Flowers for Bill O'Reilly — Max Allan Collins

In post WW2 Chicago, private eye Richard Stone goes to a small idyllic town to recover the body of an old friend struck down by a car. Stone's late pal had been on hard times, drinking, working odd jobs, and his death seemed tragic but understandable. Understandable at least until Stone learns the body isn't available, and no investigation into the circumstances was made. Stone's own investigation leads to a shocking experiment at a country estate more out of Edgar Allan Poe than Norman Rockwell.