“You’re making it far too sensationalistic.”

“Does anyone in your office routinely check the bodies when they first come in? Just to be sure they’re dead?”

“I’ll have a statement for you in the morning. Good night.” She hung up. Before the phone could ring again, she unplugged it. It was the only way she’d get any sleep tonight. Staring down at the now-silent phone, she wondered: How the hell did the news get out so fast?

Then she thought of all the witnesses in the ER-the clerks, the nurses, the orderlies. The patients in the waiting room, watching through the glass partition. Any one of them could have picked up the phone. A single call, and the word would be out. Nothing spreads faster than macabre gossip. Tomorrow, she thought, is going to be an ordeal and I’d better be ready for it.

She used her cell phone to call Abe. “We have a problem,” she said.

“I figured.”

“Don’t talk to the press. I’ll come up with a statement. I’ve unplugged my home phone for the night. If you need to reach me, I’m on cell.”

“Are you prepared to deal with all this?”

“Who else is going to do it? I’m the one who found her.”

“You know this is going to be national news, Maura.”

“AP’s already called me.”

“Oh, Christ. Have you talked to the Office of Public Safety? They’ll be in charge of the investigation.”

“I guess they’re next on my list to call.”

“Do you need any help preparing the statement?”

“I’ll need some time to work on it. I’ll be late coming in tomorrow. Just hold them off until I get into the office.”

“There’s probably going to be a lawsuit.”

“We’re blameless, Abe. We didn’t do anything wrong.”

“It doesn’t matter. Get ready for it.”

THREE

“Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give to the court in the case now in hearing shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”