Part 38 (1/2)
”If she's here, I'll find her.”
”She could be in danger.”
”What makes you say that?”
I thought of describing my recent conversation about cults, but since I'd only been fis.h.i.+ng I wasn't sure if I'd learned anything relevant. Even if Dom Owens was leading some type of cult, he was not Jim Jones or David Koresh, of that I was certain.
”I don't know. Just a feeling. She sounded so edgy when she called.”
”My impression of Miss Kathryn is that all her lobes may not be firing.”
”She is different.”
”And her friend El doesn't look like a candidate for Mensa. Are you keeping busy?”
I hesitated, then told him about my own attack.
”Sonofab.i.t.c.h. I'm sorry, Brennan. I liked that cat. Any idea who did it?”
”No.”
”Have they put a unit on your place?”
”They're doing drive-bys. I'm fine.”
”Stay out of dark alleys.”
”The cases from Murtry arrived this morning. I'm pretty tied up in the lab.”
”If those deaths are drug-related, you could be p.i.s.sing off some heavy characters.”
”That's breaking news, Ryan.” I tossed the banana peel and Moon Pie wrapper into the trash. ”The victims are both young, white, and female, just as I thought.”
”Not your typical trafficker profile.”
”No.”
”Doesn't rule it out. Some of these guys use women like condoms. The ladies might have been at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
”Yes.”
”Cause of death?”
”I haven't finished yet.”
”Go get 'em, tiger. But remember, we're going to need you on the St-Jovite cases when I nail these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.”
”What b.a.s.t.a.r.ds?”
”Don't know yet, but I will.”
When we disconnected I stared at my report. Then I got up and paced the lab. Then I sat. Then I paced some more.
My mind kept throwing up images from St-Jovite. Doughy white babies, eyelids and fingernails a delicate blue. A bullet-pierced skull. Slashed throats, hands scored with defense wounds. Scorched bodies, their limbs twisted and contorted.
What linked the Quebec deaths to the point of land on Saint Helena Island? Why babies and fragile old women? Who was Guillion? What was in Texas? Into what form of malignancy had Heidi and her family stumbled?
Concentrate, Brennan. The young women in this lab are just as dead. Leave the Quebec murders to Ryan and finish these cases. They deserve your attention. Find out when they died. And how.
I pulled on another pair of gloves and examined every bone of the second victim's skeleton under magnification. I found nothing to tell me what caused her death. No blunt instrument trauma. No gunshot entry or exit. No stab wound. No hyoid fracture to indicate strangulation.
The only damage I observed was caused by animals scavenging on her corpse.
As I replaced the last foot bone, a tiny black beetle crawled from under a vertebra. I stared at it, remembering an afternoon when Birdie had tracked a June bug in my kitchen in Montreal. He'd played with the creature for hours before finally losing interest.
Tears burned my eyelids, but I refused to give in.
I collected the beetle and put it in a plastic container. No more death. I would release the bug when I left the building.
O.K., beetle. How long have these ladies been dead? We'll work on that.
I looked at the clock. Four-thirty. Late enough. I flipped through my Rolodex, found a number, and dialed.
Five time zones away a phone was answered.
”Dr. West.”
”Dr. Lou West?”
”Yes.”
”A.k.a. Kaptain Kam?”
Silence.
”Of Spam fame?”
”It's tuna fish. Is that you, Tempe?”
In my mind's eye I saw him, thick silver hair and beard framing a face permanently tanned by the Hawaiian sun. Years before I'd met him, a j.a.panese ad agency spotted Lou and cast him as spokesman for a brand of canned tuna. His earring and ponytail were perfectly suited to the sea captain image they wanted. The j.a.panese loved Kaptain Kam. Though we teased him unmercifully, no one I knew had ever seen the ads.
”Ready to give up bugs and hawk tuna full time?”
Lou holds a doctorate in biology and teaches at the University of Hawaii. In my opinion he is the best forensic entomologist in the country.
”Not quite.” He laughed. ”The suit itches.”
”Do it in the buff.”
”I don't think the j.a.panese are ready for that.”