It took Angelo a second to appreciate what was happening. “Come on,” he said as soon as it hit him. “She’s going down the back stairs!”
Angelo ran over to the stairwell door and yanked it open. Tony sprinted through. They both halted momentarily at the banister and peered down a dirty stairwell that dropped in a series of short flights to the ground floor five stories below. They could see Laurie several floors lower and hear the echo of her heels on the bare concrete treads.
“Get her before she reaches the street,” Angelo snarled.
Tony took off like a rabbit, taking the stairs four at a time. He gained steadily on Laurie, but wasn’t able to catch her before she went through a door on the ground floor leading to the backyard.
Tony reached the door before it had a chance to swing shut. He pushed through to the outside and found himself in a rubble-strewn backyard overgrown with weeds. He could hear Laurie’s running footsteps echo as she sprinted down a narrow passageway leading to the street. Leaping over a short handrail, Tony ran after her. Laurie was only twenty feet away. He’d have her in a moment.
Laurie had known that she’d not slipped out unnoticed and that the police were behind her. She’d heard them coming down the stairwell. As she fled, she’d questioned the advisability of having done so. But, having started, she couldn’t stop. Now that she’d run, she was even more determined not to be caught. She knew that resisting arrest was a crime in and of itself. On top of that, the thought of whether they were bona fide police crossed her mind.
As she mounted the final steps to the street, Laurie knew that one of her pursuers was almost on her. At the lip of the steps, pushed against the wall of the building, was a collection of old, dented, metal garbage cans. In a fit of desperation Laurie grabbed the top edge of one and pulled it behind her, sending it clattering down the steps to the floor of the pass-through to the backyard.
Seeing her pursuer stumble on the can and fall, Laurie quickly rolled the rest of the cans to the lip of the stairs and sent them crashing down. A few pedestrians passing on the street slowed their pace at this spectacle, but none stopped and no one said anything.
Hoping that her pursuer was momentarily occupied, Laurie ran down to First Avenue. She praised her luck as the first cab she saw came over to her and stopped. Completely out of breath, Laurie jumped in and yelled that she wanted to go to Thirtieth Street.
As the taxi accelerated into the traffic, Laurie was afraid to look back. She was also trembling, wondering what she had done now. As she thought about the consequences of resisting arrest, she changed her mind about her destination. She leaned forward and told the driver that she wanted to go to police headquarters instead of Thirtieth Street.
The driver didn’t say anything as he turned left to head over to Second Avenue. Laurie sat back and tried to relax. Her chest was still heaving.
As they worked their way south on Second Avenue, Laurie had a change of heart again. Worrying that Lou might not be at police headquarters, Laurie decided her first destination was better. Scooting forward again, she told the driver. This time he cursed but turned left to go back to First Avenue.
As she’d done with the previous cab, Laurie had this driver turn on Thirtieth and pull into the morgue loading area. She was relieved to see that Bingham’s car had left. After paying the fare, she ran into the morgue.
Tony paid the driver and got out of the cab. Angelo’s car was where they’d left it, with Angelo behind the wheel. Tony climbed in.
“Well?” Angelo asked.
“I missed her,” Tony said.
“That much is clear,” Angelo said. “Where is she?”
“She tried to lose me,” Tony said. “She had her driver make a loop. But I stayed with her. She went back to the medical examiner’s office.”
Angelo leaned forward and started his car. “Cerino doesn’t know how right he was when he said that this girl could be trouble. We’ll have to nab her from the medical examiner’s office.”
“Maybe it will be easier there,” Tony suggested. “Shouldn’t be many people there at this hour.”
“It better go more smoothly than it did here,” Angelo said as he looked back before pulling out into the street.
They rode up First Avenue in silence. Angelo had to hand one thing to Tony: at least he was fast on his feet.
Angelo turned onto Thirtieth Street and killed the engine. He wasn’t happy to be back at the medical examiner’s office again. But what choice did they have? There could be no more screw-ups.
