“If you’ll excuse me,” the doctor said.
Angie and Holgersen nodded, and Dr.Finlayson exited the room.
Angie returned her attention to their Jane Doe. Gently, she touched the girl’s hand. Her skin was ice-cold. Angie turned over the hand. Defensive wounds were evident on her palm and forearm—looked like they’d been made with a blade, sharp. The deeper cuts had been sutured.
Who did this to you, sweetheart? How did you end up here? What were you doing in the cemetery on this stormy night?
“What’s left of her nails shows a gel manicure,” Holgersen said at her side. “Highlights in her hair are recent. She takes care of herself, has pride. And those boots of hers—Francesco Milanos—those’ll set you back over a grand a pop.”
Angie glanced up at him. “How do you know that?”
“I know stuff, Pallorino.”
She studied him. His goatee. The pale, sunken hollows under his cheekbones. Haunted eyes.How much do we know anybody? How muchcanwe know anyone?
“Alls I’m saying,” he said, “is our girl has some mega-expensive taste. And a means to indulge it. This is not some homeless junkie. Somebody’s gonna be missing her.”
Angie nodded, turned, and made for the door.
“We going somewhere, Pallorino?” he said, following her out into the hall.
She took her phone from her pocket. As soon as she pushed through the doors exiting the ICU ward, she dialed the station. Tonner still waited down the corridor by the chairs. Angie strode toward the female cop, phone pressed to her ear.
“Pallorino!” Holgersen called behind her. “Hey, wassup with this—where are we going?”
“Cemetery,” she snapped over her shoulder. “I want a forensics team out there.”
“In the dark?” he said, catching up to her, matching her stride.
“To be ready first light. The longer we wait, the more this weather will destroy any trace evidence.” While waiting for her call to connect, she addressed Tonner. “Get those evidence bags to the lab stat,” she said. “Log it properly. Watch that chain of custody—” Her call picked up.
She ordered a forensics ident team to meet them at the Ross Bay Cemetery ASAP. She then placed a call to the Metro PD’s missing persons unit, leaving a message that gave a description of their Jane Doe, and asking if anyone matching their victim had been reported yet. She then left a message for the sergeant in charge of Metro’s high-risk offender unit, asking if any new sex offenders had moved into the area.Ifthis was the same perpetrator from her and Hash’s crucifix rape cases, he’d been lying low for the past three years, or, possibly, his assaults had gone unreported. When she returned to the station, she’d have this MO run through ViCLAS again—the country’s violent crime linkage system—to see if there had been similar attacks elsewhere. She strode toward the elevator as she spoke into her phone, the heels of her biker boots echoing down the sterile hospital corridor. Adrenaline and bottled rage fueled her.
She was going to get him this time. She’d nail this bastard’s ass to the wall. She’d do it for Hash. For the doc. For all the Jane Does out there. She jabbed the elevator button.
“So, we’re still like partners here, Pallorino?” Holgersen said, coming up beside her.
“What?” The door opened.
She stepped inside, but Holgersen clamped his hand over the door, holding it open. “We still partners, right?”
“You coming, or what?”
He ran his gaze over her outfit, then stepped slowly into the elevator, allowing the doors to slide shut behind him.
He watched the floor buttons lighting up in succession as they descended, and he said, “Your mascara—it’s still smudged.” A hint of a smile tugged at his mouth. “Alice Cooper lite—suits you. ’Specially for a graveyard visit. Dark side and all that.” He turned and looked down at her. “We all have a ghost in the mirror, don’t we, Pallorino?”
Angie met his eyes, and a subtle sense of challenge swelled between them.
“Our survivor goes and drowns, then what?” he said. “This shunts over to homicide?”
She said nothing.
“So far as I knows, where death is imminent, it’s attempted murder, and hom—”
“This is ours,” she snapped. “The doc did not say death was imminent. She said only that the next twenty-four hours would be telling, that’s all.”
The elevator hummed, then bumped to a standstill.
