Chapter 52
“T HIS IS WHY I DON’T WEAR TIES.”
John Sampson pulled at the constricting knot around his neck and ripped the damn thing off. He tossed it and what remained of his coffee into the trash. Immediately he wished he hadn’t thrown away the coffee. He and Billie had been up half the night with little Djakata and her flu. A truckload of caffeine was exactly what he needed right now.
When the phone on his desk rang, he was in no mood to talk to anybody about anything. “Yeah, what?”
A woman’s voice came on the other end. “Is this Detective Sampson’s line?”
“Sampson here. What?”
“This is Detective Angela Susan Anton. I’m with the Sex Assault Unit, assigned to the Second District.”
“Okay.” He waited for her to connect some dots for him.
“I was hoping to pull you in on a disturbing case, Detective. We’re running into some serious dead ends over here.”
Sampson fished in the wastebasket for the coffee container. All right! It had landed right-side up.
“What’s the case?”
“A rape. Happened in Georgetown last night. The woman was treated at GUH, but all she’ll say is that she was attacked. She won’t ID the guy. Won’t describe him at all. I was with her all morning and got nowhere. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, Detective. The level of fear the woman is exhibiting.”
Sampson crooked the phone to his ear and scribbled some notes on a tablet that said “Dad Pad” at the top, a Father’s Day knickknack from Billie. “Okay so far. But I’m curious why you’re calling me, Detective.”
He sipped the bad coffee again, and suddenly it seemed not so bad.
Anton took a beat before answering. “I understand that Alex Cross is a friend of yours.”
Sampson set down his pen and leaned back in his desk chair. “Now I see.”
“I was hoping you could ?”
“I hear you loud and clear, Detective Anton. You want me to pimp the deal for you?”
“No,” she said quickly. “Rakeem Powell tells me you two are seriously good when you work serials together. I’d like to have you both in on this. Hey, I’m just being honest.”
Sampson stayed quiet, waiting to see if she’d get out of this one or hang herself some more.
“We left messages for Dr. Cross last night and this morning, but I have to imagine everyone and their uncle want a piece of his time. Now that he’s freelancing.”
“Well, you’re right about that, everybody wants a piece of him,” he said. “But Alex is a big boy He can take care of himself and make his own decisions. Why don’t you keep trying his phone?”
“Detective Sampson, this perp is a particularly sick bastard. I don’t have the luxury of wasting anyone’s time on this case, including my own. So if I’ve stepped on your toes in any way, maybe you can get the hell over it, cut through the bullshit, and tell me if you’ll help me or not.”
Sampson recognized the tone, and it made him smile. “Well, since you put it that way ? yeah, okay. I can’t make any commitments for Alex. But I’ll see what I can do.”
“Great. Thank you. I’ll send over the files now. Unless you want to pick them up here.”
“Hold on. Files? Plural?”
“Am I going too fast for you, Detective Sampson? The whole reason I’m calling is your and Dr. Cross’s experience with serial cases.”
Sampson rubbed the telephone receiver against his temple. “Yeah, I guess you are going too fast for me. Are we talking homicide here, too?”
“Not serial murder,” Anton said tightly. “Serial rape.”