Strip Search (5 page)

“My dad is fine. He walks much better now. With his cane, he gets around almost as well as he did before the Bad—you know.”

I did know. Before the Bad Man shot him. Which Darcy didn’t like to talk about.

“You’re not answering my question, Darcy. How are you and your father getting along?”

He shrugged lopsidedly, then flapped his hands together. “My dad never lets me do anything, not unless you are with me. He thinks I cannot do anything.”

“He just wants to make sure you’re safe, Darcy. That’s what parents do. It’s like their job description.”

“But I am not a baby anymore. I can do lots of stuff.”

“He knows that.”

“He does not know that! He will never let me do anything. I—I—” Darcy looked up at me, as if wondering if I could be trusted. “I am thinking about running away from home.”

It took some effort, but I managed to suppress my smile. It’s not often you hear a twenty-six-year-old talk about running away from home. “But Darcy—how could you support yourself? You don’t make enough working part-time at the day care center to even afford a crummy apartment, much less food and transportation and—”

“I know. I know.” He finished the custard, then licked the spoon. “I—I was—was w-wondering…Do you think maybe…you and me…would it be possible?…”

“Spit it out, Darcy.”

“Would you adopt me?”

I bit down on my lip, hard. “What?”

“I would be good. I promise I would. And I would help you with your police work, just like I do sometimes now. You said I was helpful, right?”

“You’re always helpful. But I can’t—”

“And then maybe we could share money. And we would share your apartment, since you adopted me.”

“Darcy.” I laid my hand gently on his shoulder. He flinched, but let it stay. “You are very dear to me, and I love being with you. But I can’t adopt you. And frankly, half what I make wouldn’t be enough to get you a bus ticket to Caesar’s Palace. I can barely pay my own rent.”

His head fell. “You don’t want to live with me.”

“Darcy, it’s not—” I stopped short. What exactly were we talking about here?

Fortunately, my cell phone vibrated, saving me from having to do any deeper thinking. “Pulaski.”

“This is Chief O’Bannon. I’ve got a case for you. Are you available?”

“You know I am. What is it?”

“It’s…I don’t want to talk about it on the phone.”

“Homicide?”

“Definitely. Looks like it’s right up your alley.”

Meaning not just your average, everyday run-of-the-mill murders. Something weird. Something that called for a consultant in aberrant psychology.

“Just come out to the Burger Bliss on Fremont and 125th, okay? Granger will fill you in. And Susan?”

“I’m still here.”

“Don’t bring Darcy.”

“Are you sure? He’s with me now.”

“Drop him off.”

“But—why? He’s proven—”

“Are you listening to me, Susan? Don’t bring Darcy.” He paused a moment. “You’ll understand when you get here.”

He rang off and I snapped my pocket cell closed. “Looks like I’ve got a case.”

Darcy’s eyes brightened. “Are we going to catch another crook?”

I sighed heavily. This wasn’t going to be pretty. “I’m afraid there’s no
we
this time, Darcy. You can’t come.”

“But—But—” He ran his fingers through his hair. “You said that I was helpful. And—And—that casino man who took the money. No one else knew how tall he was. And the lady who lost her wedding ring—”

“I know, Darcy. I know. I’m not saying I don’t want you along.” I paused, considered, then atypically opted to just tell the truth. Sort of. “They, uh, say I can’t bring you with me.”

Darcy lowered his voice to a whisper. “Then we will not tell them.”

“Sorry, Darcy. I’ll have to drop you off at home.”

I knew he wasn’t happy about it, but he was too nice to argue, too sweet-hearted to cause me any grief. He threw away his empty custard cup and headed toward my beat-up Chevy.

“I just hope I can manage,” I said, trying to bolster his spirits. “It’s been a long time since I went out on a job without you by my side. I probably won’t know what to do.”

“It will go very well. You will be very wonderful,” he said, sliding into the passenger seat. His eyes looked as if they were brimming with tears.

“And how can you know that?”

“Because we had custard together today,” he replied, beaming that goofy, beatific smile. “And any day we have custard together is a Very Excellent Day. It’s a rule.”

