Drake follows second.
“Officer Clay?” I pull him up short and stifle the guilt surging in my veins as he swings back around. He’s so eager to please his superiors. So devoted to following orders. Sadly, he’ll need to follow my orders closely on this case.And those orders are to stay the fuck away.“I’d like for you to make us a pot of coffee.”
“Sir?”
“A whole pot. And then I need you to head down to the cage and sign out supplies. We’ll need vests. Bags. An SUV with a decent air conditioner. Probably grab snacks, too, because this one is gonna keep us busy for a while.”
“Uh…”
“Problem, Officer?”
“N-no, sir.” He stands impossibly taller. Achingly obedient. Firming his lips, he tips his chin in acknowledgement. “I’ll get those things taken care of immediately, Detective. I’ll come back upstairs just as soon as it’s all done.”
“Good. Thank you.” I clap his shoulder and turn into the war room, closing the door and flipping the lock.
“There's a reason you’re telling my rookie what to do, Malone?” Drake stands at the head of the long table situated in the middle of the room, his jaw hard and his eyes hot. “Last I checked, you don’t have the authority for that.”
“Yeah, I’ve got a reason. I figure I know who the fuck was transporting those girls.” I grit my jaw and fold my arms firmly across my chest. “I even know where he is. You, me, and Fletch—” I glance his way. “We know what’s up. Officer Clay, on the other hand, remains innocent of mind. I’d like to maintain that innocence for as long as possible.”
MINKA
“Did you know our John Doe very well, gentlemen?” I’ve already cut the Y and opened Agosti’s chest, so now I slice through the muscle holding the block. I peel his tongue away from the back of his throat, dragging it downward and into his chest cavity. But I’m not ready to remove everything yet, so I trade my scalpel for something much larger. Something much more serious.
Glancing over my shoulder, I meet Number-One’s hard stare. “Can you not hear me when I’m wearing a shield? I asked if you knew?—”
“I’ve been in this man’s presence on a handful of occasions.” His eyes flicker to Agosti’s naked body laid out on cold, hard steel. “I’d prefer not to talk while you’re working. It’s important that you concentrate.”
“No need to worry about my abilities. I enjoy teaching, talking through my technique, and quizzing my pathologists to ensure they’ve paid attention.” I walk around the table and align my tool. “To access a patient’s organs, I must remove the ribcage. To do that, I have to cut along the boundary between the ribs and the cartilage connected to the breastbone.”Snip. “It’s a bit like cutting through a thick branch on a tree, I imagine. Same tool, too.”Snip. “An autopsy like the one I’m performing on our John Doe will require removing the entire cage, and then I can remove each organ one by one. His heart. His lungs.”Snip, snip. “His kidneys. Oh, look.” I set the shears down and snag my pen and notebook instead, since this case isn’t exactly on the record. “He’s had his appendix removed already. It’s interesting, don’t you think? We have a mostly useless organjust sitting here in our bodies. We don’t need it, and seven percent of our population will develop appendicitis and require emergency surgery in their lifetimes. If not caught in time, appendicitis is lethal.” I trade the pen for the shears again. “I lie awake at night sometimes and wonder why evolution hasn’t phased the appendix out.”
Snip.
Number-Two shifts his eyes away and squirms, even if he’s large enough and scary enough that most wouldn’t notice.
“I still have my appendix, but the risk remains. Did you know some people are born without their third molars? Their wisdom teeth,” I clarify, opening my mouth wide and pointing with my gloved pinkie. “In fact, I had a colleague in New York who was born without them, and her daughter was born without hers, too. Kind of implies an advanced bloodline when considering the evolutionary track.”
Snip.
“I still have my wisdom teeth. But that makes sense, since both of my parents had naturally straight teeth and none of us suffers from overcrowding.” I wrinkle my nose and look to Number-One. “My husband doesn’t have his third molars anymore. It’s not really something we’ve talked about, but I noticed a while back. Timothy Malone the Second was an asshole.” I go back to my work.Snip. “You’ve met him, too, right? He was a total prick. But on this one topic, it seems he did the right thing and had his son’s dental needs seen to.”
Snip.
“I’d prefer you to perform this autopsy without speaking, Chief Mayet.” A line of sweat trickles along the side of Number-Two’s cheek. “The quicker you’re done, the sooner we can leave.”
“I typically have my colleague in here with me. She talks a lot, and it’s always about totally random stuff. I guess I’ve become used to it, because now that she’s off work for the week, I kind of miss it. I wouldn’t say so to her face, since I usually meet her chatter with impatience. But the truth is, I love having her around. She brings a lightness to an otherwise heavy workload. She brings sunshine to dark days. She used to live at the bar next to my apartment, but then she went and got married and moved out, which made me feel a certain way. Now I’ve moved too, which means we’re closer again—geographically, that is—and she’s more easily able to drop by my place. Are you two like that?” I look from One to Two. “Are you friends outside of work?”
They glance toward each other in silence. Then away again.
“You’re guys. I get that guys are less likely to confess their feelings forone another. But if you work together a lot, it’s entirely possible—probable, even—that you’d develop affections for each other. You probably grill on the weekends and watch the…” I shake my head. “Sport. One of the sports. If you’re married and have kids, your wives are probably friends with each other, too.”
Snip.
I lift my chin and tilt it toward the guards waiting on the other side of the glass wall. Three and Four. “Are they annoying? I noticed you leave them outside a lot, and now that I’m thinking about it, I guess I recall seeing you two standing beside each other at Pastore’s that time. But those other two…” I click my tongue. “They were on the other side of the room. Is there tension?” I bring my focus back to Two. “Did one of them do something to upset you?”
“Listen—”
“Because I wouldn’t stand beside someone who upset me, either. I don’t like standing next to people in general. Well, except my husband, since nine times out of ten, he lets me lean on him. It’s wonderfully helpful when I’ve been working my butt off all day, but I’m not quite ready or able to sit down yet.”
I snip the last of the cartilage keeping Agosti’s ribs in place, then, setting my tools aside, I spin and select a large steel bowl. Double-fisting the chest plate, I lift all twenty-four ribs out of Agosti’s body and keep my mouth shut about the way Number-Two gulps.Nearly there.I place the ribs inside the bowl and put the bowl back where I found it. “I don’t really need that for anything. A cursory glance to make sure our patient has the right number of ribs. Gotta check for historical fractures and whatnot, too. But other than that, they’re nothing more than a really cool armor evolution was clever enough to give us. What’s hidden behind that armor is significantly cooler.”