“What’s the plan?” Tony asked eagerly.
“I’m thinking,” Angelo said. “Obviously she wasn’t so impressed with our police badges.”
Laurie felt relatively safe in the dark, deserted medical examiner’s building. She got into her office and locked the door behind her. The first thing she did was dial Lou’s home number. She was pleased when he picked up on the first ring.
“Am I glad to hear from you,” Lou said the moment Laurie identified herself.
“Not as glad as I am to get you.”
“Where are you?” Lou asked. “I’ve been calling your apartment every five minutes. If I hear your answering machine message one more time, I’ll scream.”
“I’m at my office,” Laurie said. “There’s been some trouble.”
“I heard,” Lou said. “I’m sorry about your being fired. Is it final or will you get a hearing?”
“It’s final at the moment. But that’s not why I called. Two men came to my apartment door a few minutes ago. They were policemen. I got scared and ran. I think I’m in big trouble.”
“Uniformed policemen?” Lou asked.
“No,” Laurie said. “They were in street clothes. Suits.”
“That’s strange,” Lou said. “I can’t imagine any of my boys going to your apartment. What were their names?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea,” Laurie said.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t ask them their names,” Lou said. “That’s ridiculous. You should have gotten their names and badge numbers and called the police to check on them. I mean, how do you know they were really police?”
“I didn’t think of getting their names,” Laurie said. “I asked to see their badges.”
“Come on, Laurie,” Lou complained. “You’ve lived in New York too long to act like that. You should know better.”
“All right!” Laurie snapped. She was still overwrought. The last thing she needed from Lou was a lecture. “What should I do now?”
“Nothing,” Lou said. “I’ll check into it. Meanwhile, if anybody else shows up, get their names and badge numbers. Do you think you can remember that?”
Laurie wondered if Lou was deliberately trying to provoke her. She tried to remain calm. This was no time to let him get to her. “Let’s change the subject,” she said. “There’s something even more important we have to talk about. I think I’ve come up with an explanation about my cocaine overdose/toxicity cases, and it involves someone you know. I finally even have some evidence that I think you’ll find convincing. Maybe you should come over here now. I want to show you some preliminary DNA matches. Obviously I can’t meet you here in the daytime.”
“What a coincidence,” Lou said. “Sounds like we’ve both made some progress. I think I’ve solved my gangland murder cases. I wanted to run it by you.”
“How did you manage to solve them?”
“I went by to see your boyfriend, Jordan,” Lou said. “In fact I saw him a couple of times today. I think he’s getting tired of me.”
“Lou, are you deliberately trying to irritate me?” Laurie questioned. “If so, you are doing a wonderful job. For the tenth time, Jordan is not my boyfriend!”
“Put it this way,” Lou said. “I’m trying to get your attention. You see, the more time I spend with that guy, the more I think he’s a creep and a sleazeball, and this is going beyond that jealousy crap I admitted to in a moment of weakness. I can’t imagine what you see in him.”
br /> “I didn’t call you to get a lecture,” Laurie said wearily.
“I can’t help it,” Lou said. “You need some advice from someone who cares. I don’t think you should see that guy anymore.”
“OK, Dad, I’ll keep it in mind.” With that, she hung up the phone. She was tired of Lou’s condescending paternalism, and for the moment she couldn’t talk with him. She had to give herself some time to calm down. The man could be so infuriating, especially when she needed support, not criticism.
Laurie’s phone started ringing almost as soon as she’d hung up, but she ignored it. She’d let Lou stew for a little while. She unlocked her office door and walked down the silent hallway and took the elevator to the morgue. At that hour the morgue was desolate, with most of the skeleton evening staff on dinner break. Bruce Pomowski, however, was in the mortuary office. She hoped he hadn’t heard about her being fired.
“Excuse me!” Laurie called from the doorway.
Bruce looked up from his newspaper.
“Is the Fletcher body still here?” she asked.
