She lay with the bedclothes thrust back for coolness' sake , and because her posture was the result of chance she had not that precision and equilibrium of the bodies he was used to , but was clumsily skewed towards him .sx Gravity had taken control of the breast on the uphill side and tugged it almost free of her nightdress so that it hung like a leaking balloon across her chest .sx Adam gazed absently at the large pink nipple pointed accusingly at him and the last refinement to his plan swam complete and perfect into his mind .sx Happily , he swung the bedclothes back from his own body and silently slipped out .sx At work Adam busied himself preparing for the three jobs which were scheduled .sx He checked over his preparations , making sure the machines were connected up , the power switched on to the saws and drills , the temperature in the freezers and refrigerators correct .sx Then , casting his experienced eye round the stark room , he decided everything was in readiness , and went through to his room to switch on the kettle for coffee .sx On the way he pulled out the mortuary drawer and checked that his memory had not been at fault .sx It had not .sx The plan , which he complimented himself had a certain elegance to it , could proceed .sx After coffee things hotted up .sx A set of relatives came , accompanied by the coroner's officer and a practised , sombre undertaker , to view their departed through the little window in the anteroom , set up to serve as an office while looking vaguely like a chapel .sx As soon as they had made the formal identification , Adam drew the little curtain and left them to the ministrations of the coroner's officer while he wheeled away the corpse , whisked off the sheet which cloaked its nakedness and hid the identification tag , and began transferring it on to the grooved marble of the table , ready for Dr Speed's attention .sx They got the first post-mortem finished before lunch , Dr Speed living up to the well-worn joke his name inspired .sx The body was that of a man in his forties who had died unexpectedly under anaesthetic :sx the hospital had been very worried that some mistake had been made which might result in litigation .sx Fortunately , as soon as the cadaver was opened up , the reason was apparent .sx " Looks like old Boulders is off the hook , " Speed remarked cheerfully .sx Boulderstone was the anaesthetist .sx Adam didn't bother to reply .sx All Speed required of him was that he should be efficient , which he was :sx there was no real point of contact between the two men .sx Speed turned away and began to peel off his gloves , saying , " All yours , Adam .sx " .sx Adam prided himself on his skill in putting bodies back together after they had suffered at the pathologist's hands , and quickly did his usual workmanlike job .sx The organs and specimens which had been removed were carefully labelled and put into storage .sx It didn't look as if there would be any need to send them for analysis in this instance , but Adam decided as he ate his sandwiches in his room and absently leafed through the pages of bodies in Penthouse that it would be as well to play safe .sx You never knew what might be necessary in these cases where there was a possibility of legal complications .sx By two the mortuary began to seem distinctly crowded as the coroner's officer , an anxious GP , and a bored police sergeant squeezed along the walls .sx Tony Beecham had only been in his thirties , a partner in a small but flourishing electrical contractors' business .sx Beecham's firm had secured a lucrative series of contracts with the Health Authority to refurbish the hospital lighting .sx Adam had seen Beecham in the hospital corridors several times over the previous couple of months ; a brash , physical man who leered at the nurses and called them 'darling' and gave them the full benefit of his handsome blue eyes .sx When Adam first came to suspect that Jenny was having an affair , the guilty partner was not hard to guess .sx Then , within a period of only two weeks , Beecham seemed to sicken and become listless .sx Eventually he took a few days off work to shake off 'this irritating bug' .sx Within twenty-four hours he was dead .sx As had to happen , the coroner was informed and a post-mortem examination arranged .sx Jenny had seemed quite shocked when she learnt from a colleague that the post-mortem on Beecham , whom they all knew , was going to be done in their own hospital where Adam would have to assist .sx It seemed , she said , almost indecent .sx Not that there was any reason , she added hastily , why it should particularly concern her ; she doubted if she had so much as spoken to the poor man .sx It was that day that her convenient 'hay-fever' had begun , and she walked round with red eyes and tissue to face .sx Now Adam looked down at Beecham's inert body with satisfaction .sx No doubt he had thought himself out of reach of death for a good few years yet ; yet here he was , and his flirting days were over .sx Adam assisted at Beecham's post-mortem unobtrusively .sx On occasions like this he seemed to blend into the cream and green painted walls , so well did he efface himself .sx As he anticipated Speed's requirements and passed him the instruments he idly totted up the number of autopsies he had attended ; it must be near a thousand , surely ?sx Enough , certainly , to be absolute master of the necessary procedures .sx Silently and efficiently he labelled specimens , weighed organs , padded to and from the refrigerator , while the onlookers shifted from foot to foot and cracked the usual jokes or talked with careful nonchalance about the prospects for the Third Test .sx " Looks as if it's all down to the laboratory tests , " Speed remarked to his audience as he nudged the tap on with his elbow to wash his hands .sx Adam began sewing