When we’re in my Jeep, I ask Ceepak, “So where to?”
“My mother’s. I want to ask her for the full details of her conversation with Dr. Rosen.”
I crank the ignition and we take off. I have one of those swirling gumball-machine lights in my glove compartment that I could slap on the hood of my Jeep (it plugs into the cigarette lighter) but I figure running over to see Ceepak’s mom isn’t really a lights-and-sirens type event.
“So,” I say, “what happened back in February?”
“Some local skinheads spray-painted swastikas on the front doors of B’nai Jeshurun.”
“And you cracked the case?”
“Roger that. One of the boys left his full handprint on a can of black spray paint he had tossed into the bushes not far from the temple doors. I ran it through the system. Made a match.”
“How come I never heard about this?”
“We opened and closed the case in under twelve hours. I believe you had the night off.”
“But I never saw the swastikas.”
“The two boys-who, by the way, confessed immediately, when I noted the incriminating black paint caked under their fingernails-agreed to scrub the doors clean before I escorted them over to the Ocean County Juvenile Detention Center.”
Of course they did. Ceepak can be very convincing.
While I drive, Ceepak works his phone. He keeps all his conversations on speakerphone so I can stay up to speed.
The morticians at Grossman amp; Mehringer are instructed not to touch Dr. Rosen’s body and to expect Dr. Kurth’s imminent arrival. The Funeral Home agrees to cooperate and “help in any way possible.” They’ve worked with Dr. Kurth before.
The next call goes to Dr. Kurth. She’ll make her examination, take her fluid samples, and get the body back to the funeral home “before sundown.”
She promises us results ASAP.
“Not that we’re going to find anything except what he ate for breakfast.”
Ceepak thanks Dr. Kurth.
Five minutes later, we pull up to the Oceanaire condo complex’s guard shack.
“Hey, Detective Ceepak,” says the young guy with the clipboard on guard duty. “Here to see your mom?”
“Roger that. And, Bruce?”
“Sir?”