me?”
Winslow knelt down and picked up a pink butterfly hair clip from the ground. “I read somewhere, Lieutenant, that ' abounds where guilt and rage run free.” Winslow was taking this hard. I felt sorry for him; I liked him. He managed a tight smile. “It'll take more than this bastard to ruin our work. We won't fold. We'll have Tasha's service here, in this church.”
“We were headed to pay our respects,” I said.
“They live over there. Building A.” He pointed toward the projects. 'I guess you'll find a warm reception, given that there's some of your own.
I looked at him, puzzled. “I'm sorry? What was that?”
“Didn't you know, Lieutenant? Tasha Catchings's uncle is a city cop.”
Womans Murder Club 2 - Second Chance
Chapter 10
I VISITED THE CATCHINGS'S apartment, paid my respects, then I headed back to the Hall. This whole thing was incredibly depressing.
“Mercer's looking for you,” hollered Karen, our longtime civilian secretary, as I got into the office. “He sounds mad. Of course, he always sounds mad.”
I could imagine the folds under the chief's jaw getting even deeper with the afternoon headline. In fact, the entire Hall was buzzing with the news that the La Salle Heights murder victim had been related to one of our own.
There were several other messages waiting for me on my desk. At the bottom of the pile I came across Claire's name.
Tasha Catchings's autopsy should be finished by now. I wanted to hold off on Mercer until I had something concrete to report, so I called Claire.
Claire Washburn was the sharpest, brightest, most thorough M.E. the city ever had, notwithstanding the fact that she also happened to be my closest friend. Everyone associated with law enforcement knew it, and that she ran the department without a hitch while Chief Coroner Righetti, the mayor's stiff-suited appointee, traveled around the country to forensic conferences working on his political resume.
You wanted something done in the M. E.'s office, you called Claire.
And when I needed someone to set me straight, make me laugh, or just be there to listen, that's where I went, too.
“Where you been hiding, baby?” Claire greeted me with her always upbeat voice, which had the ring of polished brass.
“Normal routine.” I shrugged. “Staff appraisals, case write-ups... city-dividing, racially motivated homicides... ”
“Just my region of expertise.” She chuckled. “I knew I'd be hearing from you. My spies tell me you've got yourself a bitch of a case out there.”
“Any of those spies maybe work for the Chronicle and drive a beat-up silver Mazda?”
“Or the D. A.'s office, and a BMW five-thirty-five. How the hell do you think information ever gets down here, anyway?”
“Well, here's one, Claire. Turns out the dead little girl's uncle is in uniform. He's at Northern. And the poor kid ends up being a poster child for the La Salle Heights project in action. Top-of-the-line student, never once in trouble. Some justice, huh? This bastard leaves a hundred slugs in the church and the one that hits finds its way into her.”
“Uh-uh, honey.” Claire cut me off. “There were two of them in there.”
“Two...? She was hit twice?” EMS had been all over the body. How could we have failed to catch that?
“If I'm hearing you right, my guess is you think this shot was some kind of accident.”
“What are you saying?” “Honey,” Claire said soberly “I think you better come on down for a visit.”
Womans Murder Club 2 - Second Chance
Chapter 11
THE MORGUE was on the ground floor of the Hall, out a back entrance and accessible from an asphalt path that led from the lobby. It took me no more than three minutes to rush down two flights of stairs.
Claire met me in the reception area outside her office. Her bright and usually cheery face bore a look of professional concern, but as soon as she saw me, she eased into a smile and gave me a hug.
“How you been, stranger?” she asked, as if the case were a million miles away.
Claire always had a way of defusing the tension in even the most critical of situations. I'd always admired how she could relax my single-minded focus with just a smile.
“I've been good, Claire. Just swamped since I got the job.”
