through a case.'
'What about talking to the M.E. in charge of the death?'
'That'd be Dr. Lynn Nielsen, very sharp. No way she couldn't've had doubts, but she'd just come on-new woman on the totem pole. Perhaps she held back pursuing it as a result.'
'Do you think she'd admit that?'
'No, not unless we can convince her of its relevance to what's going on now. Maybe then…'
'You mean it's worth a try?'
'Let's do it.'
He made a call and Frank Patterson answered, telling Lucas that Nielsen had just put on her coat and disappeared into the elevator.
'Thanks, Doctor.'
'Anything I can do for you, Detective?' But before Patterson could finish his sentence, Lucas had slammed down the phone, grabbed Meredyth by the hand, and rushed her out.
'Nielsen's on her way out of the building. Let's catch her.'
When they found Dr. Lynn Nielsen, she'd already exited the elevator on the main floor, but she'd been held up by an intern from a lab who'd chased her down with a clipboard and a form she had to sign. Nielsen briskly signed, waved good night to the young intern, and made for the exit.
Lucas and Meredyth caught her on the stairs outside the precinct, one on each side, Lucas proposing they buy her dinner.
'What is it you two want from me?' she asked. 'Come now. I know the American mind now. No such thing as a free lunch.'
Lucas smiled and held up his hands as if caught. 'Information on a case of yours that goes back to July 17th.'
'That would be on file in the computer.'
'A woman named Katherine Croombs.'
'Croombs…Croombs…'
'Found in a state of alcoholic poisoning in which you noted two key elements that went ignored by your immediate supervisor, our Dr. Patterson, and the detectives on the case, who appeared in heat to sign off on it,' Lucas explained.
She turned up her collar against the annoying drizzle, said nothing, and began skipping down the steps. Lucas and Meredyth followed.
'Do you recall the case?' asked Meredyth in her ear.
She stopped and looked into Meredyth's eyes. 'Yes, I recall the one named Croombs. Acute liver damage, skin jaundiced to a tea-green color, other internal organs shriveled and saturated with the booze.'
'Why do you recall her case so vividly, unless you have good reason to?' asked Lucas. 'Say, because it haunts you?'
'I've said enough. Good night.' She rushed for her car. They pursued.
'We suspect she was helped along that night toward her death. Dr. Nielsen,' said Meredyth, catching her at her car.
Nielsen shakily worked to dig her key into the lock.
'We believe the woman's daughter not only killed her, Dr. Nielsen, but that she is involved in the mutilation murder of Mira Lourdes.'
Nielsen had snatched her door open, about to leave, but this stopped her cold. She looked back at them. 'The daughter? The two cases are somehow related? Everyone involved strongly encouraged me to believe the prevailing wisdom.'
'Which was that the old woman died as she lived, OD-ing in a weekend war with her own worst enemy-her drunken self?' asked Lucas.
'Locked in a lifelong melee with alcohol, yes. Make no waves, I was told by Frank.'
'Patterson. Figures. Feldman and Rowan investigate it, Patterson rubber-stamps it. But you saw the marks on her wrists and ankles,' Lucas hammered now.
'Yes, true, but the case was-how you said- rubber-stamped, closed over my objections, so…'
'You also noted there was very little in the way of barbiturates in her system, while the police report said she had swallowed an entire bottle of pills,' added Meredyth.
'They brought the empty pill bottle in a plastic bag along with six empty bottles of Jim Beam-six! She was killed by making excessive love to Jim Beam, they joked- right over her body, they joked! I never saw such a thing in my country.'
Nielsen shivered with the recall. Lucas and Meredyth let her talk. 'I knew it would come back to get me,' she said.
'We're not interested in getting you, Dr. Nielsen, believe me.'
'Dr. Chang will be disappointed to learn of it. He was out of the city then, on working vacation-Vancouver, giving a talk.' Then speaking of Katherine Croombs, she said, 'Poor woman looked like my grandmama, but hardly that age! She had two chipped teeth, and her lips were bruised too, a curious thing we see in abuse cases. It didn't make sense.'
'And Frank didn't want to hear about this?'
She now climbed into her car, averting her eyes and face for the moment, fumbling with her seat belt. She turned the key, her Plymouth Voyager coming to life. 'You must tell me why you think the Croombs autopsy is connected to the Post-it case we're now working. I must know if I am to bring all of this to Dr. Chang's attention and give in my resignation.'
'What possible good can come of your resigning?' asked Meredyth through the car window.
'If anyone should be talking of resigning, it's Patterson. Trust Chang, yes. Confide the truth in him. You won't ever regret it,' Lucas firmly told her.
'What is connecting the two cases?' she asked.
'It's a long story, and we'd truly like to tell you over dinner,' Meredyth assured her.
She considered this. 'All right, Michelangelo's, say in twenty minutes? I'll meet you there, and since it may be my last meal as Assistant M.E. here, be prepared to buy me the house specialty.'
'It won't be your last meal, I promise,' Meredyth replied. 'We'll stand with you against Patterson. We know he put you in this position.'
'I have been haunted by that Croombs woman.'
She backed from her parking space and pulled out of the police lot, Lucas and Meredyth watching, hoping she'd show up at the restaurant.
They went for Lucas's car.
CHAPTER 12
Before arriving at Michelangelo's Italian Eatery, Lucas had called District Attorney Harry Jorganson, asking if they'd gotten the warrant on the address he wanted. Jorganson informed him that he couldn't sell it to the judge. 'No dice. Judge says she fails to see that we've actually connected enough dots here, Lucas. Sorry, I know your instincts are right on, but the judge was adamant, got on her high horse about my coming to her to turn a blind eye to the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, the American Civil Liberties credo, you name it, every time Houston PD is feeling public pressure.'
'Did you tell her we suspect it has to do with the Post-it Ripper?' he asked.
'I told her, told her more than once, but she was on a tear. I understand she got turned over on appeal in the Edmunds case, which sucks, and we just got her at really the wrong time.'
Lucas invited Jorganson to sit down with him, Meredyth, and Nielsen for dinner. 'We can give you more of the details to go on.'
'Sorry, Lucas, but ol' Jorganson's got two trials to prep witnesses on for a busy A.M. manana. Again, sorry about the warrant. Get me a bigger hammer to wield, okay? Drive that sucker home for you with the right tools, you
