“ We have released enough information that we can hope for some help in learning the identities of the other two girls,” Jessica told Coudriet. “It may take some time, but we have television and the news media on our side for the time being-”
“ Don’t count on that lasting very long.”
“ All three of them died in the exact same manner as Allison Norris, and I suspect there will be more.”
“ Shall we go to work, Doctor?”
She nodded, then went for a surgical gown and gloves. She superstitiously located her own scalpel from her bag as well, the scalpel her father had given her so many years before, the scalpel she’d used to foil Matthew Matisak’s ugly plans in Chicago. She knew she’d need all the luck and skill she could muster to end the career of the heartless Night Crawler.
The autopsies on the two as-yet-unidentified young women only corroborated what they already knew, that each had died in the same manner, at the hands of the same killer. Tammy Sue Sheppard died in identical fashion, the fantasy-murder ritual precisely the same.
But it took seven hours of intensive lab work to prove it beyond any doubt, so Jessica was seven hours on her feet as they performed three autopsies simultaneously, each M.E. in communication with the other. By the time it was over, all the doctors were exhausted.
It was after six p.m. when suddenly Santiva showed up and said, “I’ve got something for you to see, and there’s someone I want you to meet right away.”
“ Eriq, I’m beat. Can’t this wait until tomorrow?” Jessica pleaded.
“ There’s been another letter from the killer.”
She was tearing away the rubber gloves she’d used during the autopsy, tossing them into a trash bin, thinking how stupid it was to expect anyone to replace rubber gloves at every single step of an autopsy or evidence-gathering. “As we expected there would be,” she said far more calmly than her heart was beating.
“ Here’s a copy. Read it, then meet me in the corridor. The eyewitness hasn’t been exactly forthcoming with us. I thought perhaps if she talked to you, another woman, it might be productive of something.”
She waved her hands in the air. “Jesus, Eriq, at least let me change and scrub and throw some water in my face, and while I’m doing that, do you think you could find me a nice garden salad?”
“ Jess, this is important.”
She took in a deep breath as she tore away her surgical garb and deposited it in a gurney. She then took the copy of the killer’s note in hand and walked into a nearby locker room where female internists and lab technicians changed. Coudriet and the other doctors had disappeared after the triple-autopsy like scattering rats, leaving the technicians to find freezer space for the bodies.
Santiva stormed into the women’s locker room behind her, saying, “I know you’ve been on your feet and you’re stretched to the max, Jess, but I think you’ll want to talk to Tammy Sue Sheppard’s girlfriend. The girl remembers something of the man Tammy Sue disappeared with the night she didn’t come home.”
A female lab assistant stepped in from the shower, placing a towel about herself as she did so. Seeing Santiva, she gasped and shouted for him to get out. Jessica joined in the chorus of expletives, driving Eriq from the room.
“ Pervert! Get outta here!” Jessica ordered, feeling good about doing so. She then sat down and stared at the strange note from the killer. Just as Eddings had predicted, the sequel verse in the e. j. hellering poem was continued. It read:
NINE
Has anyone ever seen a stranger moral fervor?
You who dirty the mirror cry that it isn 7 clean.
Santiva had somehow come up with a garden salad in a plastic container, a peace offering there in the hallway. “Will you talk to the girl? Judy Templar’s her name. She’s told police everything she remembers twice over, but she’s holding back, says she can’t remember the features of the man whom Tammy Sheppard was last seen with. It’s like she wants to but she’s blocked it out, self-preservation perhaps; I don’t pretend to know. See what you think, and let me know.”
“ Is she deliberately holding back?”
“ I don’t think it’s deliberate so much as it is some sort of psychological safety valve; I think she’s feeling guilty about the death of her friend, and now, learning that her death is a certainty, well… she’s closed some doors.”
“ How long have you had her in interrogation?”
“ Three hours. Had trouble finding her earlier. She was shopping but she didn’t buy anything. No one with her. She’s either a bad liar or very lonely.”
“ She give the composite guys anything?”
“ She’s been so wishy-washy and iffy that the session was a washout.”
Jessica located a small snack room whose tables and hard chairs looked familiar and comforting. She sat down and consumed half her fast-food salad while Eriq paced.
“ All right, I’ll talk to her, but there’s nothing says I’ll get any more from her than you were able to.”
She was up and tossing the remainder of her salad into a trash container, walking out the entry and into the corridor, going for the police precinct upstairs. Santiva hurried alongside her, asking, “Anything new or helpful come of the autopsies?”
“ Just what we suspected. Same MO, same guy.”
“ On all three… astonishing. God, this mother makes me mad.”
“ Maybe that’s his intention-and dive below that a moment, Eriq and ask yourself what that says about us.”
“ Hey, don’t go soft on me now, Jessica. We’re doing our jobs, and that’s all we’re doing. There’s a storm sliding across the sea out there that we didn’t create. We can only monitor it, locate it, warn others of it and somehow work to diffuse it.”
“ Warn others of it? Just how have we warned anyone outside police circles, Eriq? Just when do we get these storm warnings out to the public?”
“ In due time. That’s not your concern.”
“ Not my concern? Hell, Eriq, it should be our number one concern. You saw how young those girls in Coudriet’s Crime Lab were. It’s time we got some information out.”
“ That’s just what he wants us to do, write him up big in all our papers, talk about him on our TV and radio programs. Hell, he probably wants a spot on OprahV’
“ Then give it to the bastard, and give it to the public. It’s past time everyone knew.”
“ You get this kid upstairs to open up about the killer’s identity, and we’ll go public-hell, we’ll go national. Deal?”
She stopped before the elevator as it opened, depositing a handful of medical staff. She then stepped inside and turned to face Eriq, who remained in the corridor. “Deal,” she said as she laid on the close button, the doors responding immediately, closing on Eriq, who shouted, “She’s in interrogation six.”
Jessica saw Mark Samernow at the water cooler and Quincey on the phone at his desk. Samernow gave Jessica a half smile and asked her how she was doing, surprising her.
“ Why can’t anyone get any information from this girl inside interrogation room six?” she asked him.
“ Ask me, I’d say she’s blocked it out. Not a bad kid, really, just scared and feeling badly.”
“ That’s what Santiva tells me.”
“ We could get a shrink in to talk with her, but our guy’s a Freudian and not much with situations like this.”
She nodded. “How’re you doing, Detective?”
“ Me? Hell, I’m fine since the chewing-out I got from Quince and then my captain. He sure put my butt back on track. Tells me I’m being transferred out of Homicide to Vice detail if I don’t clean up my act. Guess I’ll survive one way or another.”