Chapter 15 Summary

The bereaved parents are kept for two days during an autopsy and preparation of the body. They give depositions rather than wait the weeks that Singh says it could take to close the case. Don Warden, a timid official from the U.S. Embassy apologizes to Indian bureaucrats for the difficulties that the Luczaks are causing by trying to circumvent normal procedures. At the airport there is a final delay: they must wait until Monday to get proper papers to authorize transfer of the body to the airliner. Warden suggests that they respect local custom by cremating Victoria in India, but Bobby recalls that Kali is the goddess of all cremation grounds and adamantly refuses. He threatens to kill anyone who interferes with is putting the body in the required steel coffin and leaving. He carries Victoria as he had at her birth...