“Uh-huh. I don’t suppose there’s going to be an autopsy report in that file?”
“I’m pretty sure there isn’t. Why would we do a postmortem on something like that? It was all pretty cut and dried, no suspicion of foul play… or so we thought.”
“That’s what I figured. And the body was cremated, so I can forget about actually looking at it.” He sighed.
The case file Fausto had asked for was brought in and laid on the desk: an unpromisingly thin manila folder with CASE CLOSED stamped on the front. As Fausto opened it, the telephone rang again. With a cluck of irritation he picked it up. “Chief Inspector Soto-” He listened, rolling his eyes. “ Again? Can’t you handle it?” A long, melodramatic sigh. “Okay, yeah, I’ll deal with him. Hell, no, I’ll come down there. Once we let him in we’ll never get rid of him.”
He stood up, unfolded his cuffs and effortlessly slipped in the links (something that Gideon had never gotten the knack of; invariably, it took him half a minute of fumbling) and shrugged into his Armani jacket. “Got one of our best customers out front. This time he’s griping about his neighbor’s budgie driving him nuts. I better talk to him.”
“Budgie?” said Gideon.
“Budgerigar. Bird. Parakeet.” He fluttered his fingers in front of his mouth. “Tweet-tweet?”
Gideon looked at him in surprise. “A complaint about a parakeet? I wouldn’t have thought-”
“Yeah, I know, not exactly DCI material, but this clown’s sister is married to the chief minister, who happens to be my boss’s boss, so
…” He spread his hands.
“Say no more. I understand completely.”
Fausto slid the file across the desk. “Help yourself. Not much there, though.” He squared his trim, narrow shoulders and stalked out the door, his mutters fading away as he headed down the hall. “I’m gonna kill him. This time I’m gonna…”
Gideon opened the file and fanned out the thin sheaf of papers inside. There was an initial report from the investigating officer, a case summary, a list of Sheila’s outgoing telephone calls from the hotel, a number of uninformative interview accounts (Adrian, Corbin, Pru, and Audrey had all been contacted during the brief missing- person phase, as had the Eliott Hotel staff), and various forms and records. Only one of them held his attention for more than a few seconds.
ROYAL GIBRALTAR POLICE PROPERTY RECORD FORM LISTING OF PERSONAL EFFECTS
Case # 2005-44
Name of deceased: Sheila Laura Chan
Property recorded on: 24 August 2005
Property recorded by: Anthony Burns, Sgt., Jesse Figueroa, Clerk
Found on and in immediate vicinity of deceased:
Cash: GBP24.77
US $5.59
Jewelry:
“Swiss military” wrist watch, ankle bracelet.
Clothing:
Deceased was clothed in shirt, cap, walking shorts, belt, socks, sandals, underwear.
Other:
Trowel, sunglasses, ballpoint pen, wallet, comb, purse, credit cards (Visa, MasterCard), other cards (California Driver’s License, Social Security, Berkeley Public Library, Safeway, Pier 1).
Found in deceased’s lodgings, Room 434, Eliott Hotel:
Cash:
None.
Jewelry:
None.
Clothing:
3 shirts, 2 prs walking shorts, 1 pr jeans, 1 pr slacks, 1 pr walking shoes, 1 pr running shoes, 1 pr bedroom slippers, 4 sets underwear, 3 prs socks, 1 pr pyjamas.
Other:
Suitcase, ballpoint pen, gel pen, Hi-Liter pens, nail clippers, scissors, 2 plaster vertebrae, 2 books (The Neanderthal Legacy; Neanderthals amp; Modern Humans in Late Pleistocene Eurasia), shoulder bag, purse, lipstick, toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, sunscreen, 4 bottled drugs and medicines (aspirin, Ambien, Prozac, multivitamins, Lipitor).
Is property of evidentiary value?
No.
Released to:
No known relatives or claimants. Property donated to local charities or destroyed, 29 August 2005.
He was still studying this sheet, intently and protractedly, when Fausto returned, hanging up his jacket and coming to look over Gideon’s shoulder. “Find something interesting?” He slipped out his cuff links as deftly as he’d inserted them, and crisply refolded his shirt sleeves.
“Uh-huh,” Gideon said thoughtfully. “A couple of things. What were these, do you remember?” He tapped one of the entries with his finger: 2 plaster vertebrae.
“Oh, yeah. They were models, not real. What about them?”
“It says at the bottom it was all given away or destroyed. There wouldn’t be any way of tracing what happened to them, would there?”
Fausto slowly shook his head. “Not if it doesn’t say there. Why, you think they might be important?”
“Well… yes. Considering how light she was traveling – how little else was on that inventory, they must have been important – maybe something to do with the paper she was going to give. You have to admit, they’re funny things to carry around with you and keep in your hotel room.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I wouldn’t be surprised to find them in your hotel room.”
“That’s a point,” Gideon admitted with a smile. “But you know, what’s equally interesting is what isn’t there.”
“What isn’t there?” Fausto said, scowling down at the sheet.
“Let me ask you, can I assume this inventory is absolutely complete? I mean, would it include every single thing you found on her, or at the hotel?”
“If she had it, it’s on the list. Why, what isn’t there?”
“Think about it a minute. She was going to give a presentation, right?”
“Right, yeah.”
“A major paper, you said.”
“Yeah…”
“So…?”
“So how about just telling me?” Fausto said irritably. “I guess I’m just too dumb to see it on my own.”
“Where’s the paper?”
“The paper,” Fausto echoed. “What paper, I don’t-”
“Fausto, these were professional, highly academic meetings. At a conference like that, people don’t just get up and talk off the tops of their heads, the way I did at the cave. Everybody reads their papers. Aloud.”
“That must make things really stimulating.”
“It’s awful, but that’s still the way it’s done. Well, where’s the paper? For that matter, where are her notes? She’d almost certainly have had notes with her. Maybe handouts too. And chances are, she would have brought her laptop with her, full of background material and details, and maybe so she could make a PowerPoint presentation. Where’s any of that?”
Fausto took the folder from him, went around the desk, and sat down again, studying the inventory form line by line. “I see what you mean. Not there, all right.”
“Someone took them,” Gideon said flatly.
