at Meredyth where she sat sobbing still. 'Could this Lauralie have been sleeping with your friend?'
'Anything's possible. But I don't think so. He was just weak when it came to an overture by any female.'
'I know a few men like that,' Nielsen said sarcastically, trying to elicit a smile but failing.
'Don't you see? She'd like nothing better than to have me on trial for murdering Byron, to put me through that ordeal. To see me disgraced, my life in a shambles. Every-one I ever cared about either dead or scurrying to put as much distance between me and himself as possible. Putting my friends and family through a humiliating time. She wants you to indict me for Byron's murder-I was here at the time of his murder! I have the classic three necessities for a D.A. to put me away-motive, means, and opportunity. I knew the man, detested him, have complained of being stalked by him, been seen arguing with him right outside in the lot the morning of his death not twenty feet from where I sat behind those doors without an alibi.'
Lucas added, 'It's the work of that cunning bitch we've told you about, Dr. Nielsen. She wants it to look as if he were butchered by her in a fit of rage. But Meredyth doesn't do rage.'
'If this is her work, she's done a good job pointing the finger at you, Dr. Sanger, if you can so incriminate yourself-with your own assessment. I urge you to say no more that someone might take as self-incriminating. Besides, liking you as I do, I would not wish to be called to the stand against you to say yes and nod to words taken out of context.'
'In other words shut my mouth?'
Nielsen nodded, and then spoke to Lucas. 'Now, Lieutenant, as to this sort of disfigurement to the face…'
'Yes?'
'Speaks to the kind of rage between estranged lovers as well, so my advice stands.'
'Disfigurement is what this maniac does,' said Lucas. 'It's why we call him, her-the two of them-rippers- mutilation murderers.'
'I understand, of course. I was just pointing out-'
'It looks on the surface very bad, we know,' countered Meredyth. 'And having been arrested on a weapons charge the same afternoon, well…'
'Technically speaking, you weren't arrested,' he said. 'You were detained and transported but not booked.'
'All the same, multiple witnesses saw the incident.'
'Your clever Lauralie was wise enough to have left no calling card or telltale signs of herself behind this time,' Nielsen said. 'A few toes, teeth, or fingers belonging to Mira Lourdes, left in or around the body here, that would insure it was she and her friend who hacked Mr. Priestly up.'
'Only the damn rosary,' lamented Lucas. 'Only the damn rosary.'
'That butchering bitch,' muttered Meredyth. 'Don't you see, the rosary is her calling card. She wants no mistaking this; she wants me to know she can hurt me at any time. That no one around me is safe either.'
Elliot Andrews was standing nearby, picking up as much of what was being said as possible, when his radio crackled into life. He answered it and carried it to Lucas. 'For you, your captain.'
Lucas accepted the radio Andrews held out to him, Lincoln's ranting voice coming over even before he put it to his ear. His shouting focused on the chaos and phone calls caused by the raid on the courthouse. 'I want to know if it's been worth it all. What've you netted there?'
Lucas relayed the gruesome find and informed Lincoln that it was connected to the Mira Lourdes murder, and that the CSI unit at the annex would be here well into the night collecting evidence. Lincoln was placated for the moment, but he wanted to be kept abreast of things, finishing with, 'We'll red-ball this APB we have out on this Blodgett woman and her friend, Lucas. Shame what's happening. Give Meredyth my best, and we need to talk in full as soon as possible.'
Lucas kept hold of the radio and returned to Meredyth on the bench. She was sipping at a cup of coffee now, a slight shiver escaping her.
'Lincoln's changing the APB on Lauralie Blodgett to a Code Red BOLO.'
'Be on the lookout for a witch on a broom?' she muttered. 'Then Gordon understands what's going on?'
'He's standing behind you one hundred percent. Mere, we'll get her, now that her likeness is plastered everywhere and she's a Code Red. Her wading pool is growing ever smaller. Only wish we knew what she and Crazy Joe are driving.'
'A vehicle description, hell, a Texas driver's license…it would all be good. Meantime, we're being led around by the nose by a child mental case playing lethal games.'
Lucas got back on the police radio and called Lieutenant Jana North at the funeral parlor raid. The sound of chaos came over the line before she finally came on. 'What the hell's going on there? Sounds like a riot.'
'We've cordoned off a wake here.'
'A wake?'
'We didn't have any choice. It was in the open coffin.'
'What was in the open coffin?
'A pair of disembodied arms, one missing a right hand.'
He listened attentively to the details of her report, replying with a series of yeses, and finally he said, 'See to it no one disturbs the scene before your CSI unit can process it.'
'You ever try that with a roomful of irate loved ones? Dr. Patterson's got his hands full, and he's on the run.'
'Christ, they sent out Frank with an ITRT unit?'
'Told me he volunteered when he heard it had to do with the Ripper case, even said something about how you and he were close, Lucas. How he wanted to help in any way possible.'
'Weasel knows I fingered him and some others for this nasty business when I thought it was all a tasteless joke.'
'Bad blood between you guys, heh? You'll have to tell me about it some evening over drinks.'
'He lost some vital evidence on a case of mine once. Cost me.' He then said, 'Jana, you may's well know that Meredyth and I…that we are seeing each other, and that for the time being at least, we're seriously… together.'
'Then I take it drinks are out.'
'Yeah, drinks are out.'
'I'd better go. The natives are getting restless here. You're right about Frank. He's managed to antagonize the owners, the wake crowd, and I suspect the dead woman in the coffin.'
'Sounds like Patterson.'
'The crowd is made up of some pissed-off Mexicans. Talk to you later.'
Lucas tossed the radio back to Andrews. He said to Meredyth, 'They've found something at the funeral home.'
'Do I want to know what it is?'
'A pair of arms, one severed at the wrist, missing a hand. Presumed by Frank Patterson as those of a young woman. I think we can presume Mira Lourdes.'
'Where were the arms found?'
'In one of the caskets about to be wheeled out for public viewing with one of Giorgio's masterpieces of makeup inside-a regular Ripley's Believe It or Not event-a body within a casket freshly wrapped in yellow crime- scene tape. North is waiting for Frank Patterson to finish up the CSI work there. 'Fraid Nielsen and the team'll be here a great deal longer.'
'And in the meantime, what do we do, Lucas?'
'Meanwhile, I'm taking you outta here. Come on.'
'Byron was a jerk, Lucas, but he didn't deserve this. My God…what am I to tell his mother, Agnes? His sister? Hell, I dare not go near them. We've got to end this thing, Lucas. We must and soon. What can we do?'
'We go back to Lincoln with everything we know, everything we suspect, everything we suspect we know about Lauralie Blodgett, including your run-in with her here, and the near run-in at the convent school.'
'She used him, Lucas, to locate me. Following his movements…perhaps seeing him leaving my apartment, she and her boyfriend must have tailed him in their search for me, and where was I? Hiding from it all out at the ranch, Lucas. She'd been watching his movements to locate me. Thank God my parents are out of town, out of
