'Okay, let me phone down.'

She lay on one of the tables under the hard white light.

There were enormous stitched scars where Romano had opened her up, the same scar around the skull.

Blake felt incredibly detached. This creature had been the love of his life, his wife, his support in many bad times, and now…

He said, 'I was never all that religious, but human beings are pretty remarkable. Einstein, Fleming, Shakespeare, Dickens. Is this what it ends up as? Where's Kate? This isn't her.'

'I can't give you an answer,' Romano told him. 'The essence, the life force — it just goes. That's all I can say.'

Blake nodded slowly. 'I'll tell you one thing. She deserved better, and someone should pay for this.' His smile was the most terrible thing Parker had ever seen when he said, And I'm going to see that they do.'

Back at Parker's office, there was a message for him to phone Helen Abruzzi.

'What's new?' Parker asked.

'Well, we checked out Katherine Johnson's house, and it's been burgled.'

'Damn,' Parker said. 'Okay, we'll be right there.' He turned to Blake and explained. Blake said, 'Let's take a look.' Helen Abruzzi was already there ahead of them when they arrived.

'There's no sign of forced entry, but the study upstairs has been ransacked. It's hard to tell what's been taken.' She led the way, opened the study door, and entered. Thes cene of devastation was evident, videotapes scattered all over the place.

Parker said, 'Anything in the machinery?'

'Not a thing. No disks, no tapes, no copies, nothing in the computer.'

'That smells, for starters.'

Blake said, 'Somebody was after something, Harry, that's obvious, and probably found it. The thing is, what and why?' He turned to Abruzzi. 'Have the crime scene people finished here?' She nodded. 'Then could you get your people to look at these tapes littering the floor, Sergeant? You never know. You might turn up something.'