up while the others chatted .sx Speed had dictated his findings into a machine as he worked , so everyone was aware of the absence of obvious injury or disease .sx It looked as if Beecham might have died of something he ate or drank .sx There had been several cases of salmonella and botulism recently .sx The tests would show .sx Adam glanced sardonically at the violated features of the dead man .sx You never thought you were mortal , did you ?sx And he pulled the thread tight with a vicious tug , as if the dead man were still capable of feeling the violence of his fury .sx Later , when the mortuary had emptied of all the visitors , they came to the final 'client' , a woman who had fallen as she tried to get off a train before it had quite stopped in the station .sx She had stumbled and the carriage door had knocked her to the ground , fracturing her skull .sx Her blue eyes still looked startled as she lay on the grooved slab ; and well they might , Adam thought whimsically , to find herself lying here naked like an offering laid out for sacrifice when she had expected to be enjoying a visit to her older sister in Harrogate .sx She was much of Jenny's build and size ; and even something of her tangled hair was reminiscent of Jenny's fashionable windswept curls .sx How ironic , he thought , if it should have been Jenny lying there !sx .sx Speed raced through the post-mortem , muttering about his golf match .sx There was no real doubt about the cause of death , and the rest of his examination was perfunctory .sx Throwing a cursory goodbye to Adam , Speed dashed off to change and a few minutes later Adam heard the engine of his car roar as he hurried away .sx In the silent mortuary Adam plied his needle skilfully , and then stood a moment looking down at his handiwork , going through everything in his mind .sx Finally , with a last glance at the dead face with its eyes now shut for ever , which he and Speed between them had rendered bland and almost featureless , he manhandled the corpse on to the trolley , wheeled it through to the bank of refrigerators , slid out the drawer , transferred the body and shut it away .sx Back in the mortuary he worked quickly , for it was getting late and keeping to his routine was important to him .sx Carefully , he made sure the labels on the specimens for the laboratory and the clinical chemistry department read as they ought , and placed them aside for despatch the following morning .sx One glass jar he set apart from the others .sx Jenny was still out when Adam reached home , working a shift which would not finish until late in the night .sx Adam reflected on his own gullibility , his readiness to believe Jenny when she used her rota as a general-purpose excuse to cover her absences .sx Well , he told himself with satisfaction , she wouldn't be so ready to do so in the future .sx Adam climbed the stairs to the empty bedroom .sx The curtains were still drawn , lending the unremarkable room a queer aura of sensuality .sx His eye fell on Jenny's silk nightdress ; he picked it up and it slithered evasively from his grip .sx Letting it fall , he looked around the room , making up his mind .sx He considered the chest-of-drawers :sx in front of the mirror among Jenny's make-up things might be a good spot .sx In the end Adam set what he had brought on the little bedside cabinet on Jenny's side of the bed , removing a photograph of her parents to make room .sx Estimating angles , he turned it a little this way and that until he was satisfied .sx Adam was in bed when Jenny came home .sx He heard the car , and then the key in the door , and then the chain going on , and then the distant clatter of the milkpan , and the clunk the toaster made as it popped up .sx The room lightened slightly as the landing light went on ; and Jenny's footfalls mounted the stairs and passed the door .sx Running water in the bathroom .sx The lavatory flushed .sx Jenny spitting as she cleaned her teeth .sx Adam lay listening to it all , thinking , it will never be the same again ; not for her , though she doesn't know it ; nor for me , not any more .sx The landing light went out , and Adam smelt Jenny's scent and the faint hospital aroma clinging to her as she softly came into the bedroom .sx Cloth whispered .sx A zip whirred .sx Nylon whistled .sx A hand groped for , and found , the silk nightdress .sx The bed creaked , and sagged , as a body settled itself in next to Adam's in the dark .sx Soon he heard Jenny's breath sink into its customary nocturnal rhythm .sx Adam was buttering his toast in the morning and wondering when it would happen , when Jenny's scream came .sx He smiled quietly to himself and bit happily into his breakfast .sx After he had eaten it he poured a cup of tea and took it up to the bedroom .sx The light was on , as he had left it when he came downstairs , to make sure Jenny woke .sx Jenny stood with the bed between her and the naked blue eye which stared slightly bloodshot and improbably large from the fluid-filled glass jar on the bedside cabinet .sx Her own eyes , he noted interestedly , were very nearly as large and as round as that baleful specimen .sx The effect was quite what he had hoped for , and he congratulated himself on the good fortune which had provided him with a second blue-eyed corpse just when he needed it .sx Adam walked across the room and put the cup and saucer down on the chest of drawers before turning to meet his wife's horrified gaze .sx The beautiful tangle of auburn hair which was her pride and which had no doubt contributed to bringing her to this point would be all his now ; all his the wide mouth with its parade of tiny white teeth ; all his the flawless skin from which the blood had receded ; all his those brown eyes which stared in disbelief but which could widen and soften into treacle pools of sensual abandon .sx