“But not enough to close up shop and stop embalming their clients evidently.”

“Tradition … and the desire to prove they were as good or better than Dr. Pedro Ara and his world-famous embalming of Eva Peron.” She grimaced. “And then Uncle Francisco found that Eduardo was an even more brilliant doctor than Ara. He set out to train him to develop even more innovative procedures and show everyone that the Montez branch outshone Ara in every way. When the family saw that Eduardo Montez had potential, I think they coached him, educated him, then helped him experiment and have his discussions with experts in the field. But you can’t do that in complete privacy. Someone must have talked when Santos was asking questions.” She added, “Or when Delores asked questions.”

“On what subject?”

“Delores was vain. She was incredibly beautiful and did everything possible with makeup, clothes, and minor surgery to make sure that she stayed that way. I think that she had a horror of being ugly even in death. Heaven knows she’d seen and caused enough deaths to know what that looked like.”

“Are you guessing?”

“Yes, but some of the places she visited might have been a search. She spent a lot of time in the tombs of Ancient Egypt and the Kremlin. Egypt might have been the first culture to work on preservation. Lenin is still wonderfully preserved in Moscow. It probably impressed her. What if she heard that Montez had developed an embalming procedure that was better than the one Dr. Ara used on Eva Peron?”

“Then, if she thought of herself as great a leader as Eva believed herself to be, she would have done anything to make sure she would have an even greater chance for many years of preservation.” He nodded. “She was truly that vain?”

“From what I know of her, from what Kelly has found out, I’d say that she would have stolen Lenin’s coffin if she thought she could have gotten away with it.”

“Instead, she went after Montez.”

“And he suddenly came into a lot of money and moved his entire family to Guatemala shortly after he met with Santos and Delores.”

“They paid him for what? I believe Delores was in fine health until you shot her.”

“Future insurance? Eva Peron had her entire funeral planned, down to having her hairdresser come in and bleach her hair after her death.” She saw his brows rise, and she said in exasperation, “I don’t know. How could I? It is guesswork.” Her hands clenched. “But I’m close, Hu Chang. I know I’m close.”

“I know you are, too,” he said quietly. “And I do enjoy watching you move toward your goals. It gives me great pleasure to—”

“I’m not trying to entertain you, dammit.” She leaned forward. “I came down here for help. Now I’ve told you what I know and—”

“Guess,” Hu Chang corrected.

“Guess. Now you tell me what you know, you arrogant bastard.”

“Well, I wouldn’t actually say ‘know,’ although my calculated surmises are much more scientifically based than any you’ve—” He held up his hand as she opened her lips. “I’m getting there. And I admit that your insight has filled in several holes in my theory of what Montez was working on.” He looked back at the photo of Eva Peron. “Poor woman, she was born a little too soon. Delores was much more fortunate.”

“Hu Chang.”

“Well, until you killed her. But even then she was planning on not letting that defeat her.”

“You mean those equations are for an advanced procedure for embalming and preservation?”

“Yes and no. Think about the degrees that Montez earned and how they could apply.”

“Medical, chemical, mechanical engineering, theology,” she said impatiently. “And I don’t want to think. Tell me. Yes and no. What’s the yes?”

“Yes, there are chemical formulas in his book that are brilliant and innovative and probably concern an amazingly noninvasive form of embalming fluid.”

“So I was right.”

He smiled.

“Okay, what’s the no?”

“He wasn’t satisfied with just going a few giant steps further than Dr. Ara did with Peron. He decided that he could do much more.” He paused. “Hence the degree in mechanical engineering. He wanted to address not only cosmetic preservation but something more permanent. Or not. Considering your beliefs. I found formulas using liquid nitrogen and a glycerol-based chemical protectant mixture. I’m almost sure that they were to be used as a cryoprotectant.”

“Cryoprotectant?”

“Human antifreeze,” he said bluntly.

Then she understood. “Cryonics,” she said. “Delores planned on being frozen after death in hopes of being resurrected later, when medicine could take care of whatever had killed her.”

“That’s usually the purpose of people’s choosing to be kept in cryogenic-storage facilities. There are many arguments about whether there would be too much damage to the body from the freezing or the chemicals injected. It appears that Montez may have been able to solve those issues.”

“He did? How do you know?”

“I studied cryonics at one time. Preservation of life always interested me.” He shrugged. “But then I gave it up and went another direction. Too sedentary for me. I prefer to extend the life of the living, not the dead.”

“But Montez came close enough so that it would have had an instant appeal for Delores and Santos?”

“I couldn’t confirm that without experimentation. But his calculations are definitely more promising than anyone else’s work I’ve studied.”

Excitement was surging through her as she realized the possibilities. “He would have been a dream come true for Delores. An advanced embalming cosmetic procedure that would have preserved her youth and beauty. A cryogenic innovation that might bring her back from the dead someday. Still young, still beautiful.” Her lips tightened. “Still the monster she was when I killed her.”

“All of the above,” Hu Chang said. “Santos probably promised Montez a fortune for setting up Delores’s last resting place.” His lips twisted. “Or perhaps not only Delores. Santos has sufficient ego and desire for self-preservation himself. Maybe it was also for him.”

“But where did Montez set it up?” She was frowning. “Montez said that he didn’t know where Santos had set up his new headquarters. Yet I’d bet that Santos would have wanted his Delores near him.”

“Montez lied?”

“I don’t think so.” She reached for her phone. “But preparations would have had to be made immediately after Delores’s death, so there would be no deterioration. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes.”

“So Santos wouldn’t have let her be taken to the morgue.”

“As I recall, he was relatively helpless at that particular moment.”

“Maybe not.” She remembered Montez saying that Santos had begun wheeling and dealing the moment he was arrested. She hadn’t thought anything of it at the time. She began dialing her phone. “I’m calling Venable and asking him just how helpless Santos was that day.”

“Don’t you ever sleep?” Venable asked sourly when he picked up.

“Listen. Directly after Santos was arrested, was he making deals with the police and political bigwigs?”

Silence. “Maybe.”

“You know. Tell me.”

“It wasn’t a bad deal. I’d have taken him up on it, too.”

“What was the deal?”

“He offered up the location of two warehouses with close to a billion dollars in drugs and the names of the distributors. The only thing he wanted was for them to immediately release the body of his dead wife to Dorgal. He said he wanted her cremated. Of course, they took the deal. What good was a dead Delores Santos to them?”

“And no one checked to see if she’d been cremated?”

“Why? She wasn’t important to anyone but him.”

“She’s important now. Thanks, Venable.” She hung up and turned to Hu Chang. “She was turned over to Dorgal immediately. Supposedly to be cremated. So if there were injections to be given, it could definitely have been done. He paid very highly for the privilege of making sure Delores didn’t lose her chance.”