“ It appears so, yes.”
“ You don't think it's a disgruntled Wardlaw, then?”
“ Wardlaw has cooperated with us. It's only through him and Stephens and the damned press that I've learned as much about the case as I know,” Meade replied. “Stephens provided me with a set of the same files you got. Sincebaugh stonewalled doing so, put it off again and again.”
Jessica Coran stared back at the autopsy room, the shouting inside having risen to a crescendo, Landry getting his licks in now. Jessica then turned to Meade and asked, “Who officially called us-the FBI-in on the case originally? Stephens?”
As a federal agency, they had no jurisdiction over murder cases without having been called in by the local authorities. Kidnapping was a federal offense, but murder was a local affair.
“ Yeah, yeah… Stephens first contacted us. I encouraged him to request you, Dr. Coran.”
“ You're not being honest with us, Lew,” Kim countered. “You want to start over?”
He was unnerved, not by what she said, but by the truth. “I… I'm not completely at liberty to-”
“ You saying the governor called us in?'' Kim blurted out, already having guessed the truth and now sharing it with Jessica.
“ Let us just say, ladies, that the highest officials in the state are extremely and compassionately concerned.”
Lew's usual tight-lipped style had burst with the words. Still, Kim and Jess knew there was more going on behind the story than Lew wished to discuss, but for now, the women chose to say no more. Suddenly Carl Landry stormed from the autopsy room, not bothering to say anything to anyone, disappearing down the yellow tunnel. He was followed by the commissioner and Fouintenac, who each in turn thanked Kim and Jessica for their combined efforts on the case. Fouin-tenac's handshake was limp as lettuce, while the P.C.'s was sweaty.
Meade raced to catch up with the two high-ranking officials.
“ For obvious reasons,” Jessica told Kim, “I'd take Sincebaugh for the lot of them.”
Kim watched the officials disappear ahead of them. “Now you're reading my mind?”
Together, they walked down the long, silent corridor, going for the elevator.
“ So, how is Dr. Wardlaw holding up?” Kim asked Jessica.
“ Oh, as well's might be expected under the circumstances.”
“ They had to throw somebody to the wolves.”
“ Yeah, you got that right.”
“ And it looks like they're lining this Detective Sincebaugh up for the next fall.”
“ Maybe…”
“ You have anything on your mind, Jessica? I mean about me, about us working together? You having any second thoughts about this whole operation?”
“ No, none at all. If I seem a little distracted it's… well, it's about something that happened last night.”
“ Oh, your date with Wing Commander Sand didn't exactly sing?”
This made Jessica laugh, a sound which Kim had not heard very often.
“ Ed Sand turned out to be a handful-and I do mean a handful-of trouble. What is it in a man that makes him think your one function on this planet is to be a receptacle for his bodily fluids and parts? Yeah, Ed Sand's allure tarnished rapidly after the flight, trust me.”
They now boarded the elevator, the small cubicle barely able to contain the emotions running back and forth between them. Kim felt it as kinetic energy, and saw sparks in the other woman's aura and eyes. Jessica was vibrant, strong-willed, disciplined, but circumstances were chipping away at her.
“ Then after I got rid of Ed, an old friend called from Quantico with some disturbing news.”
Someone named J.T., Kim thought, reading a flashing thought which belonged to Jessica. “Oh, I'm sorry to hear it.”
“ Quite disturbing.”
“ Well, if there's anything I can do, Jess. You know, I'd like to be your friend. I'd like for us to get on… if that's possible, of course.”
“ What do you mean, if it's possible. Sure, it's possible. It's just that… we… well, I wouldn't know where to begin on this particular bit of news.”
“ Why don't you start at the beginning. Go ahead, unload.”
The elevator opened on the main floor, where a corridor led back to the precinct building and the parking garage where they might find transportation back to their respective hotels. Jessica started ahead of her, as if to walk away, but she stopped, turned and stared for a long moment into Kim's questioning eyes.
“ Just how close are you and Paul Zanek?” Jessica's question came like a body blow.
“ Close… well, we're… we've been friends right along. He fairly well ushered me into the Bureau, ushered in psychic investigation with me, you know.”
“ There just seemed to me to be a lot of… tension between you. Look, all I want to know is… is he capable of lying to us… to me, I mean? Do you think he's capable of lying to me?”
Kim started walking again, now with Jessica keeping up. They passed along the gray and unfinished walls of the concrete tunnel which connected precinct to hospital and morgue. Finally, Kim answered. “I'm not sure what you're driving at, but in answer to your question… yes. Yes, he knows how to lie if it serves his purposes, yes.”
“ Yeah, I might've guessed as much.”
“ Have you ever been romantically involved with Paul?” asked Kim now, her question taking Jessica by surprise.
“ No, not ever, although it wasn't for lack of trying on his part.”
“ I see. Then this lie he's told you is not of a personal nature?”
“ No, it isn't… well, yes, it is quite personal to me…”
“ Then it has to do with a professional situation?” Kim asked. “The case we're currently on?”
“ No… I mean, yes… I mean, yes, it is about a case, just not this case.”
“ Matisak?”
“ Yes.”
“ He lied to you about some aspect of the Matisak case?”
“ I'm sure he'd call it something other than a lie, but yes, it's what you might call a lie of omission.”
“ Something's come up and he's failed to alert you; meanwhile, this friend does so?”
“ This friend assumed I knew. Four bodies found on an Indian reservation in Oklahoma, hushed up by the local authorities, FBI called in…”
“ Four bodies?”
“ All drained of their blood, a poem written in blood, a poem penned for me, found at the scene.”
“ Oh, dear God, Jess. I'm sorry. I know how you must feel.”
“ No, you couldn't know. No one can know this feeling. No one's ever had this kind of a brutal monster stalking her, no one.”
“ We've got to continue that reading for you, and soon.”
“ Do you really believe it'd do any good?” The resignation in her voice was a clear bell. She'd not believed any of the images which Kim had related to her during the psychometric reading on the plane coming down; Jess hadn't suspended her disbelief of Kim's powers long enough to consider the symbolic or literal meanings she might ascribe to the reading.
“ I've decided to play out Zanek's little game,” Jessica said. “He's managed to black out any news coming out of Oklahoma on the killings; he thinks I don't know. If I fly up there to have a look, I tip my hand and maybe he pulls the plug on what we're doing here. Leastways, he pulls the plug on my participation. At any rate, I've sent my own message to Matisak.”
“ That sounds very dangerous and maybe a little foolish, Jess. What have you done?”
Another look of doubt flitted across Jess's brow before she carefully chose her words, making Kim wonder if Jess thought her some sort of stoolie or spy for Paul Zanek, sent here to inform on Jess's behavior.
“ Tomorrow's headlines,” she began. “I gave an exclusive to the Times-Picayune about the headway we're making on the Queen of Hearts killings. There's likely to be another photo on page one, and it'll hit the wire services tonight.”
“ Is playing to the press going to help our case here?”