IT TOOK ME four months to stop stuttering and not be nervous and ask Susan to adopt me and then when I did she said no and she laughed at me I mean she did not really laugh at me but her voice did I could hear it because it was just like when I ask my dad if I could be a policeman or when the ladies at the day care watch me change a diaper and why would anyone laugh because no one wants to change a diaper I remember when my mother was alive and she used to—

Stop. Susan says I have to learn to stop and slow down and focus and put more periods in my thinking and I like Susan so I am going to try. To do. What she says. It is hard when there are so many ideas going on inside my brain all at once I wish I could block some of them out but I cannot they just keep coming and I have a hard time remembering what I am supposed to do because my head is like a computer trying to do too many things at once and then the CPU gets blocked and it crashes and I don’t remember to stop and—

Reboot. Windows is loading. One thought at a time.

Being with Susan is always interesting. I like being with Susan but she would not let me be with her today and it is my dad’s fault it is always his fault he never never never wants to let me do anything he does not think I can do anything he just scowls at me and acts all disappointed and I wish I did not look so much like my mother I think it would be better if I did not look so much like my mother because then maybe my dad—

Stop. Blinking hourglass symbol. One thought at a time.

I am disappointed that my dad would not let me go. With Susan. Because I love Susan and I want to be with her always. I knew she would never marry me because I am so stupid and weird but I thought that maybe if she adopted me then we could live together and we would not have to be married. I do not care if we do sex because I do not know how and I think it has a lot of touching so I probably would not like it and probably would not be any good at it anyway. I do not care about anything except that I want to be with Susan and I love her. I like babies and babies usually like me and if we had babies that would be very nice I think. Babies are easier to understand than big people.

I still see the Bad Man sometimes at night when I am sleeping or just before I am sleeping. Susan says I should not let him scare me because he cannot hurt me now but he does he does he hurts me and I don’t know what to do about it. I think that if Susan would adopt me then the Bad Man would go away forever just like my mother did but she said no so now I am alone with my father and I am not happy and he is not happy and what is the point of everyone not being happy?

I wish that I were with Susan. I hope that she does not meet another Bad Man.

YOU’LL UNDERSTAND when you get here,
O’Bannon had said, and those words were still echoing in my head when I reached the Burger Bliss fast-food joint as per his instructions.
Don’t bring Darcy.
O’Bannon had initially been resistant to my involving Darcy in police investigations, but over time had become gradually, if guardedly, accepting of it. Despite his protestations to the contrary, some part of him must’ve enjoyed seeing Darcy’s phenomenal gifts put to good use. For the past couple of months, it had been automatically understood that anytime he gave me a consulting job, Darcy would be tagging along. Until today. Which told me that either he had undergone a dramatic change of heart…

Or there was something in there he really did not want Darcy to see.

I gave a shout-out to the two uniforms posted at the door, who smiled and waved me inside without a word. I can still remember, just after I was released from detox and got myself booted off the force, when I practically needed a hall pass to get onto a crime scene. And O’Bannon would sniff my breath the moment I arrived. This was better.

It wasn’t hard to figure out where the action had taken place. The videographer was making a detailed record of the entire kitchen, everything behind the cash register counter. At least a dozen other crime techs were swarming around in their coveralls, protective coverings on their shoes, always careful not to step off the butcher paper that had been laid on the tile floor. I loved watching these guys (and gals) work. It was like when you’re a kid and you can spend hours staring at an ant farm, observing all the specialized tasks as the creatures scurry across one another’s paths but never collide. Some of the crime techs were using forensic oils and chemical swabs, some were shining fluorescent lights, some were crawling on their hands and knees, scrutinizing the tile floor for anything that might’ve been missed. It was no accident they decided to set that TV show in Vegas; according to the FBI, we had the second best CSI unit in the country, here in a city that ranked only thirty-second in terms of population.

On the far left, one of the stainless steel countertops was covered with blood spatter. Didn’t take empathic powers to figure out what must’ve happened there.

