I pulled up an Internet browser and began going through plat books and city registries.
But as time ticked away, I ran into yet another series of dead ends.
The property was owned by Richardson and Kirk, Inc., a company based in Austin, Texas.
Which was a subsidiary of Briesen Industries, located in Detroit, Michigan.
Which was owned by a multinational manufacturing conglomer-ate based in Germany.
Which didn’t seem to help us one bit.
At least I did find out that Richardson and Kirk Inc. bought the warehouse on November 2-seven months after the arsons started, and nine days before the first woman disappeared.
At last, with only five minutes left until the interrogation, I was gathering up my notes when I heard Ralph’s heavy footsteps pounding down the hall. His form shadowed the doorway. “Margaret found something on our guy,” he said. “Looks huge.
C’mon.”
We found Lien-hua, Margaret, and Lieutenant Graysmith all gathered in the lieutenant’s office, and Margaret got right to it. “I don’t want to hold up the interrogation, but we have some new information that I believe will be helpful.”
We waited. She looked us each in the eye, savoring the power her long pause had over the conversation. “I followed up on Agent Jiang’s suggestion about a possible connection between our suspect and the witness protection program. No connection-I wasn’t surprised. However, I did have the cybercrime division do an Internet facial search using Mr. Neville’s mug shots from last night, and fifteen minutes ago we found out his name is not Neville Lewis.
His real name is Creighton Melice-history of battery, assault with a deadly weapon.”
She slid a file folder to Lien-hua, who started paging through it.
Margaret continued, “After posting bail in November for a second-degree murder charge in DC, he failed to show up for trial, and the only eyewitness was later found dead in the backseat of a car, tied up, gagged, and strangled. The ME concluded she’d been tortured prior to her death. No suspects.”
I noticed Lien-hua place her digital audio recorder on the table and press “record.”
“Our man, Creighton Melice, has a condition,” Margaret said.
“That will be important to monitor throughout the interrogation.”
“What condition is that?” Lieutenant Graysmith asked.
“He doesn’t feel pain.”
Ralph leaned forward. “What?
“Is that even possible?” asked Graysmith.
She pointed to the folder. “It’s extremely rare, but yes. It’s possible. He has congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis, or CIPA. The sensory neurons that register pain never developed. It’s so rare there’ve only been ninety-eight cases ever diagnosed in the United States. Creighton Melice is number fifty-four. Apparently, it’s almost unheard of for someone with CIPA to survive until adulthood. And the ones who do rarely make it unscathed-bone fractures, burns, infections that all go untreated.”
She consulted her notes again. “Last year a teething baby in South Dakota chewed off two fingers before her mother noticed.
Three years ago, an eight-year-old boy in Pakistan tried washing his face with boiling water. Recently, a thirteen-month-old boy from Scotland broke his ankle and ran around the emergency room with his foot flopping sideways on the floor, giggling, as he was waiting to be seen by a doctor-”
“OK, that’s enough,” Graysmith said. “We get the picture.”
I was amazed that Margaret and her team had been able to pull up all of this information on Melice and his condition in less than twenty minutes.
She went on, “No one really understands what causes it, but the gene responsible for it has been identified as…” She looked down one more time. “TrkA1. Apparently mutations of that gene block the growth of certain nerve endings.”
“Can he feel anything at all?” Graysmith asked. “Or was he born with only four senses?”
Margaret flipped to the third page of her notes. “It seems people with CIPA can feel different textures and pressure on their skin, but that’s all. And they show no change in blood pressure, heart rate, or respiration when exposed to painful stimuli. They can undergo surgery, including amputations, without anesthetic.”
“Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis,” I mumbled.
“It’s congenital, so people are born with it, and it would tend to run in certain families.”
“And anhidrosis means you can’t sweat,” Lien-hua added. “So, the condition must disable the body’s ability to feel temperature.” “That is correct, Agent Jiang,” said Margaret. It looked like it pained her to say it, to actually affirm Lien-hua. “People with CIPA don’t feel either hot or cold stimuli. So, not that you would do this anyway…” She paused… paused… paused… finally concluded, “But it would do no good to threaten Mr. Melice during your interrogation. The man you’re about to interview has never felt pain in his entire life.”
“Only caused it,” Ralph muttered.
“And that means he didn’t feel anything when Lien-hua kicked him,” I said. As I was considering what, if any, significance that might have, the door opened, and Dunn leaned into the room.
“He’s ready.”
Lien-hua grabbed her notepad and her digital voice recorder.
“So am I.”
75
I thought that before Lien-hua went into the interrogation, she should know I’d found the device. I didn’t know if the topic would come up, but I wanted her to be armed with as much information as possible. So, as Lien-hua and I followed Detective Dunn to the interrogation room, I slowed my pace a little until I was sure he couldn’t hear me, and then, in a whisper, told her about the device.
“I don’t know what it does, but it’s in a safe place,” I said. “Still in the evidence room. We can take care of it later. I just wanted you to know.”
“Good. Thanks.”
As we stepped onto the elevator, Dunn said, “I got the room all set for you. We’ll interrogate him in room 411.”
“Actually, no. We won’t interrogate him,” Lien-hua said. “I will.”
“I’ll just sit in the back and observe-”
“I go in alone,” Lien-hua said.
Dunn folded his thick, snake-like arms across his chest. “The deal was, I get to observe.”
“You can do that from behind the two-way mirror. I’m going in alone.”
“Last night you attacked the man,” said Dunn.
“If you’re concerned for his safety, I can assure you he’ll be in fine shape when you send him to the prisoners who, how did you put it, ‘are always thrilled to have new mates to play with.’”
The elevator door opened; she took a step forward. Dunn refused to move aside. I was ready to take action, but Lien-hua stared him down. “Perhaps you misunderstand, Detective. I’m not asking for your permission. I’m asking for your cooperation. If I have it, you can stay and watch. If I don’t, I’ll contact Lieutenant Graysmith and have you transferred from this case. Which will it be?”
He ground his teeth for a moment and then finally relented. “All right. Fine. But I don’t care if you’re an FBI agent or the freakin’ president of the United States, if things go south, I’m coming in there.”
He pounded off to the observation room, and I stayed with Lien-hua for a moment. I wanted to go into the room with her, to stand by her side, to protect her. Maybe I’m old-fashioned that way, but I wanted to slay a dragon for her, even though I knew she could slay dragons as well as anyone. “Are you sure you don’t want anyone in there with you?”
“I’m all right.” A flat fury had taken over her voice. I knew it wasn’t directed at me.
“Is it because of the seven women?”
Lien-hua has a slim, captivating face, but now the muscles in her jaw constricted, bringing an intensity to her that I’d never seen before. “He filmed their deaths.”