Deadly Descisions

by Kathy Reichs

  Before I could ask, the phone rang again. LaManche reached for the receiver, listened, then held it to his chest.

  "Was there anything else?"

  A polite dismissal.

  I was so preoccupied by LaManche's comment about Claudel that I almost collided with Jocelyn the temp as I left his office and headed toward my own. She wore large beaded loops in her ears, and the hair streaks were now the color of purple African violets.

  As we circled each other, readjusting our armloads of papers, I again was struck by the whiteness of her skin. Under the harsh fluorescent light, her lower lids looked plum, her skin as pale as the underbelly of a lemon peel. It crossed my mind Jocelyn might be albino.

  For some reason, I felt compelled to speak to her.

  "How are you getting along, Jocelyn?"

  She stared at me with a look I couldn't interpret.

  "I hope you're not finding the lab too overwhelming."

  "I can do the job."

  "Yes, of course you can. I just meant it's hard to be the new kid on the block."

  As she opened her mouth to say something, a secretary emerged from an adjacent office. Jocelyn hurried off down the hall.

  Jesus, I thought. This one could use a bit of charm school. Maybe she could get a two-for-the-price-of-one deal for her and Q uickwater.

  I spent the rest of the afternoon clearing my desk of message slips. Calls from the media I threw away, those from law enforcement I returned.

  I scanned a request from Pelletier, the oldest of the lab pathologists. Bones had been found by a homeowner in Outremont when he dug a hole in his cellar floor. The remains were old and brittle, but Pelletier was unsure if they were human.

  Nothing urgent.

  My desk reasonably clear, I drove home and spent another glamorous evening in the oldest French city in North America.

  Pizza. Bath. Baseball.

  Birdie stayed through the eighth inning, then curled into a ball on the guest room bed. When I turned in at eleven-fifteen he stretched and relocated to my bedroom chair.

  I fell asleep almost immediately and dreamed piecemeal scenarios that made no sense. Kit waved from a boat, Andrew Ryan by his side. Isabelle served dinner. A headless Cherokee Desjardins tweezered pieces of flesh and dropped them into a plastic sack.

  When Kit came in I floated to the surface, but was too groggy to call out. He was still fumbling in the kitchen when I sank back into oblivion.

  The next morning I was going through Pelletier's bones when Denis came into my lab.

  "C'est Ia vedette!"

  The star? Oh no.

  He opened a copy of LeJournal de Montréal and showed me a picture of myself at the Vipers' clubhouse. Beside it was a short story recounting the recovery of Gately and Martineau, and identifying the mysterious third skeleton as that of sixteen-year-old Savannah Claire Osprey, according to the coroner, an American missing since 1984. The caption described me as a member of the Carcajou unit.

  "C'est une promotion ou une reduction?"

  I smiled, wondering if Quickwater and Claudel would see the error as a promotion or demotion, then resumed sorting. So far I was up to two lamb dinners, a pot roast, and more grilled chicken than I planned to count.

  By ten I'd finished with the bones and written a detailed narrative saying that the remains were not human.

  I took the report to the secretarial pool, then returned to my office and dialed Carcajou headquarters. Jacques Roy was in a meeting and wouldn't be free until late afternoon. I left my name and number I tried Claudel, left the same message. Charbonneau. Same name, same number Please call. I thought of using pagers, decided the situation was not that urgent.

  Frustrated, I swiveled my chair and surveyed the river.

  I couldn't examine the microstructure of the Myrtle Beach bones because the slides weren't ready. Cod knew when I'd have DNA results, or if there would be anything there to sequence.

  I thought of calling Kate Brophy, but didn't want to pressure her. Besides, she was as concerned about the Osprey case as I was. More so. If she discovered anything she'd let me know

  Now what?

  LaManche was downstairs performing an autopsy on Cherokee. I could drop in, maybe assuage my doubts about the killing.

  Pass. I was not enthused at the thought of studying another biker spread out on a table.

  I decided to organize the material Kate had given me. I'd left in such a rush that I hadn't gone through it. We'd done a quick triage, packed everything into my briefcase, signed for possession, and raced to catch a flight.

