“Give me a break and just come in, will you?” I huffed.
He came through the opening, and I elbowed the door shut behind him.
“I can’t remember the last time I saw you like this, white man. Do I need ta’ get ya’ to a hospital or somethin’?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“You know it’s not that kind of headache, Ben. Why do you even ask?”
“Dunno. Maybe ‘cause one of these days I figure you’ll say yes or somethin’.”
I let out a frustrated sigh. “What the hell are you doing here, anyway?”
“Calm down, will ya’? After that phone call ya’ had me worried. That, and I need ya’ to tell me what’s goin’ on.”
“Nothing as lascivious as you obviously seemed to think. Like I said, I was trying to sleep off this headache until I was rudely interrupted by someone at my front door.”
“Get over it, Row. I meant what’s up in la-la land. You called me, remember?”
“I thought that was pretty self-explanatory.”
“Uh-huh, I got the Twilight Zone part. What I wanna know is what you weren’t willin’ ta’ tell me earlier this mornin’. I’m goin’ out on a limb here and guessin’ it had somethin’ ta’ do with swans.”
“Yeah, kind of. Last night I had a nightmare. I saw a moonlit lake with one dead swan on the bank. You’ve got a murder victim. If I had to guess, one swan, one victim. Today, I had a repeat but instead I saw two dead swans. You do the math.”
“Is that it?”
“What? That isn’t enough?”
“From you, yeah, it’s prob’ly more than enough, but I got a feelin’ there’s somethin’ more.”
“Nothing that’s going to help,” I replied. “Besides, shouldn’t you be out looking for another body or something?”
“Don’t have to. About an hour and a half ago I got a call that County has one, and she’s wearin’ a swan tatt just like the first victim. Looks like your math is pretty solid.”
Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the least bit shocked by the announcement. I had told him there was another victim out there waiting to be found. Of course, whenever I did something like this, I always harbored a sliver of hope that I would be wrong. Unfortunately, it seemed like I never was.
“Another Jane Doe?” I asked, reaching up to massage my forehead and temples.
“Actually no. This one’s a college student by the name of Emily Foster. That ain’t been officially confirmed yet, but that’s just a formality at this point. They’re ninety-nine percent sure on the ID. By the way, keep that under your hat for the time bein’. We aren’t releasin’ ‘er name to the circus until the family is notified.”
Circus was the nicest euphemism Ben had for the media. Some of the others he used were much more derogatory, and still others were downright profane.
“Who am I going to tell?” I replied.
“You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, okay. Look, you’re going to have to give me a break. My head is still trying to reconcile the fact that it’s in here talking to you instead of making a dent in my pillow.” I replied.
“Yeah, no shit. So are you awake enough for that name ta’ ring a bell or no?”
“Foster… Foster… Emily Foster…” I muttered. “Sounds familiar. Was she the student who went missing awhile back?”
“Ding ding, give the man a cigar. She disappeared around the end of August last year, no trace, no nothin’. We know exactly where she is now though.”
“Damn. I really hate being right about this sort of thing, you know,” I grumbled. “So, where was she found?”
“Dumpster, just like the JD. Only difference is it was in a light industrial park off Page, here in the county instead of in the city limits. She was half ass wrapped in a clear plastic sheet and just tossed in. An employee of the company that rents the dumpster was takin’ out the trash around eleven forty-five this mornin’ and just happened ta’ see ‘er arm stickin’ out from underneath some other crap.”
“Great way to screw up a lunch break I guess.”
“Uh-huh. So anyway, it’s been all over the news. Since she was found in a dumpster like the first vic, I kinda figured you’d be puttin’ two and two together and gettin’ in touch. I mean, what with that call earlier and everything…”
I started to shake my head then stopped and grimaced as my temples throbbed harder. My only consolation, as far as I could see, was the fact that my neck felt fine for a change.
“For the past few hours, if it wasn’t the inside of my eyelids, I haven’t seen it,” I said. “Sorry.”
“Yeah, well, doesn’t really matter I don’t guess. Right now the vultures only know what county’s tellin’ ‘em, and that ain’t much.”
I was still struggling to wrap my aching grey matter around everything he’d said thus far. It wasn’t that it was particularly complicated by any means, but clarity wasn’t one of my strong suits just yet, so mentally I was probably a good half step behind. Unfortunately, the more I thought about it, the more I felt like I had missed something.
“So, wait a minute…” I said, gesturing with one hand as I scrunched up my forehead. “Let’s back up a second. If she disappeared over six months ago, how did they manage to identify her remains so quickly? There couldn’t have been much left to work with for a visual ID, could there?”
“That’s just it, Row. She may have vanished last year, but accordin’ to the estimate from the county coroner, she’s probably only been dead between something like twenty-four and thirty-six hours.”
“And she died the same way as your Jane Doe?”
“Some strings got pulled, and they took ‘er to the city morgue, so there hasn’t been time for an autopsy. But she’s got a hole in ‘er neck. So I can’t say for sure, but yeah, it looks real possible.”
“You know that could mean the killer is keeping the victims alive for a while.”
“That’s one of the possiblities.”
“Gods…” I mumbled. This was a turn I hadn’t seen coming. “I take it Major Case will be stepping in?”
“Yeah, already have. And the Feebs too, of course.”
“So… I guess that means you’re here to recruit me?”
“I dunno. The way you look right now I’m not sure I want ya’.”
“Thanks.”
“Hey, just returnin’ the favor.”
“Yeah, I figured as much.”
“So now that you’re not retired anymore, you wanna fill me in? Whether you think it’s important or not, I’d like ta’ know what happened that you’re not sayin’.”
“Why do I feel like we’ve had this conversation before?” I asked.
“Prob’ly because we have. Every time you decide you’re gonna quit. Jeezus, you really are out of it, ain’t ya’?”
“Actually, I was being facetious.”
“Yeah, well don’t,” he grunted. “It’s kinda hard ta’ tell with you right now. So what gives? What is it you didn’t wanna tell me?”
I looked down and noticed that my shirt was buttoned off kilter. In my stupor I hadn’t really paid much attention to what I was doing, so I started about the process of straightening out the mess.
“Okay,” I said as I redid a button while watching my fingers this go around. “Remember the problem I had with my neck?”
“Yeah.”
“To make a long story short, when I got home I started bleeding from the general area of the pain even though I had no visible wound.”
“Bleedin’ from your neck? Jeezus, Row… That’s fucked up.”
“I’ll agree with you there, but you’ve seen how aggressive the dead can be when they want my attention. It’s not the first time there’s been a physical manifestation.”
