"It's all based on a great deal of speculation," cautioned Lucas. "Not solid enough for the DA or to get a warrant, it seems."
"Educated speculation," corrected Meredyth. "Due in large part because Lauralie couldn't resist leaving us bread crumbs to follow, as if-"
"Bread crumbs?" asked Nielsen.
"Clues, as if there beats inside her the heart of a person who wants to be caught and punished," explained Lucas.
"More likely she wants her day-and-say before the cameras and in court, as if she feels we owe it to her to catch her and make her a star," said Meredyth. "It's why she's selected Lucas and me to come after her, and perhaps because I was instrumental in placing her at that orphanage back in 1984."
"Damn twisted story," commented Nielsen. "Sounds too much like fiction not to be true, if you understand my meaning. Beyond belief, so it makes it credible by virtue of being beyond belief. Anything that bizarre…well, we have a saying for in Sweden. It is the lunacy not yet dreamt of that will befall you."
"I like that," said Lucas. "Are you sure it wasn't stolen from the Cherokee?"
"Sad but true," Meredyth said of the aphorism, and then she added, "Now let me see if I have it right. The most incredible lunacy, not yet dreamt of, shall come to pass…and Jesus wept for all mankind." She toasted it with her wine glass.
They dined to the rattle of dishware and silverware, each nursing private thoughts for the moment. The waiter came, asked after their comfort, and left. The music was as authentically Italian as the cuisine, from an opera Meredyth recognized.
"What more can you tell us about the mother's death?" asked Meredyth of Lynn Nielsen.
"One of the first uniformed officers at the scene told me it may have been staged to look as if Katherine had killed herself, but he would never repeat it again afterwards. Detective Feldman, the lead investigator, seemed to have some personal interest in closing the case quickly. I think he needed to clear his homicide board for the month. Who knows?"
"Feldman's a jerk," Lucas muttered. "He's a nine-to- fiver, anxious to wrap up a case and go home."
"Always scratching himself in the crotch," she said. "Is this why they call him Itch?"
Lucas laughed, Nielsen and Meredyth joining in. Someone passing by jostled their table, an empty bottle of wine spilling out its last drop, telling Lucas to order a second.
Nielsen continued talking about the Croombs matter. "They took the statements of neighbors about the woman's on-again, off-again relationship with the bottle. Said she had it bad, her battle with booze. But one neighbor said she thought Katherine was doing better since she had rediscovered her daughter." Nielsen sipped her wine before continuing. "I read some of Feldman's remarks in the file. He cited a long police history with the address, numerous occasions of disorderly disturbances, fighting, you know. This was enough to sum it all up for the detectives. Relapse. And this time an overdose. Closed case. Death was chalked down to accidental overdose."
"Chalked up," Lucas corrected her.
"Yes, and I was strongly urged to get it off my desk and get onto the sixty-four or so other cases awaiting me."
"Dr. Chang never looked over the findings?" asked Lucas.
"No, he was away at the time, and Patterson was in charge. Not likely I would have gone over Frank's head in any case, being new on the job and not yet knowing how to tiptoe around him like I do now."
"If you had had full responsibility and freedom to pursue the case at the time, what would you have done differently, Dr. Nielsen?" asked Meredyth.
"I would have done more than simply express my condolences to the daughter as Feldman and the others did, releasing the body and ordering it sent to an undertaker of her choosing. They should have questioned the daughter far more extensively about her alibi; instead, they listened to her sob story of how she had just found and reunited with her mother. The men were falling all over her as I recall."
Meredyth displayed the photo of Lauralie. "Is this the daughter?"
Nielsen studied the photo. "Yes, that is her."
"We think she left us a gift at the convent," said Lucas. "Found this and a few ounces of blood in the baptismal at Our Lady." He showed her the index finger from what they suspected was Mira Lourdes's left hand.
"Like I said, no such thing as free lunch," Nielsen replied, wincing at the amputated digit.
"Sorry," said Lucas. "I thought all you coroner types were immune to such things as runaway body parts."
A waiter stood over them, gasped, and threw down the bill before Lucas realized he'd been traumatized by the thing nestled in the handkerchief. Meredyth grabbed the hanky, folding it away, but Lucas managed to grab it back. "Hey, that's still evidence."
"What're you going to do with that thing, Lucas? Take it to the witch doctor out at the Coushatta Reservation? See if we can get some voodoo input on the case?"
"Cherokee magic might surprise you, Mere."
"No amount of tobacco twisting and burning is going to help us here, Stone Man," Meredyth replied.
"Hey, I know you're frustrated, but you shouldn't knock what you haven't tried, Doctor," he fired back.
Meredyth dropped her gaze and wrung her hands together. "I'm sorry, Lucas. It's just this case is getting to me… she's getting to me."
"If you would care to leave the finger with me, Lieutenant," said Nielsen, "I can match the tissue against what we have, make a certain determination as to whether or not it is Lourdes's digit."
Lucas joked, "I thought I'd make a necklace of it, make it my Cherokee magical icon, but I am tiring of carrying it around." He handed it, wrapped in the handkerchief, to Dr. Nielsen. As he did so, Meredyth grabbed for the check. Lucas caught her hand and retrieved the check.
"I'm paying," she said.
"The hell you are."
Their waiter suddenly and noisily stormed out of the restaurant, tossing his apron at the boss. "Look at that, Lucas. The guy quit his job. I hope you're proud of yourself. Now give me the check. You've caused enough trouble tonight." Meredyth held one end of the check between her fingers, and he held the other end in a tug of war that ripped it in two.
Lucas firmly said, "It's my treat. You can leave the tip."
"Leave the tip for whom?" asked Nielsen, amused at the two.
"You are such a…a man!" Meredyth sternly said.
Nielsen laughed and said, "Are you two sure you're not married?"
Lucas laughed at this, and tossed down several bills to cover the meal.
In the parking lot outside, they said good night to Dr. Nielsen and asked her to keep their discussion private for now, sharing it only with Leonard Chang. She agreed without reservation.
"Whatever you do, say nothing to Frank Patterson on the matter," Lucas said.
"I have no intention of doing that."
They parted company with Lynn Nielsen. As they went for the car, Meredyth said, "Wish we had some notion of Lauralie's whereabouts."
"We find her, we find the boyfriend, and we can shut them down."
"Wish I could be a hundred percent certain one way or the other of any part I played in helping shape this woman's obsession. Wish I could see those records at the courthouse."
'Tonight? Open the Harris County courthouse records? That'd also take a warrant signed by a judge. Tomorrow's another day, Mere."
"Another day and possibly another horrible mailing to you or me or both of us."
He pulled her into his arms and hugged her close. "It'll be all right. I promise you, it's going to be all right."
They drove from the restaurant down a series of meandering streets until Lucas pulled to the curb in a residential neighborhood. An Interstate overpass sliced the street in two, and cutting his engine, Lucas said, "I want you to stay right here, Mere. I'll be right back."
"Where the hell are we, Lucas? And where're you going?"