Dick Francis, the phone to his ear, slides his hand over the mouthpiece to fill in one of his Campus Security men, Ty Powell: "It's Margaret Peabody. I'm supposed to make a command appearance at a meeting at Alice Watson's office tomorrow afternoon. Apparently she's the low muckety-muck on the totem pole and is in charge of damage control..."

A change occurs in his tone of voice, from annoyed to genuinely respectful, as Francis removes his hand from the phone and speaks to the person on the other end: "Don't worry, Margaret, I'll leave my badge and gun with Lizzie at the police department if Dennis promises to do likewise with his bow and arrows... See you at three."

As he hangs up, he gratefully takes a beer from Ty and, after a long drink, poses a rhetorical question to his buddy: "I wonder if this is just a Public Relations mess, or if there's really something to find out about that damned corpse? And, if there is, just who doesn't want us finding out what?"

Ty knows that his boss doesn't really expect any response, so he just turns over the day's collection of campus parking citations and heads into the Security Office to sign out, wishing Dick a pleasant evening as he leaves.