“But wasn’t the coffin sealed then?” Brett asked.
“The coffin was sealed at that point. But burial practices at the family’s cemetery of choice—as in most local cemeteries these days—require the coffin to be placed in a cement container before burial. That way, if a coffin breaks and there’s any leakage of...well, leakage, it’s contained by the cement. But that sarcophagus isn’t added until later, once the family is gone, so for some period of time the casket was available to someone looking to...steal the body. As I said, the cemetery sent a vehicle to pick it up—no motorcade, again at the family’s request—so anything could have happened along the way.” He paused, shaking his head. “However it disappeared, I’m certain that it didn’t happen here,” he said. He pushed the file folder toward Brett. “All our records, including the names and numbers of all our employees, are here. You’ve met with the family already, I understand. They are, naturally, threatening to sue us, so I’m hoping, as you can imagine, that you’ll be able to discover just what happened.”
“How is your security?” Brett asked.
“Well, we have the usual alarms, of course. Customarily, Carl Sage, our head mortician, is here until quite late, sometimes as late as midnight. I haven’t embalmed a body in years. Jill Hudson is our best cosmetician, and she works from ten until six. Whoever leaves last at night checks the locks and sets the alarm. Either Richard or I come in sometime between seven and eight the next morning.”
“How many keys to the facility?” Diego asked.
“Five,” Diaz answered. “Jonathan and I have keys, as does my wife, Geneva, whom you met. And then Jill Hudson and Carl Sage have keys, as well.”
“Security tapes?” Brett asked.
“Only in the viewing rooms,” Diaz said. “And Mr. Nicholson’s coffin was never open in the viewing room,” he added regretfully.
“We’d like you to arrange to for us to see everyone who works here tomorrow morning at ten,” Brett said, rising.
Douglas was upset as he also stood. “Agent, let me assure you again, we work to impeccable standards here. Whatever happened to Mr. Nicholson’s body, it happened after his body arrived at the cemetery. You need to investigate and find out what went on.”
“Mr. Douglas, if you truly want us to find out the truth and, I hope, clear your establishment, you’ll help in any way you can.”
“Of course, of course,” Diaz said, standing, as well. “We’ll have our people here, as you asked.”
As he drove out of the parking lot a few minutes later, Brett turned to Diego and asked, “Well?”
“Funeral homes have been in trouble before, but the cases I’ve heard about had to do with dumping the bodies to use the coffins again. We found Mr. Nicholson’s coffin in perfect shape.”
“What about Douglas and Diaz?” Brett asked. “What’s your impression of them?”
“We’ve learned a lot about how to spot a liar, and they both seemed to be telling the truth,” Diego said. “What about you?”
“I think they’re telling the truth, too,” Brett said. “But...there are all their employees.”
“Okay, say one or more of the employees are creating zombies,” Diego mused. “How would that connect to Miguel Gomez walking into a warehouse that went up in flames—and somehow getting out alive?”
“Maybe they’re not creating zombies, just supplying a body when one is needed,” Brett said. “Okay, so here’s my theory so far. It’s not much, but it fits the facts. This isn’t about drug cartels, crime lords or anything else we customarily deal with. Someone out there wants to play God, wants to push every boundary and find out just what he’s capable of doing. The Barillo family may be involved—because someone died in that warehouse, and we know it wasn’t Miguel Gomez. But Gomez worked for Barillo, and Gomez showed up after his supposed death, behaving strangely, the night his wife was killed. So whoever was involved in reanimating Randy Nicholson’s undead body was almost certainly also involved with the reanimation of Miguel Gomez’s body, which means he may also be involved with the Barillo family.
“Okay, what else do we know? We know that Nicholson made it to the mortuary from the hospital, because Jonathan Douglas just said that he saw the body. So now we’re looking for someone with the connections and the ability to reanimate the supposedly dead. I just wish it was as easy to find him as it was to figure out he exists.”
“It really does sound as if we’re looking for a mad scientist,” Diego said gravely.
Brett frowned. He wanted to disagree, but he really couldn’t.