  I emptied the case onto my desk and stacked the photos to my left, the folders to my right. I picked a brown envelope, shook several five-by-sevens onto the blotter, and flipped one over It was labeled on the back with a date, location, event, name, and several reference numbers.

  I reversed the photo and stared into the face of Martin "Deluxe" DeLuccio, immortalized on July 23, 1992, during a run to Wilmington, North Carolina.

  The subject's eyes were hidden by dark lenses the size of quarters, and a twisted bandanna circled his head. His sleeveless denim jacket bore the grinning skull and crossed pistons of the Outlaws motorcycle club. The bottom rocker identified its owner as a member of the Lexington chapter.

  The biker's flesh appeared puffy, his jawline slack, and a large gut bulged below the jacket. The camera had caught him straddling a powerful hog, a Michelob in his left hand, a vacuous expression on his face. Deluxe looked as if he'd need instructions to use toilet paper.

  I was moving on when the telephone rang. I laid Eli "Robin" Hood next to Deluxe and picked up, hoping it was Roy.

  It wasn't.

  A gravelly voice asked for me, dropping the final long e from my first name, but correctly pronouncing the second. The man was a stranger, and obviously an Anglophone. I answered in English.

  "This is Dr Brennan."

  There was a long pause during which I could hear clanging, and what sounded like a public address system.

  "This is Dr Brennan," I repeated.

  I heard a throat cleared, then breathing. Finally a voice said, "This is George Dorsey."

  "Yes?" My mind scanned, but got no hits.

  "You're the one dug up those stiffs?"

  The air had gone hollow as if George Dorsey had cupped his hand around the mouthpiece.

  "Yes." Here we go.

  "I saw your name in today's pap-"

  "Mr Dorsey, if you have information about those individuals you should speak with one of the investigating officers."

  Let Claudel or Quickwater deal with the postmedia circus parade.

  'Ain't you with Carcajou?"

  "Not in the sense you mean. The investigating officer-"

  "That fuck has his head so far up his ass he's going to need sonar just to find it."

  That got my attention.

  "Have you spoken with Constable Quickwater?"

  "I can't speak with fuck-all while this moron Claudel is squeezing my nuts."

  "Excuse me?"

  "This ass wipe has aspirations to higher rank, so I sit here sucking shit."

  For a moment no one spoke. The call sounded like it was coming from a bathysphere.

  "He's probably putting something together for CNN." I was growing impatient, but didn't want to risk losing information that might be useful.

  "Are you calling about the skeletons unearthed in St-Basile?" I heard choking noises, then, "Shit, no."

  It was then that my brain locked on to the name. George Dorsey was the suspect Claudel had locked up.

  "Have you been charged, Mr Dorsey?" "Fuck, no.

  "Why are they holding you?"

  "When they popped mel was holding six bumps of meth."

  "Why are you calling me?"

  "Because none of these other fucks will listen. I didn't whack Cherokee. That was unskilled labor"

  I felt my pulse increase.

  "What do you mean?"

  "That ain't how brothers take care of bus
iness."

  "Are you saying Cherokee's murder wasn't gang-related?" "Fuckin' A."

  "Then who killed him?"

  "Get your ass over here and I'll lay it all out." I said nothing. Dorsey's breath was loud in the silence. "But this ain't going to be a one-sided shuck." "I've got no reason to trust you.

  "And you ain't my choice for Woman of the Year, but none of these jag-offs will listen. They've launched the D day of police fuck-ups and parked me right on Omaha Beach."

  "I'm impressed with your knowledge of history, Mr Dorsey, but why should I believe you?"

  "Got a better lead?"

  I let the question dangle a moment. Loser though he was, George Dorsey had a point. And no one else appeared inclined to talk to me today.

  I looked at my watch. Eleven-twenty

  "I'll be there in an hour."

  Chapter 21

  For policing purposes, the Communaute Urbatne De Montreal is divided into four sections, each with a headquarters housing intervention, analysis and investigation divisions, and a detention center. Suspects arrested for murder or sexual assault are held at a facility near place Versailles, in the far eastern end of the city All others await arraignment at one of the four sectional jails. For possession of methamphetamine, Dorsey went to his local facility, Op South.

