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husband’s.
    He had just finished ascertaining that Lewis Thorpe’s suicide cluster was as low as Lindsay’s when a beep sounded from his jacket pocket. Lash drew out his cell phone. “Yes?”
    “Dr. Lash? It’s Edwin Mauchly.”
    Lash felt mild surprise. He didn’t give out his cell number to anybody, and he certainly didn’t recall giving it to Eden.
    “Where are you right now?” Mauchly’s voice sounded different: clipped, brusque.
    “Greenwich. Why?”
    “It’s happened again.”
    “What’s happened?”
    “There’s been another one. Another double-suicide attempt. A supercouple.”
    “
What?
” Surprise vanished beneath a wave of disbelief.
    “The couple’s name is Wilner. Larchmont residents. They’re en route to Southern Westchester now. From your location, you should be able to make it in—” there was a brief pause “—fifteen minutes. I wouldn’t waste any time.”
    And the line went dead.

NINE
    S outhern Westchester County Medical Center was a cluster of brick buildings on the outskirts of Rye, just over the New York border. As Lash screeched into the ambulance entrance, he could see that the ER was unusually quiet. Just two vehicles sat together in the shadows beyond the glass admitting doors. One was an ambulance; the other a long, low, hearse-like vehicle bearing the seal of the county medical examiner. The rear doors of the ambulance were open, and as Lash trotted across the blacktop he glanced toward it. An EMS technician was at work with a bucket and sanitizer, swabbing the interior. Even from twenty yards Lash caught the coppery tang of blood.
    The smell brought him up short, and he glanced hesitantly up at the building’s dark-red bulk. He had not been inside an emergency room in three years. Then, recalling the urgency in Mauchly’s voice, he forced himself forward once again.
    The waiting area seemed subdued. Half a dozen people sat in plastic chairs, staring vacantly at walls or filling out forms. A small knot of policemen stood in one corner, talking among themselves in low tones. Quickly, Lash headed for the door marked S QUAD R OOM , opened it, felt along the wall for the button that opened the automatic doors into the emergency room.
    The doors whispered open onto a far different scene. Several orderlies were at work, scrambling with equipment trays. A nurse walked by, liters of blood clutched in her arms. Another followed with a crash cart. Three EMS technicians were standing at the nurses’ station, not speaking. They looked dazed. Two were still wearing pale-green gloves heavily smeared with blood.
    Lash scanned the area for a familiar face. Almost instantly he spotted the chief resident, Alfred Chen, walking toward him. Normally, Chen moved with the slow, stately grace of a prophet, a smile on his Buddha-like face. Tonight, Chen was moving quickly, and the smile was gone.
    The resident’s eyes were on a metal clipboard in his hands, and he didn’t bother looking up at Lash. As Chen passed, Lash stuck out an arm. “Alfred. How’s it going?”
    Chen stared blankly for a moment. “Oh. Chris. Hi.” The smile made a brief appearance. “Could be better. Listen, I—”
    “I’m here to see the Wilner couple.”
    Chen looked surprised. “That’s where I’m headed. Follow me.”
    Lash swung in beside the resident.
    “Are they patients of yours?” Chen asked.
    “Prospective.”
    “How’d you hear about it so fast? They just got here five minutes ago.”
    “What happened?”
    “Suicide pact, according to police. Pretty thorough job of it, too. Radial vein, opened lengthwise from wrist to forearm.”
    “In the bath?”
    “That’s the strange part. They were found in bed together. Fully clothed.”
    Lash felt the muscles of his jaw tighten. “Who found them?”
    “Blood came through the ceiling of the condo below theirs, and the owner called the police. They must have been there for hours.”
    “What’s their condition?”
    “John Wilner bled out,”