“ You heard the captain and that lady FBI agent,” she challenged him.
“ What, that there's two Claws?”
“ Or that there's one guy with two heads like Ames says.”
He nodded, considering this. “Still, Leon would be a pretty sorry catch when the TV cameras hit him, but then so was Richard Speck and Jeffrey Dahmer.”
“ Damn sure would like to get inside.”
“ No legal way. And breaking his window was dumb, Louise.”
“ We got probable cause. He refused us entrance. The broken glass was purely accidental.”
“ There's no probable cause for a warrant. No way.”
“ What if we examine him a little closer; catch him in a lie or two?”
“ Like whether he ate with the old girl or not?”
“ Let's talk to some more of his neighbors and maybe his boss at this pipe place.”
“ You're on,” agreed Turner, tossing away a butt, “only first we find some coffee and a can. I gotta go.”
Twenty
Unable for the time being to locate Rychman, Jessica slowed long enough to retrieve a copy of the tape made while Darius and Archer were reopening the bodies of Olin and Hamner. She located a tape player and some privacy, listening to the report for any sign of friction between the two M.E. s. To her consternation, she could make out no such difficulties whatever, and this made her doubt her own earlier misgivings about Simon Archer. A straight arrow, Rychman had called him, and suppose he was? And suppose she raised questions about him only to learn that she had sullied his reputation for nothing? Suppose her imagination had run amok? It could cause enough of a stink that her superiors in Quantico might smell it. Yeah, just what O'Rourke would like most of all to come out of her investigation of the Claw. Hadn't O'Rourke gone behind her back to put Matisak in her way?
Her convictions regarding Archer hadn't yet solidified and she was already second-guessing herself: What would Rychman do? How would others react? Would everyone think her mad?
She was unsure what to do with her suspicion, but she knew that she wanted to pay a great deal more attention to Archer than she had. At the moment, she assumed he was meeting with the C. R and the mayor, his interim status as manager of the coroner's office being made permanent, naming him as the new M.E. in charge. Was it a dream he would sabotage for… possibly kill for? Men killed for far, far less.
She went searching for Alan, expecting to find a very upset man who'd no doubt respond badly to the irresponsible publication of Ovid's poem. Rychman, she learned, was in conference with Mayor Halle and C.P. Eldritch. No doubt he was being informed of Archer's new appointment and all of them were hashing out a public relations ploy to combat remarks in Drake's Times story, which alleged that the police had knowingly arrested the wrong man in the Claw case, and that he was not the author of the horrid poem. Telephones were shrilly crying out the message that the newspaper account had had a great ripple effect throughout the city, and that Jim Drake's career with the paper was solidified.
“ I'm afraid he can't be disturbed now,” Rychman's matronly secretary said to her, pursuing Jessica as she pushed by, anyway.
The men in the room fell silent the moment she pressed through the door, except for Rychman, who told his secretary that it was all right.
“ You may as well know, Dr. Coran, that the C. P here wants someone else to head the Claw task force, that I'm being held responsible for the leaks getting out to the press, and that maybe I'm the Deep Throat here… for Christ's sake.”
“ That's crazy,” she said, going toward the mayor. “Alan's done everything in his power to contain such information leaks-everything.” She realized now that Dr. Archer wasn't in the room.
“ We've traced this thing. Ames didn't do it,” said Eldritch, his thin frame almost quaking with his anger. “His secretary was grilled for hours, and nothing there.”
“ But Lathrope's people knew,” she countered.
“ All screened and let go.”
“ The secretary… she made copies that day,” replied Jessica.
“ She's the most likely, but she swears otherwise,” Alan replied. “I'm not a hundred percent convinced of her innocence but-”
“ Darius was the only other person to have any knowledge of it, and he's dead,” said the mayor.
“ No,” she countered. “There was also Simon Archer.”
They all stared at her. Rychman asked, “Archer? What could Simon possibly have to gain?”
“ You're considering him for Darius' position, aren't you?”
“ Yes, but it's not an appointment. He must go through various boards, committees, and compete with other applicants,” said the mayor. “Of course, he… he has solicited my backing and I… I gave it, of course. But why do you suspect… What possible reason would he have to… to sabotage Rychman's investigation in such a way?”
“ I'm not completely sure. Call it free association, but I believe he has some plan to… to dazzle you, sir, to ensure he gets the position as chief M.E. of the city, and the more sensationalized the case, well…”
“ That's… that is a very serious accusation, Dr. Coran. I hope you have some evidence to support it.”
“ At the moment, I have very little… only circumstantial.” She held up the tape she'd just listened to. “Proof that he knew something had been found is in here.” She then showed them the computer disk. “And in here is a computer representation of the weapon used by the Claw, a representation that I believe Dr. Archer himself could have created given the evidentiary materials in his possession, and yet he failed to do so.”
“ What the weapon looks like?” Rychman was instantly curious. “Let's see it.”
The C. P and the mayor were equally curious. Rychman led them to a secluded room with a computer terminal, and in moments Jessica had them staring at what she believed the Claw used on his victims. Rychman was amazed, as were the others. Before their eyes a graphic representation done in geometric red lines afforded them their first glance into the nature of the weapon, and with it the nature of the beast.
“ It looks like some kind of meat-cleaving glove,” said Halle.
“ It is that,” said Jessica.
“ Look at that,” said Eldritch. “You ever see anything like it before?”
“ Closest thing to it is a prosthetic hook,” said Rychman. “Kind you see on some longshoremen working the docks.”
“ Maybe the bastard's a sailor, then, a merchant marine.”
“ I think he's more into gardening tools,” countered Jessica. “Notice how similar the three prongs are to a hand-held garden hoe.”
“ Yeah… yeah,” agreed Alan, nodding. “You're right.”
“ You have absolutely no doubt that this is the weapon used on his victims?”
“ None whatever.”
“ How did you possibly come to-”
“ A special forensics program designed by my mentor, Dr. Holecraft, Washington's chief M.E. for over thirty years. He had for years dreamed of and worked on a program that would collect all information on the wounds inflicted, compute this to the last degree and reassemble it to mirror back the exact nature of the device used in an attack, from blunt objects to blades and even to caliber of a handgun via the bullet's entrance and exit wounds.”
“ But if you brought the program with you from Quantico, there's no reason to assume that Dr. Archer would have been proficient in its use, or had had the time-” countered Eldritch, who seemed anxious to defend Archer.
“ But he was proficient in its use, and he did have the time.” She stopped him with upraised hands.
“ You're sure of this, Dr. Coran?” asked Alan.
“ The program was sent to the NYPD M.E.'s office two months ago, and Darius didn't seem to know that it was on hand when I asked him about it. Of course, then he became excited about its use, and he asked me-since I'd had practical experience with it-to do the honors. I've been working on this image ever since. But prior to this,