  The Op South headquarters is located at rue Guy and boulevard René Lévesque, on the outskirts of Centre-ville. This section is predominantly French and English, but it is also Mandarin, Estonian, Arabic, and Greek. It is separatist and federalist. It holds the vagrant and the affluent, the student and the stockbroker, the immigrant and the "pta Liner québecois.

  The Op South is churches and bars, boutiques and sex shops, sprawling homes and walk-up flats. The murders of Emily Anne Toussaint and Yves Cherokee Desjardins had taken place within its borders.

  As I turned off Guy into the lot, I passed through a group carrying placards and wearing signs. They'd spread down the sidewalk from the building next door, blue-coliar workers picketing for higher pay. Good luck, I thought. Perhaps it was the political instability, perhaps the Canadian economy in general, but Quebec Province was in a financial squeeze. Budgets were being cut, services curtailed. I hadn't had a raise in seven years.

  I entered at the main door and stepped to a counter to my right.

  "I'm here to see George Dorsey," I said to the guard on duty. She put down her snack cake and eyed me with boredom.

  "Are you on the list?"

  "Temperance Brennan. The prisoner asked to see me.

  She brushed chubby hands together, checked for crumbs, then entered something into a keyboard. Light reflected off her glasses as she leaned forward to read the monitor. Text scrolled down each lens, froze, then she spoke again without raising her eyes.

  "Carcajou?" Ralph Nader couldn't have sounded more dubious.

  "Mm." LeJournal thought so.

  "Got an ID?"

  She looked up and I showed her my security pass for the SQ building.

  "No badge?"

  "This was handy."

  "You'll have to sign in and leave your things here."

  She flipped pages in a ledger, wrote something, then handed me the pen. I scribbled the time and my name. Then I slipped my purse off my shoulder and handed it across the counter.

  "It'll be a minute."

  Ms. Cupcake secured my bag in a metal locker, then picked up a phone and spoke a few words. Ten minutes later a key turned in a green metal door to my left, then it opened and a guard waved me in. He was skelatal, his uniform drooping from his bones like clothes on a hanger

  Guard number two swept me with a handheld metal detector, then indicated I should follow. Keys jangled on his belt as we turned right and headed down a corridor lighted by fluorescents and surveilicd by wall and ceiling cameras. Straight ahead I could see a large holding cell, with a window facing the hall I was in, green bars facing the other. Inside, a half-dozen men lounged on wooden benches, sat or slept on the floor, or clung to the bars like captive primates.

  Beyond the drunk tank was another green metal door, the words Bloc Celltilaire in bold white to its right, beside that another counter A guard was placing a bundle in one of a grid of cubicles, this one marked XYZ. I suspected a Mr. Xavier was arnvtng. He would not see his belt, shoelaces, jewelry, glasses, or other personal possessions until checkout.

  "Man's in here," said the guard, thrusting his chin toward a door marked Entrevzte avocat, the door attorneys used. I knew Dorsey would pass through an identical door marked Entrevue detenu, for the prisoners.

  I thanked him and brushed past into a small room not designed to lift prisoner or visitor morale. The walls were yellow, the trim green, the only furnishings a red vinyl counter, a wooden stool fixed to the floor, and a wall phone.

  George Dorsey sat on the opposite side of a large rectangular window, back rounded, hands dangling between his knees.

  "Push the button when you're done," said the guard.

  With that he closed the door and we were alone.

  Dorsey didn't move but his eyes locked on me as I crossed to the counter and picked up the handset.

  I flashed on Gran's painting. Jesus, skull circled with thorns, forehead covered with droplets of blood. No matter where I went the gaze followed. Look, the eyes were open. Blink, they were closed. The picture was so unnerving I avoided my grandmother's bedroom my entire childhood. Dorsey had the same eyes.

  Inwardly trembling, I sat and folded my hands on the countertop. The man across from me was thin and wiry with a hump nose and razor-blade lips. A scar started at his left temple, loopcd his cheek, and disappeared into a circle of plumage around his mouth. His head was shaved, his only hair a dark bolt of lightning that touched down just above the scar's terminus.