Bruce consulted the log book. “Nope,” he said. “Went out this afternoon.”
“How about Andre or Haberlin?” Laurie asked.
Bruce referred to the book again. “Andre went out this afternoon, but Haberlin is still here. The body is going out to Long Island someplace any minute. It’s in the walk-in.”
“Thanks,” Laurie said. She turned to leave. Obviously Bruce hadn’t heard she’d been taken off the payroll.
“Dr. Montgomery,” Bruce called. “Peter Letterman was looking for you earlier and I’m supposed to tell you to be sure to go up and see him if I run into you. He said it was important and that he was going to be around for a while tonight.”
Laurie felt torn. She wanted to view the Haberlin body, thinking that a brief examination could very well substantiate her suspicions. At the same time she didn’t want to miss Peter if he had something to tell her.
“Listen,” Laurie said to Bruce. “I’m going to run up and see if Peter is still here. Don’t let that Haberlin body go until I see it.”
“You got it,” Bruce said with a wave.
Laurie went to the fourth floor and the toxicology lab. When she saw a light coming from Peter’s door, she breathed a sigh of relief: Peter was still there.
“Knock, knock,” Laurie called out, pausing at the door. She didn’t want to give Peter a scare.
Peter looked up from a long computer printout he was studying. “Laurie! Am I glad to see you! I have something I want to show you.”
Laurie followed Peter to the gas chromatograph/mass spectrometry unit. Peter picked up another computer printout and handed it to Laurie. She studied it with little comprehension.
“It’s from Robert Evans,” Peter said proudly. “Just as you suggested.”
“What am I looking at?” Laurie asked.
Peter pointed with his pencil. “There,” he said. “That’s a positive for ethylene, and it’s a lot more evident than it had been in Randall Thatcher’s case. It is no laboratory error or false positive. It’s real.”
“That’s weird,” Laurie said. She’d really come to think the ethylene reading in the Thatcher case had been an error.
“It might be weird,” Peter said, “but it’s real. No doubt about it.”
“I need another favor,” Laurie said. “Can you open the DNA lab for me?”
“Sure,” Peter said. “You want me to open it now?”
“If you don’t mind.”
Peter got his keys and led Laurie down a flight of stairs to the lab on the third floor.
As they went in, Laurie explained what she was up to. “I was shown a Polaroid of a match but it was just a preliminary. It concerns the Julia Myerholtz case. You probably recognize the name.”
“Certainly,” Peter said. “I’ve run lots of samples on her.”
“I want to find that Polaroid,” Laurie said. “I need a copy of it. I don’t need a duplicate photograph; a copy from the copy machine will be fine.”
“No problem,” Peter said. He knew exactly where to look. Once he had the Polaroid in hand, he went to the copy machine. Laurie followed.
While the copy machine warmed up, Peter looked at the photo. “It’s pretty obvious they don’t match,” he said. “Is that what you expected?”
“No,” Laurie said. “It was a shot in the dark.”
“Interesting,” Peter said. “Do you think it is significant?”
“Absolutely,” Laurie said. “I think it means Julia was fighting for her life.”
“You think she’s still in there?” Tony asked. He was more antsy than usual. “She could have left while I was going back to get you. And if she’s not in there, then we’re wasting our time sitting here like a couple of chumps.”
“You’ve got a good point,” Angelo said. “But before we move in I wish we could make sure she didn’t call the cops. I still don’t understand why she split unless she didn’t think we were real cops. I mean, isn’t she the solid-citizen type? What does she have to hide from cops? It doesn’t make sense, and when something doesn’t make sense, it means I’m missing something. And when I’m missing something, it scares me.”
“God, you’re always worrying,” Tony said. “Let’s just go in there, get her, and be done with it.”
“All right,” Angelo said. “But take it easy. And bring the bag. We’re going to have to play this one by ear.”
“I’m with you all the way,” Tony said eagerly. Due to the unconsummated chase after Laurie, Tony’s appetite for action had been honed to a razor’s edge. He was a bundle of nervous energy.
