said to Jesse when he
arrived.
Jesse nodded. Dead people don’t look much different at
first, he thought. Just like live people except that they
don’t move. He stared down at her face. No, he
thought, it’s more than that. You look at them, there’s
something missing. Her position would have embarrassed her.
He
reached down and moved her leg and smoothed her skirt down. She was still flexible. Peter Perkins arrived with his crime-scene kit.
Suitcase Simpson was setting up lights. The ambulance pulled in.
Anthony was stringing the crime-scene tape.
“She live alone?” Suitcase asked.
“She lived with a guy,” Jesse said.
He was still looking absently down at the body.
“Nobody answering the door,” Simpson said.
“Or the
phone.”
“He’s in Chicago,” Jesse said.
Simpson stared at Jesse and started to speak. Then he didn’t.
One of the techs from the ambulance came over and knelt down beside Abby. He took her pulse automatically, though he knew she was dead.
“Just like the other ones, Jesse,” the tech said. “Two in the
chest.”
“Her purse is still in the car,” Perkins said.
“Cold night,” the tech said.
“Make time of death a little
harder.”
“She died within the last hour,” Jesse said.
The tech looked up as if he were going to ask a question.
Suitcase Simpson put a hand on his shoulder. The tech glanced at him. Simpson shook his head. Perkins began to photograph the crime scene. A few neighbors had straggled out into the cold, coats on over sleep wear, hunched against the cold, staring aimlessly. Jesse was motionless, looking down at the body.
“You know where this guy might be in Chicago,” Simpson
asked.
Jesse shook his head.
“Anthony and I’ll ask a few
neighbors,” Simpson said. “Maybe
they’ll know. Or know where he works and the people at work will
know.”
Jesse nodded.
“Hate to just leave a note for him to call.”
“We won’t leave a note,” Jesse
said. “If you can’t reach him,
leave somebody here until you do.”
“What if it’s a couple days?”
Simpson said.
“Leave somebody here if you can’t reach him,” Jesse
said.
“Okay, Jesse.”
The other cops went about their crime-scene business very quietly. Like people in a sickroom. Jesse continued to look at Abby. After a while the EMTs loaded her onto a gurney and slid her into the back of the ambulance. Jesse watched them silently. The ambulance pulled away. Peter Perkins packed up his crime-scene gear and went to his car. Simpson and deAngelo finished talking to the neighbors.