I hopped over the countertop and was heading in that general direction when I felt a strong arm yank me backward. It was Barry Granger, the man who filled the gap I left when I lost my job and had recently been promoted to chief homicide detective. He’d been my husband David’s partner; he was very close to David and took his death hard. Over the past few months, we’d learned to coexist, but we weren’t friends and I couldn’t imagine that we ever would be. Fair or not, he blamed me for David’s death.

“Just so you know,” Granger said, “I was opposed to bringing you in on this case.”

I smiled. “Top o’ the mornin’ to you, too, Barry. How are the wife and kids?”

“Don’t get smart with me. Just listen and understand what I’m saying. We have a good homicide department and we will crack this case. You’ve been asked—against my wishes—to give us some psychological insight on the sicko who did this. That’s all. The men here respect me, and I don’t want you parading around with your smart mouth and superior attitude and undermining my authority. It’s my case. You work for me. Understood?”

“Loud and clear. Now let go of my arm before I have to embarrass you in front of all these men who respect you.” He did.

“I mean it, Pulaski. Are you going to cooperate?”

“Hmm. Magic 8 Ball says: Outlook Not Good.”

“It would be different if you were a team player. But you never are. While my men are out pounding the street, you’re off in your own little world, doing your weird stuff.”

“I’m a behaviorist, Granger. I don’t street-pound.”

“If you really wanted to help, I could assign to you some of the hundred or so people who need to be interviewed. You could hit the back alleyways, talk to contacts, see what you can stir up. Show the street scum that we mean business.”

“Thanks, but that sounds a little too Starsky and Hutch for me. Who was the first responder?”

“MacNeill.”

“Thank God.” Meaning, thank God it wasn’t you. The first officer on the premises has the critical job of securing the crime scene, making sure it isn’t contaminated. If it had been someone as sloppy as Granger, there’d be no clues left to find.

I turned back toward the blood spatter. Even at a glance I could see the arching pattern that suggested a single blow from behind. And although the quantity was plenty enough to turn my stomach, there was very little blood outside the arch. No pooling on the floor.

“DRT?” I asked Granger. This is hip cop slang for Dead Right There.

“No question.”

“ID?”

“We’re working on it. My men just arrived. The body is not on the premises.”

“That adds to the challenge.”

He made a mock salute. “That’s why you’re here.” His voice rose. “Now get to work, lieutenant. Er…former lieutenant. Whatever. Hop to it.”

Granger walked away, having accomplished his mission. Which was not to put me in my place. He knew that was useless. What was important to him was that he stage a scene that everyone present would see—with him reading me the riot act, reminding everyone that no matter how smart I was or what cases I had solved in the past, I was not in charge.

I’d be seriously mad at him—if I didn’t know deep down that it
was
important for the head of the department to be in charge, to be seen to be in charge, to keep upstarts in line. He didn’t want to lose his job any more than I had wanted to lose mine.

In the back of the kitchen, I spotted Tony Crenshaw. I knew he’d be useful. He’d come on board as an expert in dactylograms—that’s what he insisted on calling what you and I call fingerprints—but had proven himself so darn smart that anymore O’Bannon let him do pretty much anything he wanted to do. What’s more—he liked me, and he had stuck by me, even in the tough days following David’s death. Being single and good-looking didn’t hurt him any, either.

Tony smiled as I approached. “Me and the boys were betting on how many seconds would pass before you showed up.”

I guess that was a compliment. Of sorts. “That weird?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Slit the guy’s throat?” I paused.

“Right.”

“Looks like he did it in a single blow.”

His eyes widened appreciatively. “Very good. So you
were
awake during my blood spatter seminar.”

Well, off and on. “Do we know what weapon was used?”

“Not exactly. Any big knife would do. Lots of them here in the kitchen. I don’t really know yet. But we can safely assume it was something strong and extremely sharp. Look at the pattern of the arch.” With a finger in the air, he traced the path of the blood across the stainless steel counter and then onto the wall behind it. “It’s one thing if your victim is beneath you and you can swing the weapon executioner-style, like you’re swinging one of those hammers to ring the bell at the county fair. But if that had been the case, the blood would’ve spattered across the floor. These two, killer and victim, were standing one behind the other. Meaning the assailant had to reach around his throat, while holding him upright.”