“I think we’d better put the silencers on our guns,” Angelo said. “No telling what we’re going to meet. And we’re going to have to work fast.”
“Great!” Tony exclaimed. With obvious excitement he pulled out his Bantam and attached the silencer. It took him a moment because his hand trembled with pleasurable anticipation.
Angelo gave him a hard look, then shook his head in exasperation. “Try to stay calm. Let’s go!”
They got out of the car and ran across the street and between the two mortuary vans. They ran hunched over, trying to avoid the drizzle as much as possible. They entered the same way they had that afternoon, through the morgue loading dock. Angelo was in the lead. Tony followed with the black doctor’s bag in one hand and his gun in the other. In an attempt to conceal the gun, he had it partially under his jacket.
Angelo was almost past the open door to the security office when someone inside yelled, “Hey! You can’t go in there.”
Tony collided with Angelo when his partner stopped abruptly. A guard in a blue uniform was sitting at his desk. In front of him was a game of solitaire.
“Where you guys think you’re going?” he asked.
Before Angelo could respond, Tony raised his Bantam and aimed it at the surprised guard’s forehead. He pulled the trigger without a moment’s hesitation. The slug hit the guard in his head, just above his left eye, so that he fell over onto his desk, his head landing with a solid thump on his card game. Except for the pool of blood forming on the desk top, a passerby might have thought the man was simply asleep on the job.
“What the hell did you shoot him for?” Angelo snarled. “You could have given me a chance to talk with him.”
“He was going to give us trouble,” Tony said. “You said we had to be fast.”
“What if he has a partner?” Angelo said. “What if the partner comes back? Where will we be then?”
Tony frowned.
“Come on!” Angelo said.
They peered into the mortuary office. There was cigarette smoke in the air and a live butt in an ashtray by the desk, but no one was in sight. Leaving the office and advancing cautiously into the morgue proper, Angelo glanced into the small auxiliary autopsy room used for decomposed bodies. The dissecting table was barely visible in the half-light.
“This place gives me the creeps,” he admit
ted.
“Me too,” Tony said. “It’s nothing like the funeral home I worked at. Look at the floor. This place is disgusting.”
“Why are so many lights off?” Angelo asked.
“Saving money?” Tony suggested.
They came to the huge U-shaped mass of refrigerator compartments stacked four-high, each with its own heavily hinged door. “You think all the bodies are in here?” Angelo asked, pointing toward the bank of cooler doors.
“I guess so,” Tony said. “This is just like in those old movies when they have to identify somebody.”
“It doesn’t smell like this in the movies,” Angelo said. “What the hell are all those simple coffins for? They expecting the bubonic plague?”
“Beats me,” Tony said.
They wandered past the large walk-in cooler, heading for the light that was coming through the windows of the double doors that led into the main autopsy room. Just before they got there, the doors burst open and out walked Bruce Pomowski.
Everyone recoiled in surprise. Tony hid his gun behind his back.
“You guys scared me,” Bruce admitted with a nervous laugh.
“The feeling’s mutual,” Angelo said.
“You must be here for the Haberlin body,” Bruce said. “Well, I got good news and bad news. The good news is that it’s ready. The bad news is you have to wait until one of the doctors examines it.”
“That’s too bad,” Angelo said. “But as long as we’re waiting around, have you seen Dr. Laurie Montgomery?”
“Yeah,” Bruce said. “I just saw her a few minutes ago.”
“Can you tell us where she went?” Angelo asked.
“She went up to Toxicology,” Bruce said. He was becoming curious and even a little suspicious about these two men.
“And where might Toxicology be?” Angelo asked.
“Fourth floor.” Bruce tried to remember if he’d ever seen these two on a body pickup before.
“Thanks,” Angelo said. He turned, motioning for Tony to follow him.
“Hey, you can’t go up there,” said Bruce. “And what funeral home are you from?”