Chapter 7
By the next morning, crews had successfully removed the body from the concrete pillar. Just as Jake and Frank were ready to leave for the medical examiner’s office, Murphy appeared.
“In my office,” Murphy barked at the two detectives. “Jake only,” Murphy clarified as the two started to rise.
“We were just getting ready to go to Benny’s office.” Jake closed the door and sat down.
“This won’t take long. I haven’t had the chance to commend you for making an ass out of yourself at Preston’s reception Saturday night.”
“Sorry. I thought I took an oath to uphold the law.”
Murphy slowly lowered himself into his chair. “I’ve been more than patient with you. You’re showing signs of burnout, drinking too much, and you just don’t seem to have that enthusiasm anymore. Your chances of being promoted are remote, at best.” He smiled as though the very thought delighted him.
“Two beers after work is hardly the makings of an alcoholic,” Jake spit out.
Murphy arched one thick brow saying, “You have three in your car before you even leave the parking lot, Detective. Care to try your math again?”
Jake crossed his left ankle over his right knee. Murphy gazed at Jake’s gym shoes. Jake was a firm believer in following rules. But he never met a man he despised more than Murphy, and any way he could find to irritate the hell out of him, he did. Like refusing to wear a suit every day. The only reason he wore as much as a sportscoat was to conceal his belt holster. He preferred comfortable polo shirts or jersey pullovers, anything that didn’t require a tie. And seeing Murphy cringe every time he wore his gym shoes brought one of those rare smiles to his face.
Murphy folded his hands over a manila file folder. His skin was leathered from the tanning spa, causing deep crease lines to form around his eyes.
“Your file is impressive. Five years with the FBI, seven years with CHPD. It seems once you moved from FBI to police work, your enthusiasm went right down the toilet.”
“All this because I almost halted Preston Hilliard’s illegal blackjack game?” Jake challenged.
Murphy’s eyes narrowed. “I could bust you down to writing tickets if I wanted to. But I need your skills. The chief is transferring one of his people here, a Sergeant Sam Casey. I think Casey is a plant. Connelley would like nothing better than to see me out of here. But I’m going to stay two steps ahead of him. I want you and Frank to work with Casey. I’ll let Mick know that I want you to have every opportunity to redeem yourself. I want to know anything remotely suspicious Casey is working on. If you can do that, I’ll see to it you make sergeant.”
Jake’s radar went on high alert. Murphy had an agenda and Jake’s suspicions and curiosity were kicking into overdrive. Jake studied him the way he would a suspect. “What makes you think I WANT to make sergeant?”
“EVERYONE wants to make sergeant.”
“What if I don’t come up with something?”
Murphy leaned over his desk, close enough for Jake to smell his morning cups of black coffee. “Then you are free to do anything necessary to guarantee that you DO come up with something, if you get my drift.”
Jake tightened his jaw, uncrossed his legs and stood up.
Murphy walked him to the door and stuck out his hand. “Good hunting, Detective.” Jake looked at the uncallused hand with its manicured nails and walked out.
Chapter 8
“What do you make of it?” Frank asked Jake as they drove over to the medical examiner’s office.
“Goddam prick. He knows how I feel about him. He should make his offer to Brandon Carter. He’s the one kissing his ass for that promotion.”
“Because Brandon never sees things through. It doesn’t take much to sidetrack him.”
“I thought I left the bullshit back in D.C.”
“Same bullshit, different bull. Besides, Brandon has been pretty vocal about getting into Internal Affairs.”
“I don’t like owing people, especially Murphy, him with his twelve-hundred-dollar suits and ostrich shoes.”
Frank pulled into the crowded lot next to Headquarters. An enclosed walkway over the lot connected Headquarters to the County Medical Building. They parked near the rear of the building and walked around to the front entrance.
“It’s no secret he’s had it in for Connelley ever since the mayor gave Connelley the chief position over Murphy.” Letting out a chuckle, Frank added, “All those connections didn’t do Murphy one damn bit of good. You gotta love it.”
“And then his damn comments about my drinking…” Jake mumbled.
“Well,” Frank started, “you do kinda…”
Holding up a hand like a warning sign, Jake said, “You don’t want to go there, Frank. You take care of Claudia and Justin. I’ll take care of me.”
An uncomfortable silence hung like a curtain between them. Jake started to despise Sister Lucia from grammar school who had a way of ingraining guilt and shame in her students, sometimes for doing absolutely nothing. The case of the guilts that just grabbed him by the neck and throttled him had Sister Lucia’s fingerprints all over it.
Frank took the hint and changed the subject. “Find out anything about the mystery thief in the video?”
“Nothing yet. None of my contacts knows anyone fitting the description. Even Juanita wasn’t much help. There were a lot of wives and girlfriends there. I guess they all look alike to her.”
Frank laughed that deep laugh that seemed to start at the base of his throat. “That was no wife or girlfriend,” Frank said. “That lady was good, a pro. Someone has to know her.”
Chapter 9
King Tut stood propped in the corner of the examining room like an archeological find. Long, fluorescent bulbs lined the tall ceilings giving the starched white tiled floor and walls an even more sterile appearance.
Benny Lau smiled like a proud father. Benny had been the chief medical examiner for the past fifteen years. Small, dark eyes rested under a helmet of jet black hair. His deep olive complexion shielded his skin from the typical aging signs of a man just reaching fifty.
“Unbelievable!” Sam couldn’t take her eyes off of the monolith. She detected a pungent odor drifting from the body and waved a hand in front of her face.
“Adipocere,” Benny explained. “Due to chemical changes, the body turns to soap, literally. It’s the fatty acids from the hydrolysis and hydrogenation of body fats after death that gives it the odor.”
Something other than the odor, however, was overpowering her. It was the aura. She had felt it the moment she stepped into the room. That’s usually when it is the strongest. Right after the person dies. In this case, King Tut’s death aura had been entombed with him.
Sam moved toward King Tut. “May I?” she asked Benny as she started to place her hands on the body.
Frank signed their names to the log at the reception desk. A young woman with porcelain skin and China-doll features glided gracefully over to the desk. The name on the badge clipped to her white lab coat said Tamara. She looked at their names and with a lilting voice said, “Doctor Lau is expecting you.”
Jake carried his sportscoat hooked on the tip of his finger. They walked past empty, pristine offices crammed with computers and filing cabinets.
