“Spice up the poetry? Raise or lower the bar?”
“Depends on the bar you're talking about,” he countered.
“And the prevailing tastes?”
“Eye of the beholder, precisely.”
“A meeting of pure art and body art. Interesting. What will they think of next? But why haven't I heard about this fad before?”
“Philly PD task-force people say it's relatively new, and if you haven't seen someone with body poetry on his or her back… Well, Jess, you have to admit that if it isn't in your lab, you don't always know what's trendy, what's hot, what's not.”
“Are you suggesting I'm not with it?”
Smiling, he apologetically raised his hands in classic submitting-to-arrest posture. Then Eriq retrieved the photo and slid it into the file. “A copy is being blown up as we speak, and I'll get it to you. As to your being with it, don't blame yourself for not being able to keep up with the youth of this ever-changing U.S. of A. This thing appears to have originated in certain areas of Philadelphia, spread from there.”
“I see, and now it's all balled up with some psychotic murder spree there.”
“Some nude club dancers have been 'written up' and they're using it in their acts these days.” Santiva pursed his lips and seemed to reflect on some image in his head. “Saw one myself in Miami last time I visited family there.”
Jessica feigned shock, her eyes growing wide. “Realllly?”
“Really, yes.”
“So, are you telling me you're sending me out on a case that does not involve hacking and mutilation?” she chided. “Lead investigator in Philly is Detective Lieutenant Leanne Sturtevante.”
“Ah, a woman. Good. Maybe I won't have so much trouble fitting in. You want me to link up with this Sturtevante person?”
“You can arm yourself with your usual objectivity and scientific method, Jess, but this case is going to require your skill and hard-won knowledge. No one in history- much less in Philly-has seen anything like this before.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“Philly PD have set up a task force.”
“All right, task force. Worked with 'em before.”
Santiva turned and looked her in the eye. “Glance over what they've accumulated. See if they're on the right track.”
“The right track being…?”
“All right, see if they are on any track.”
She nodded. “Sure, meet with them, act as a liaison.”
“Well, a kind of medico-legal, third-string liaison on the case, yes.”
“Third-string?”
“First there's Philly PD; second our local field office, which is heavily involved. Then there's you, and Dr. Desinor.”
“Kim's assigned to the case, too?” Jessica smiled at the thought of working with her friend and the FBI's resident psychic expert, Kim Faith Desinor.
“That's a go.”
“We haven't worked a case directly together since-”
“New Orleans, I know.”
“Sounds interesting. Tell me, who's our ASAC in Philly these days? Obviously, we'll be working closely together.”
“You may not like this, Jess.”
“Whaddaya mean?” Santiva now stepped away from the ledge and stared off at the setting sun. From below, a late-evening regiment marched drills as dusk descended and the lights went up. Finally, he spat it out. “It's Parry… James Parry.”
Jessica looked like she'd been struck in the face. “Jim? Jim's now ASAC-ing in Philadelphia?” She quickly regained her calm. “Wow… A stone's throw away compared to Hawaii, and I'm the last to know,” she said in a matter-of-fact voice. “Wouldn't you know, that bas-”
“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Jess.”
“Christ, why didn't you tell me sooner?”
“When sooner?”
“Before now sooner.”
“I just got the news.”
“When the… when did this happen?”
“Few weeks ago, Jess. Didn't know myself until yesterday. You know how slow certain information flows in the Bureau. It was all done hush-hush, really.”
She stared hard into Eriq's Latin eyes, which gave nothing away. Still, she believed he shared her pain. “Did he… did he request the transfer?” She had pleaded with James Parry for over three years to make just such a transfer so that they might be closer. They had broken up just before her trip to London, but given the distance between them, even the most crucial moments, even their breakup, had occurred over the phone. This had left a wide hole in her soul, a feeling that some needful thing was forever gone.
“You know how the Bureau works. He got into serious trouble with the Hawaiian Nationalist Party-something he said about native rights on the islands, and the State Department got involved because it might lead to an embarrassment or some such bullshit. Politics is what got Jim, pure and simple. Chances of there being an international incident over the issue of homeboy rule in Hawaii, which is as likely as turning over L.A. to the Native American population there, are nonexistent.”
“The State Department?”
“And your friend Parry likes stepping on toes, I think. You know how he loves to piss off Lauren Fennelly at the State Department.”
“Yeah, he's complained about Fennelly for years-to no avail.”
“Anyhow it all caught up with him. Everybody wanted him out, and so he's… well, suffice it to say that leaving a post in Hawaii for Philly wasn't his choice.”
“Son of a Bristol whore,” she muttered, mimicking what Richard Sharpe might say.
“What's that, Jess?”
“Never mind.”
“Well, does this color things too gray and grim for you, having to work alongside Parry?”
“No… it's hardly reason enough by itself to turn down an assignment.”
“Are you being honest with me, Jess?”
“I'm trying to be, yes.”
“And with yourself?”
“Don't you start psychoanalyzing me, Eriq.”
“Sorry. You see now why Bureau policy says don't get emotionally involved with fellow agents, Jess?”
“Practice what you preach, Chief. I hear via the grapevine you're seeing someone in the secretarial pool.”
“Man, try to keep a secret in this place.”
She stepped back to the ledge and stared again at the expanse of the government compound, her eyes falling on the twin towers most people here called home-the Hearth, they'd nicknamed it. She had imagined that once Richard boarded a jet and showed up in Virginia, they would share her apartment for a time and then go house hunting through the pleasant, surrounding valleys. “We won't speak of marriage,” she'd told him. “We'll cohabit, as they say. Play it by ear, one day at a time.”
It had all sounded wonderful when they'd made plans. Now she wondered what Richard would think of her working in such close proximity to her former flame, James Parry. Would he have a typical lover's response? Richard seldom did the typical thing. She had told him all about her and James's long-term, long-distance, once successful, and now failed relationship; she'd told him she feared the same would happen with them.
Richard had seemed so understanding. “I mean to love you as you are, Jess, with all that has gone into creating Jessica Coran up to this moment. My own prior experiences and experiments have been equally dismal.” He had then kissed her tenderly and warned that her only competition for his time would be his children.
Working again with James could seriously endanger her wonderful relationship with Richard. Working a case with Parry-just entertaining the possibility of it seemed dangerous. Still, a side of her felt a surge of anger at anyone who might stand in the way of her doing her job. “Well, Jess? What do you say? We'll need to give them an answer before long. Mull it over; get back to me as soon as you can.”
“I'll certainly give it serious thought, Eriq.”
“Look, I can't do a damn thing about Parry, but you've wanted to work with Kim again for a long time. You two made one hell of a team in New Orleans, and her psychic abilities might be of great use in Philadelphia. So… please consider all sides and let me know by ten p.m.”- he glanced at his watch-”eleven at the latest. Otherwise, John Thorpe can take this one. He did a line job on the Tattoo Man case; call it typecasting, if you will. In any event, the team we put together has to be in Philly by nine a.m. tomorrow.”