Shiver on the Sky
Page 32
Chapter Twenty-One
(Wednesday Morning—Gordon)
Gordon heard about it from Ramirez around seven that morning. It seemed to him the kid popped up everywhere lately. Maybe he was looking for a promotion.
Gordon snorted. When Ramirez got a little more seasoning he’d know better who to suck up to. Gordon was considered effective in his job, but he wasn’t a player in office politics and hadn’t been for years. He already had everything he wanted from the Department. All he had to do was hold on to it. Which basically meant no high-profile screwups.
Ramirez was blind to all that, and probably had no idea his tip could endanger Gordon’s career. Still, the kid was turning out to be a good cop. Gordon was grateful to him. Mostly.
The body had been found at a hotel on SPID at about five-thirty. The cleaning staff had noticed it when they’d gone to take out the garbage and seen a hand poking out of the trash bin.
If it hadn’t been so close to full, Ramirez had told him, the body might not have been found for days. Yeah. Gordon could buy that. But the thing was, there were other trash bins around, and somebody had chosen that one in particular. Whoever had done it could have piled garbage on the body, too, but hadn’t.
He and Faulkner went to check it out. The Feds were sure to show up and claim their territory when they heard about it, but they weren’t there yet, and the CCPD crime-scene team still rummaged onsite. Gordon spotted Garvey, from the medical examiner’s office, and nudged Faulkner.
Faulkner unobtrusively cut Garvey from the crowd and brought him back to where Gordon waited.
“Hey Gordon,” Garvey said. “How come you guys got called on this? Looks like a federal show, not gonna be our problem. They ought to be here in a few minutes.”
“You get a look at the body?” Gordon asked.
“Sure. Didn’t get an ID until they searched the trash, found a purse with a license that matched. It took a while to figure out it was federal.”
Gordon nodded. Finding the purse near the body was consistent with his suspicions. Or they could be dealing with a very stupid killer, which was actually fairly standard. But he didn’t think that was it. Not this time.
Faulkner spoke up. “Can you tell us anything? The probable cause of death? Wounds? Anything?”
Garvey looked at them. “Something’s going on here, right? This is part of something else, or you guys are in a pissing contest with the Feds? I don’t need to get in the middle of this.”
Gordon shrugged. “So don’t. Tell us what you know and we’ll go away. It won’t come back on you.”
Garvey met his eyes, then wiped his face. “Oh, what the hell. You’ve done me enough favors.” His hand lingered to pick his nose. Gordon pretended he didn’t see it. “She was beaten pretty severely.” Garvey wiped his hand on his pants. “I can’t give you a cause of death, you know that, but there was trauma to the back of the head. My guess is that did it. Also, she was raped. Vaginal bruising, some semen. And what looks like it might be skin under her fingernails, so between that and the semen they have a pretty good chance to ID the guy if they find him.”
“Is there anything else?” Faulkner asked.
“No. And if you’ll excuse me, I have a couple of kids who depend on me to feed them, so I’ll be going before I lose my job.”
“Thanks, Garvey,” Gordon said. “You’re a prince. We owe you one.”
“I’d prefer it,” Garvey said over his shoulder as he walked away, “if you’d just forget about it completely. I have.”
Gordon looked at Faulkner. “This stinks, you know.”
Faulkner shrugged. “I haven’t even met him. I agree it doesn’t make much sense, but how often do we meet a criminal genius?”
Gordon lit a cigarette. “He’d be the first. But he’s not this dumb. Especially if he’s still here. Let’s go see.” He walked into the hotel.
Faulkner raised an eyebrow, shrugged again, and followed him.