She nodded her thanks.“This will help us search.”
Declan stood, pulling me up with him.“Time to go.Arwyn needs rest.”He turned me toward him and gently touched my face.“You still have a black eye.”
Patting his chest, I assured him, “It’ll fade.”
“Thank you for coming in,” Kaknu said.“You’ve given us some avenues to explore.The FBI’s forensics team has recently begun on the remains, and they’re noting that at least a few of the bodies show dental decay that’s not in keeping with the skeletal age.We usually see that in individuals who are unhoused.Your vision seems to indicate we’re on the right track.”He gestured toward the door.“I’ll walk you out.”
I made sure I’d gathered everything—including my octopus bottle—and returned it to my backpack.Declan shouldered it for me.Osso asked him a question, so Kaknu and I ended up walking down the hall together.
“I know how to bury interviews,” he told me.“It’ll be in my report, but with so many references and footnotes, your name will be quite hard to find.In fact, if you demanded to be kept anonymous…” Eyebrows up, he waited.
“I demand that my name be stricken from the records.I only agreed to this if I remained anonymous,” I said.
He nodded.“Noted.”
A door directly to the right of me opened and a gurney was pushed out.It knocked my hip, pushing me off balance.My hand went down on the gurney to keep from falling.Unfortunately, my wrist made contact with the dirty, torn black plastic bag the orderly was pushing.
The black plastic bag, too heavy to carry, is dragged down the hall toward the back stairs.
“Stupid bitch,” he mutters under his breath.“This is her own damn fault.If she’d only waited to talk to the director tomorrow, he could have called about her fucking kid.”
When he gets to the stairs that lead to the back alley, he jogs up them and opens the back door.Looking left, right, and up, he searches for any eyes that could be on him.He’s so angry, he could punch the brick wall.
Why did she have to sneak up on him and read the computer screen over his shoulder?He couldn’t get her kid back.He didn’t have that kind of authority.He should be meeting his date for a cocktail downtown.Instead, he’s dealing with this shit.Because of that stupid bitch!
He’s already moved his car to the alley, lining up the trunk to the back door.He pops it open and unscrews the trunk light.The last thing he needs right now is anything drawing attention to him and what he’s doing.
Deciding it’s quiet enough, he props open the door and goes back down the stairs for the black bag.He’s already double-bagged her body, but he worries that dragging her upstairs might tear the plastic.
He wasn’t top of his class for nothing, though, so he collects a large plastic bin and a hand truck.He puts the bin on the hand truck, heaves the bag mostly into the bin, and rolls the hand truck up the stairs.At every bounce, he worries it’ll tip over and crash down the stairs.
He needn’t have worried.Things always work out for him.He’s charmed.At the door, he checks the alley again.When he sees nothing, he rolls the bin to his trunk, struggles to lift it, but gets it in.His new gym membership is already paying off.He slams the trunk closed, returns the hand cart to the lower level, locks up, and drives downtown.He’ll be a little late, but he has a million crazy stories he can tell.Wealthy people love hearing sordid tales of dissipation.It makes them feel secure, insulated, and more than a little superior.
TWENTY-FIVE
The Baking Has Resumed
Iwas on the floor in Declan’s arms again.“Did you catch me or pick me up?”
He grinned.“Guess.”
“It was damned impressive,” Osso grumbled.“He saw you start to go down, ran, and slid so he was under you when you hit.”
“Awww.”I patted the arm around me.“Thanks.”
The attendant with the gurney had pulled it back into the room but was watching me through the open door.Apparently, I was tonight’s floor show.Literally.
“That bag is evidence,” Hernández said.“Did you see something?”
I nodded.“That’s the bag the woman with the little girl was stuffed in.”I told them the rest of what I’d seen.
Kaknu was recording me, while the other two took notes.When I finished, Kaknu asked, “So the building they were in was brick?”
I thought a moment.“Yes.”
“Describe the alley,” Osso said.
I tried to get up, and Declan helped.I must not have looked as shaky coming out of it this time.“It was dark, but my impression was tall buildings on either side.They seemed run-down.It didn’t feel residential.”I noticed the pearl on my chest and dropped it back down the neck of my shirt.“These are only impressions, okay?It didn’t feel alive.It had an abandoned feel, like a factory where everyone’s left for the day or something.I don’t think any of those buildings were apartment houses.It felt more industrial.Maybe some condemned buildings thrown in?”
