"So her parents moved the body in order to make it look like an accident, rather than suicide?" Laura absently stirred the pasta on her plate, picking out the bits of chicken and mushrooms and ignoring the broccoli.

"They didn't want anyone looking at the body too closely. But they didn't get their wish, thanks to you." Although Lewis told himself he was being gracious, he was nagged by the suspicion that his motive was a bit more selfish: trying to get her to admit that he was the cause of the close examination.

"Cook seems to do perfectly adequate work on everyone else's cases. Why is it he can't get yours right?"

"Maybe everyone else is satisfied with mediocre work."

She studied her dish. "Maybe everyone else doesn't prefer to work with only one certain pathologist." She met his eyes and flashed a smile just as Lewis took a sip of wine.

He choked a bit, quickly setting his glass down before he spilled it. "I've worked with other pathologists! I can work with anyone who's competent. Cook, in my experience, is not." He prodded his spaghetti with his fork, pouting a little and feeling foolish for doing so.

She watched him with half-closed eyes, her mouth showing a touch of amusement. Finally, she decided she had tortured him long enough. "Okay, I'll concede this one. You were right to question his work. But Robbie, I really can't be redoing every one of his examinations."

It surprised him that she was so forthright about admitting he was right. "Aw, no, you don't have to redo all of them. Just the ones he cocks up. I'll let you know next time he does that." He grinned. But there was still one thing that kept him from feeling completely satisfied. How to ask this?

"So, Laura . . . did you enjoy your time off?" He twirled the stem of his wineglass.

"Mmm, yes. Had a lot of fun."

She was going to make him work for it. "Doing . . . ?"

"Oh, going out for dinner, going to a concert, staying up late playing cards, that kind of thing."

"What, by yourself?" She was enjoying this, he knew.

"No, of course not."

He sighed in exasperation, and she took pity on him. "My brother was here for a few days. He lives in Canada and I don't get to see him very often. Were you thinking it was something else?"

He didn't know why he felt so relieved. "Oh, well, it's none of my business, really." He brightened. "Mind if I have that last piece of garlic bread?"

o - o - o