We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "R" saying
something like:

My cousin (Ex Co-Op hearse driver) suggests that this is the norm anyway.
Many of the expensive versions are reclaimed by the undertakers and removed
out of sight in the lower section of the hearse when they leave the
premises.

That lower section is handy for all sorts of things.