April watched a clock pendulum move back and forth. 'It looks like Petersen died first,' she said.
'How do you know?'
'The bloodstains on his coat. Merrill Liberty bled to death on his back. That means he had to go down first.'
Jason frowned. 'What's the significance?'
'Petersen may have died of a heart attack, but not from seeing Merrill assaulted. Merrill was struck in the throat, probably from the front because there were no bruises on her body to show she'd been restrained or grabbed from behind. Another thing is she bled a lot, but the wound was very small, very neatly done. It probably took several minutes for her to die.'
Jason coughed. 'Why are you telling me this?'
'Your friend may be a very cruel killer. Why did you ask me over, Jason? I'm really pressed for time.' April watched him play with a piece of paper, watched the pendulum of the clock on his desk. The minutes ticked by. He didn't answer so she went on. 'The toxicology reports came in on Tor Petersen. Turns out he was a big cocaine user, so was Merrill—there was cocaine in the trunk of Rick's car.'
'Do you know what kind of weapon killed Merrill?' Jason interrupted.
'Some kind of pointed object. I get all the catalogs of knives you can send away for in the mail, and some you can't. There's a whole arsenal of deadly blades out there. But I haven't seen anything that fits the description of this murder weapon.'
'How about an ice pick?'
April shook her head. 'The ME measured. We measured. Too big, believe it or not.'
'Hmm. So you think Petersen died first. Was the cause of death related to complications of a drug overdose?'
'The report says no.'
'They're still certain it was the heart?'
'Yes, they say it's the heart.'
'But you're not sure.'
April hesitated. 'I'm not convinced it was a natural. But I don't know how it could have been murder yet.'
'Okay. Was Merrill with him when he died?'
'No, she'd gone into the kitchen to say good-night to the chef. She left the restaurant after Petersen. We're not sure if he was still alive when she came out.'
'So Merrill came out, possibly saw Tor die . . . then someone killed her with the only thing at hand.'
April nodded. 'That's my personal opinion.'
'A double homicide, after al.' Jason scratched his beard. 'So, you don't think Merrill was killed in a jealous rage.'
'No, I don't think she was killed in a rage, but that doesn't mean your friend didn't kill her. It just means her death may have been an afterthought.'
Jason made some angry noises. 'Rick Liberty would not have murdered his wife as an afterthought. That's just not sound psychological reasoning. I don't think he would have killed her for any reason—but to kill as an
'Jason, I may lose my job on this. The medical examiner found a natural cause of death, and I'm getting very unpopular with this line of—'
'You think Merrill Liberty saw something when she came out of the restaurant that made someone want to kill her?'
'Yes, and I need to talk to Liberty. I really need to find him.'
'I don't know where he is.' Jason's face was stony once more.
'You said that before.'
'It's still true. By the way, did they x-ray Petersen's body?'
'Of course.'
'And were the X rays negative for foreign objects?'
April started to sweat inside her sweater. 'What are you getting at?'
'Didn't you tell me that Petersen's cause of death was a pericardial tamponade?'
'A what?'
'Perforated heart sac. That's when bleeding in the pericardium stops the heart from beating. In a massive heart attack, the heart loses its rhythm and runs amok, causing an appearance of perforation to the pericardial sac. If the perforation occurs first, the results can be the same.'
April blinked. What?
'This reminds me of a case I had when I was a resident,' Jason mused.
April watched the pendulum. Time was passing. She had to get moving. 'Yeah?' she prompted, tapping her foot.
Jason frowned, remembering. 'It was a very disturbed woman. She was brought into ER again and again, having to have objects removed from her body. Once she shoved a lightbulb up her anus, another time a broken Coke bottle up her vagina. She inserted pieces of broken glass in her breasts. We kept patching her up. Then she started weaving bent carpet needles into her skin. One day, she shoved a coat hanger up under her rib cage. We could see it in the X ray. The wire went behind her lung, so it didn't collapse her lung. But it went in so far and was so close to the pericardial sac around her heart that the surgeons were afraid they'd cause a pericardial tamponade and kill her in their attempt to get it out.'
'Wow.' April raised her hand to the place above her stomach where her rib cage flared out on both sides and there was a soft unprotected spot in the middle. It was the same place where Tor Petersen's corpse had a pimple. She felt a renewed respect for Jason. Even though he was an M.D., she had never thought of him as a real doctor.
'And did they kill her getting it out?' she demanded.
'No, they were first-rate surgeons.'
'Jesus,' she muttered. 'A coat hanger. Look, I've got to go.'
'Well, take this with you.' Jason handed over the paper he'd been playing with. April read it. When she was finished, she swiveled back and forth, staring at the wall. 'So Liberty's been corresponding with you on E-mail,' she said finally.
'Only twice. This is the second time.'
'What's this about giving Merrill's coat to Emma?'
'I don't know, it's odd.'
It sure was. If he'd been wearing it and he was the killer, the coat would have traces of blood on it. April's scalp tingled. 'Thanks.' She hadn't thought of E-mail. She wasn't exactly sure how E-mail worked, but she figured with a warrant they could tap into the on-line system and trace the phone he was sending from. Jason probably didn't know that, though.
'What did you tell Liberty?' she asked quickly.
'I told him I'd talk to you.'
'Thank you for showing me this,' she said again.
'You said last night you don't have any evidence Liberty was the killer. No blood, no footprints. No witness who saw him on the scene. So you just want to talk to him, right?'
April nodded, even though the picture had changed a bit since then.
'What about your own suspicions, April? Why would anybody get in trouble for suspecting a double homicide instead of a single one in a very public case?'
April flinched at the attack. 'All right, what's on your mind? Do you want to negotiate Liberty's return?' She waved the E-mail in the air. 'Is that what this is about?'
Jason hesitated. 'I'm not sure I trust the police.'
'You can trust me. I'm the police. We need him back, Jason. We need to talk to him.'
Jason looked down at the worn Oriental rug at his feet, then glanced at the clock. 'Want to go out for a bite?'
'Thanks, I've already eaten.' April smiled. With your wife. 'But I could sit with you.'
