Far from being annoyed at getting boomeranged in, the four detectives gave off
the edgy vibe of anticipation, and when Heat began, “It’s right in front of us.
Both vics were in the business of consumer protection,” she saw their eyes come
alight. “I want to find out if they knew each other or if they knew someone in
common.” From there on, the meeting was short. She put Roach on contacting Olivia
Conklin, Feller back on his beat at the Health Department, and Rhymer on Maxine
Berkowitz’s coworkers and friends. “Check e-mails, texts, phone records,
everything that leaves a trail,” she said, and watched them cancel their evenings
and hit the phones with renewed purpose.
Back early the next morning, with little to go on yet much to cover, the day for all
of them became the essence of good detective work: drudgery. The hours of phone
calls and computer checks got broken up only by meeting up to compare notes after
pounding the pavement for face time with shop owners, park nannies, and doormen who
’d seen nothing out of the ordinary. The true chore of Nikki’s day came when
Captain Irons arrived in the late morning, camera-ready with a fresh white uniform
shirt in dry cleaner plastic, just in case someone needed a statement. After
satisfying himself nobody had tried to kill his lead homicide detective in the last
twenty-four hours, he asked for a briefing of both active cases. Wally was more an
administrator than a cop, and his eyes glazed over as she filled him in on the
details. When she finished, his first question was his go-to: “How much overtime is
this gonna drain from my budget?”
Always prepared for that resistance, Nikki managed to sell the precinct commander on
the long-term savings of bringing in more manpower, and came out of his glass office
with an OK to bring in one of her favorite detective teams, Malcolm and Reynolds.
Rook checked in from a taxi heading from Charles de Gaulle Airport to his hotel in
Paris. It was night there, New York plus six, and he said he’d left word with
Anatoly Kijé, his old Russian spy friend, hoping they could meet for a late dinner-
slash-debrief.
“You mean the same Anatoly Kijé whose henchmen kidnapped us from Place des Vosges
just so he could be sure we weren’t being followed?”
“Ah, memories,” said Rook. “Don’t you wish you’d come?”
“So you know, Rook, I don’t consider it a Michelin Tour just because my nose is
pushed against one of their radials in the trunk of a car.”
They hopped off the line with the promise to catch up later that night so Heat could
grab a call from OCME. Lauren Parry’s prelim on Maxine Berkowitz bore out the COD
as asphyxia by strangulation. “The killer took her from behind with a cord. And
Forensics is committing to that coaxial cable found in the park. The makeup residue
on the insulation is an exact match to the victim’s.”
“Save me a call to geekland, Lauren. Any prints on the cable?”
“None,” said the ME. “And no sign of struggle. He chloroformed her and strangled
her when she was out.”
Nikki jotted that down then riffled pages in her spiral until she came to notes on
her other case. “OK to switch gears?”
“Detective Heat, you have got more corpses to ask about than anyone I know.”
“You should give me a rewards card.”
“Cold, girl.”
“As ice. What about my poison vic from the Starbucks?”
“Same as what Salena Kaye used to kill Petar. A fast-acting cocktail of strychnine
and cyanide, plus a few additives, including a lab-modified derivative of bismuth
subsalicylate, which is what turned the tongue black. It’s not a poison, it’s
mainly for show.”
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t applaud.”
“Nikki,” said Dr. Parry, “this is potent stuff. She knows her chemistry. You
watch yourself.”
Heat awoke with a start on her couch at six-fifteen the next morning to the
Norwegian duo R?yksopp singing “Remind Me”—the ringtone Rook had installed to ID
him on her cell. It took Nikki so long to orient herself and find the phone, she was
afraid he’d dump to voice mail, but she caught it in time. “You were going to call
me last night,” she said.
“And bonjour to you, too. Things got very busy over here. You won’t be sorry.”
Rook’s voice sounded clear, next-room clear. And there was something in it.
Exhilaration, maybe.
She moved aside the sheet music she had fallen asleep studying, another futile
attempt to break her mother’s code. “Tell me.” Wired to be a note taker, Heat
reached for the pen and spiral pad she kept on her coffee table, clearing the night
from her throat.