to a surgical clamp. Whenever there is any cranial surgery performed, it is imperative, of course, that the patient be immobilized. Fortunately, we do not have that problem in this office. Our patients tend not to fidget much.'
'Do you think our boy has some medical training?'
'Could be.'
Jessica studied the bruises, thought about the horror of having one's head locked into a device. 'Where do you get an item like that?'
'It's pretty specialized. And expensive. I'll get you a list of medical suppliers.'
Jessica made a note to follow up.
'One other thing,' Weyrich said. He pointed at the puncture wound in the forehead. He handed back the magnifying glass to Jessica. She looked at the wound. 'What am I looking for?'
'See the area right around the puncture? The coloration?'
Under magnification the puncture did not look like such a clean wound, but rather twisted, shredded tissue, exploding outward like a tiny lava eruption. Jessica saw a small ring around the puncture that appeared to be red. An unnaturally bright shade of red. 'This is not dried blood, I take it.'
'No,' Weyrich said. 'That would be much darker. This was made with a Magic Marker of some sort. Maybe a felt-tip marker.'
Jessica looked up at Byrne, then back. 'A Magic Marker?'
Weyrich nodded.
'You're saying the killer marked the spot first?'
Weyrich nodded, politely smug in his findings. 'I've seen stranger things.'
'Why would he do something like that?'
Weyrich took the magnifying glass back, pulled the sheet over the body. 'That's above my pay grade, detective,' he said. 'You are the chef de partie here. I'm only the commis.'
When they stepped out of the MEO, David Albrecht was waiting for them. For any number of reasons he had not been allowed inside the morgue.
'What did I miss?' Albrecht asked.
'Bunch of dead people,' Byrne said. 'I yelled 'action,' but nobody moved.'
David Albrecht soon dialed into the fact that he wasn't going to get anything out of Kevin Byrne on this matter. He turned to Jessica.
'Where to?' he asked.
'We're going to grab some coffee,' Jessica said. 'You're welcome to join us.'
'Thanks.'
'You can get some shots of us looking at a menu, putting cream in coffee, fighting over the check,' Byrne said.
Albrecht laughed. 'Okay, okay. I'll just ramp up the suspense in post.'
Byrne smiled, winked at Jessica. It wasn't a thaw, but it was a start. Jessica knew that Byrne was not particularly keen on being followed around with a camera. Neither was she.
Albrecht left his van at the ME's office and traveled with the detectives. They drove down University Avenue.
'So, are you getting what you want?' Jessica asked.
'Pretty much,' Albrecht said. 'I was at the district attorney's office earlier this morning. I'm running two story lines at the same time. I'm shooting two of the DAs at work as well. I don't think it's ever been done before.'
'You mean following both police detectives and district attorneys?' Byrne asked.
'Exactly.'
'You mean like every episode of Law and Order?'
Albrecht went quiet.
'I'm sure you'll put your own stamp on it,' Jessica said, shooting Byrne a look.
They stopped at a coffee shop on Spruce Street. Albrecht, sitting two booths away, really did get footage of them looking at menus. On the second cup, he put down the camera and pulled up a chair to the booth.
'So we're not your only stars?' Byrne asked.
'No,' Albrecht said, smiling. 'I am painting a vast and varied canvas.'
'I've been meaning to ask you,' Byrne said. 'Did you shoot any footage of the crowd at the Federal Street scene?'
'Yeah,' Albrecht said. 'It came out good.'
'We'd like to take a look at it, if you don't mind. Maybe our bad guy showed up to gloat.'
'Right, right,' Albrecht said, nodding. 'I'll get that on a disk right away.'
'We'd appreciate it.'
The waitress came over with three cups of espresso. They weren't for the table. They were all for Albrecht. Jessica and Byrne exchanged a glance.
Albrecht saw the look, shrugged. 'Well, you know the old saying. Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.' He knocked back one of the small cups in a single gulp.
Byrne tapped the DV camera on the seat next to him. 'So tell me, how did you get into this?'
Albrecht stirred sugar into his second cup of espresso. 'Well, it was probably my dad. He used to take me to the movies a lot when I was a kid. He was big in the arts, you know. For some reason I gravitated to documentaries at a young age.'
'Do you remember the film you liked the most?'
'I think the movie that did it for me was called In the Shadow of the Stars.' He looked between Jessica and Byrne. 'Did either of you ever see it?'
Jessica had not. She told him so.
'That was the documentary on the choristers in the opera?' Byrne asked.
'Yes!' Albrecht said. He looked around. 'Sorry. That was loud, wasn't it?'
Byrne smiled. 'Not in this place.'
'Well, when I saw that — at the ripe old age of seven — I saw the possibilities of making movies about regular people. Nothing bores me more than celebrity. I never watch television.'
'That movie seems a little highbrow for a kid,' Byrne said.
Albrecht downed a second espresso, nodded. 'Like I said, my dad was big into the arts. I think we saw that film at a fundraiser. I was never the same afterwards. I was especially impressed with the music. The possibilities of sound editing in particular.'
Jessica suddenly made the connection. 'Wait a minute. Your father was Jonas Albrecht?'
'Yes.'
For more than twenty-five years Jonas Albrecht had been a force of nature in Philadelphia arts, business, and politics — one of the directors of the prestigious Pennsylvania Society. He was a wealthy man, having made his fortune in real estate. He founded a number of organizations, and was deeply involved with the Philadelphia Orchestra until he was tragically killed in a violent carjacking in 2003. Jessica had been on the force at the time, but it was before she had joined the homicide unit. She wasn't sure if the case had ever been closed.
'It was a terrible tragedy,' Byrne said. 'We're sorry for your loss.'
Albrecht nodded. 'Thank you.'
We are the sum of our experiences, Jessica thought. David Albrecht might not be doing what he was doing now if it had not been for the terrible tragedy that had befallen his father. It had taken Jessica a long time to realize that, if it were not for her own life's tragedies, among which was her brother Michael's death in Kuwait in 1991, her life might have taken another path. She had been headed to law school until that fateful day. It was Michael who had been going to follow in their father's footsteps and join the force. Life takes its turns.
While Byrne and David Albrecht talked documentary film — not one of Jessica's strong suits, she'd been halfway through This is Spinal Tap before she'd realized it was a spoof — she got on her iPhone, did a search for tattoo parlors in Philadelphia. She called a few of them and was told that they did not handle things like temporary tattoos. The last place she called, an emporium on South Street, mentioned a parlor that had recently opened on Chestnut, a place called Ephemera. The girl said they did temporary tattooing and had a good reputation.
Ephemera was on the second floor of a row house converted into retail space. The first floor was a retail shop selling Asian specialty foods.