  I waited for him to pick up the phone and break the silence. Outside our little room I heard voices and the clang of steel against steel. Despite the intensity of his stare, Dorsey looked as though he hadn't slept in a while.

  After several birthdays Dorsey smiled. The lips disappeared and small, yellow teeth took their place. But there was no mirth in his eyes. With a jerky motion he yanked the receiver from its cradle and placed it to his ear.

  "You've got balls coming here, lady."

  I shrugged.

  "Got cigarettes?"

  "Don't smoke."

  He drew both feet in, flexed his toes, and jiggled one leg up and down on the ball of his foot. Again he went mute. Then, "I had nothing to do with that piece of work in Pointe-St-Charles."

  "So you said." I pictured the gruesome scene at Les Appartements du Soleil.

  "This asshole Claudel is trying to cut my dick off. Figures if he sweats me hard enough I'll cop to burning Cherokee."

  The jiggling intensified.

  "Sergeant-Detective Claudel is simply doing his job." "Sergeant-Detective Claudel couldn't blow a fart and get it right." There were times I agreed with that assessment.

  "Did you know Cherokee Desjardins?"

  "I've heard of him."

  He ran a finger back and forth along a groove on the countertop. "Did you know he was dealing?"

  Now Dorsey shrugged. I waited.

  "Maybe the stuff was for personal use. You know, medicinal. I heard he had health problems."

  He ran the finger through the hair on his chin, then went back to working the groove.

  "You were seen at Desjardins' building around the time he was shot. They found a bloody jacket in your apartment.

  "The jacket am' t mine.

  'And O.J. never owned the gloves."

  "What kind of moron is gonna keep souvenirs after a hit?" He had a point.

  "Why were you in that neighborhood?"

  "That's my business.

  He shot forward and spread his elbows on the counter. My heart did a hop, but I didn't flinch.

  "And it had nothing to do with wasting Cherokee."

  I noticed a tightening around his eyes, and wondered what scenario he was constructin
g for my consumption.

  More silence.

  "Do you know who killed him, George?"

  Mistake.

  "Ohh, whee!" He curled his fingers and rested his chin on the back of one hand. 'And can I call you Tempe?"

  "This isn't a social call. You asked to meet.

  Dorsey turned sideways and stretched a leg toward the wall. One hand played with the phone cord as he kicked at the baseboard with a laceless boot. Outside the door a man's voice called to someone named Marc. I waited. Finally. "Look, I'm telling you. That hit was Amateur Hour. The only thing missing was Ted Mack."

  Dorsey swiveled back and tried to stare me down. Then his gaze dropped and he opened and closed his fingers several times. I watched the letters F.T.W change shape across his knuckles,

  "And?"

  "That show was not four star, that's all I'll give up right now.

  "Then I can't help you. We've already determined it was a sloppy hit."

  Dorsey lunged forward again and spread his forearms on the counter.

  "Your boy Claudel may think I'm just some Heathens coolie ass wipe, but he's got one thing wrong. I'm not stupid. And neither are they."

  I didn't point out that he'd listed two points of error

  "He likes you for this one."

  Dorsey leaned so close to the glass I could see dirt in the pores on his nose.

  "It's a goddam lie. I didn't kill Cherokee."

  I looked into the face that was inches from mine, and for one heartbeat the mask slipped. In that fraction of an instant I saw fear and uncertainty. And something else in those bitter, dark eyes. I saw candor

  Then the lids narrowed and the bravado was back.

  "I'm going to cut right to it. You don't like the way my friends and me do business. Fair enough. I don't like your righteous bullshit. But know this. Keep grinding me and whoever did Cherokee is going to walk."

  "Is that all you can tell me, Mr. Dorsey?"

  The eyes bored into mine and I could almost smell his hatred.

  "I might be privy to additional knowledge," he said, inspecting his fingernails with feigned nonchalance.

  'About what?"

  "I'm not telling you nothing. But Cherokee's not the only stiff in the news lately."

  My mind raced. Was he talking about Spider Marcotte? Did he know the identity of Emily Toussaint's killers?