the warnings to leave this alone."

"Are you a threat?"

"I'm a warning but…" Henry gave another shrug before replacing his hat on his head. "Bugger them I say."

"You'll help me?"

"Heavens no. I want to keep the job I have as it pays for the lifestyle I greatly enjoy." Henry scoffed at her, "Listen to yourself Anna, suggesting I'd throw them over for you."

"You might've once."

"We were firmly on the same side then."

"Is it so different now?"

"We're fighting different battles now." Henry gave a sigh. "I'm here to tell you to leave this alone. To walk away from it and try to let your over-active mind rest from what you can't solve."

"Can't or won't be allowed to?"

"The verb would be the same, Anna." Henry stepped toward her, lowering his voice. "Your inspector friend, Mr. Bates, will find out from his Supervisor when they report the theft of those bodies that the case is now officially closed. Even the little side investigation they've been running will be scrapped."

"Because you stole the bodies?"

"I didn't need to. I got the information I needed." Henry patted his breast pocket. "Information I was kind enough to leave for your doctor to investigate but someone came to collect their frozen corpses."

"Did you see who?"

"I saw a woman, about your height, with blonde hair not quite as golden as yours, and with a rounder face than you possess forging a rather abysmal replica of your signature."

"Do you know where she is?"

"I have an inkling about where she might work based on the instructions she gave to the poor boy driving the freezer truck she commissioned." Henry held out a business card. "I'm sure you know how to get yourself there."

"And what'll this cost me?" Anna did not take it, her eyes narrowing. "I know the cost of favors."

"Cost of this?" Henry made a show of scoffing at her again. "We're old friends, Anna. This is complimentary."

"And yet you'd still toss me in front of a bus to keep your current state of employment." Anna took the card. "How very convincing of you."

"We wear the shadows differently than we did in the war, Anna." Henry shrugged, "Omina mutanur, remember?"

Anna nodded, "Nos et mutamur in illis."

"Then this is where we part ways." Henry went to leave but Anna put a hand on his arm. "Anna, I'm not even supposed to be here."

"But you are." Anna took a breath, "I know that… I know why you left her. I know why it all happened and…"

"And?"

"And I recognized you that night." Henry's eyes only flicked to Anna a moment. "I know you were having dinner with Charles and Tony. I've an idea what that means. What it could mean."

"Is that a threat?"

"No." Anna shook her head, stepping back. "But it might lead my inspector friends to asking more questions they're not supposed to. They might wonder what you were doing there that night. They might try to find you."

"You are threatening me." Henry's eyes glinted a moment but Anna held her ground. "My, my Doctor Smith you've come a long way from sewing up bodies in France or slipping into tight spaces in Berlin."

"So have you." Anna dug into her pocket and produced the list of questions. "They just want these answered. It doesn't have to be official."

Henry took the list and read over it twice before nodding. "Arrange it the same way you contacted me. I'll give them one hour, that's it. And none of what I tell them can be used in any of their investigation. Whatever I tell them they'll have to back connect somehow to leave me out of it."

"They can do that." Anna tapped her fingers against the banister. "And I'm sorry to put you in this position Henry."

"But you're not." Henry tucked the list into his inner pocket. "And, to be honest, I can't say I'm upset by it."

"No?"

Henry shook his head, "It's more fun than tracking potential Soviet sympathizers. Makes me feel like we're doing good work again instead of crawling around in the gutter."

"Is it truly so bad?"

"It has its moments."

"Like the ones where you'd have to throw me over for your work?"

Henry nodded, "It's the kind of thing that makes it difficult to keep your friends or… Or to be yourself. It's hard to keep clean in this business now."

"I'm glad I got out when I did." Anna extended a hand to Henry, "For all you've done, Henry, you'll have my gratitude."

"It's been my pleasure." Henry shook her hand firmly. "You remind me of the old days Anna. The days I miss most."

"Being shot at by Germans and chased by the SS?"

"Doing real, tangible good." Henry almost allowed his whole body to sag. "If I ever… If I happened to show up on your doorstep one day and I needed your help, could I count on you?"

"In a heartbeat Henry. I'd do the same for Jack and Atticus. You know that."

"Good." Henry nodded, "Because there may come a day when I need it. When I need you to help me put myself back together again."

"I did it once."

"It won't be like it was then." Henry exhaled heavily, "Then it was you and me singing our lives away to Naval Intelligence. This time it'll be… It'll be more like you're helping me recover my soul."

"You've not lost your soul Henry. Not if you're giving out clues."

"Well I've not lost it yet." Henry tipped the brim of his hat to her. "Doctor Smith, until we meet again."

"Until then." Anna watched him descend into the bowels of the building before studying the card he gave her. Curling it in her hand, Anna moved back up the stairs and passed through the corridor to one of the constables. "Has DCI Bates or Inspector Crawley left yet?"

"No ma'am, they got waylaid with something there." The constable pointed and Anna nodded her thanks before weaving toward the lobby where John and Inspector Crawley conversed with Doctor Clarkson.

Anna caught John's arm and held out the card. "I've got a lead on where the bodies went and who took them."

"How?" John took the card but it was in his fingers less than a second before Inspector Crawley plucked it free to study it.

"I can't answer that." Anna tightened her jaw and John nodded.

"Do you have any information you can tell us?"

"The woman who took the bodies rented a freezer truck and she looked… Quite a bit like me, from the description."

"That's what I was explaining to them." The secretary almost gritted through her teeth at them as she held up the log. "It's your signature and the woman who came in looked enough like you that the woman on the desk this morning thought it was you. She's not seen you enough to know the difference."

"And the woman who did this," Inspector Crawley cut in, holding up the card. "Works at the Cerulean Swan?"

"From what I know, yes." Anna bit at her lip. "Although I don't recall seeing anyone that looked like me there."

"But there could be someone who looks like you if no one knows what exactly you look like." John mused, "Someone who could pass for you in a moment of confusion or might fool someone for a moment."

"None of the patrons we questioned fit that description."

"I don't think we're looking for a patron." Anna cut in. "They'll not go back."

"Then who?"

"Someone who works there." John tapped the card in Inspector Crawley's hand. "She rented a freezer truck. I think we should find out what for."

"What about your ex-wife? The viper with the venom you were convinced impersonated your girlf-" Inspector Crawley stopped himself at the scowls on Anna and John's faces. "We'll speak to Vera later."

"Not that you were excited about the prospect to begin with." John snatched the card back from Inspector Crawley before turning to Anna. "Would you like to accompany us Doctor?"

"There aren't any bodies to inspect here so yes, I think I should."

"It's criminal that we're going back to the Cerulean this many times and we've still not had a chance to eat anything." Inspector Crawley grumbled, "Truly, utterly and completely ridiculous."