Trail Of Blood Part 21

Teddy had received these instructions from the s.h.i.+ft sergeant at roll call that evening. Six years and he was still on nights, he would grumble to anyone who would listen, but the truth was he liked being on nights. The less he and his wife saw of each other, the better they got along. "Who got murdered?" Teddy asked.

"Don't know."

"She hasn't been identified?"

"She hasn't been found or even reported missing. For all we know she hasn't been murdered yet." The same nut who beheaded those two guys by the Fifty-fifth rapid station and was almost caught by that girl from the M.E.'s office (and what the h.e.l.l was up with that story? Teddy wondered) was apparently reproducing murders that happened in the 1930s. The next murder back then had been a woman cut into pieces and wrapped in burlap and newspaper and left at the two locations a.s.signed to Teddy. Problem was, neither I-90 nor 77 had existed at the time. The geography of the situation had changed and there was no way to know how that would affect the killer's plans.

"And he's going to dump this woman, who we don't even know is dead, tonight?" Teddy asked.

"Maybe tonight," the sergeant said. "Maybe tomorrow night, or next week or next month. The real murder, I mean the original murder, occurred four months later in January, so who knows. That's why we can't spare the manpower for a full-scale stakeout. We're short already, what with the buyouts and the hiring freeze."

Teddy didn't care about the financial state of the city. He cared about a twelve-hour s.h.i.+ft of nothing but tedium. "But if this guy wants to dump a body, won't a marked car make him think, Wow, maybe this ain't such a great idea?"

"Good. Then he can go dump it in one of the 'burbs. We can't spare an unmarked right now. One's in the shop and the others are working that drug cartel out on 110th. And the chief won't approve overtime for a detective to do it."

Teddy shot his last arrow. "Why me?"

"'Cause you got those eagle eyes," another cop said with a smirk. "You might as well," said another. "Then you'll have an excuse for not making any arrests."

"Why not you?" the sergeant asked.

No answer to that, so Teddy had listened through the rest of roll call, tested the charge level of his Taser like everyone else until the room filled with a buzzing, snapping sound, and headed out to his vehicle. Cut into pieces and wrapped in newspaper and burlap bags. What the h.e.l.l was burlap, anyway?

At least the areas he needed to patrol were open, slivers of gra.s.sy lawn boxed in by a maze of major roadways. Any idiot carting around body parts would stand out like a missile silo in a cornfield.

So he drove, and drove, and drove, past the post office, the hospital, and the Tri-C building, getting practically freakin' dizzy going in circles like that, and wondered how long it would take to get a degree in accounting.

Night fell as the last of the commuters hummed down I-90 and the office buildings downtown stretched their glittering diamond windows into the black sky. He slowed down to take a hard look at someone waiting at the bus stop across from the post office facility, but as he watched a 76X picked the guy up and no b.l.o.o.d.y parcels remained at the stop.

This made him think: Being a cop really sucked at times, but at least he could afford a car.

Back on 90, it occurred to him that the number of sport utility vehicles had surpa.s.sed that of regular cars. Except for his police cruiser and a Ford sedan, every other vehicle in sight was a friggin' SUV. Officer Morgan sighed and continued to drive the half mile between the two points of interest. Around and around.

He stopped for a drunk who staggered along East Twenty-second and shouted dire predictions at the post office facility, and waited until the responding backup transported the guy to St. Vincent Charity's ER. He got out again at the edge of Broadway after noticing movement on the slope to the tracks down in Kingsbury Run. A brick wall separated the road from the valley, but it petered out near East Ninth. The activity turned out to be three kids and, without getting too close-since he really was supposed to be patrolling for this one guy instead of getting distracted with minor trespa.s.sing, even though the stupid kids would probably get hit by a train, and then who would be in trouble-he told them to get out of the rail yard. They shouted at him with language he wouldn't even have used himself but were still little enough that they actually listened and ran off toward East Ninth.

He climbed the few feet back to the crest of the hill. A Ford sedan had paused along this deserted stretch of Broadway but pulled slowly away as he got back in his car. Without thinking he noted the make and license number. Maybe the driver was lost and stopped to ask him for directions, then figured it out or was too embarra.s.sed to ask. Or maybe the driver wanted him to leave or get tied up so he could dump a body in peace. Teddy Morgan pursued the Ford from a discreet distance.

It merged on to I-90 and got off at the next exit, making the same circuit Teddy had been instructed to drive. He continued to follow but didn't call it in, not yet. There were two disturbances downtown, a fatal traffic crash on the inner belt and a smash-and-grab on Prospect, and the dispatchers were going nuts. Some could handle stress better than others, and some scheduler with a vicious sense of humor had put all the high-strung ones on the same s.h.i.+ft-his, of course. So he'd wait to ask them to run a plate.

The Ford turned off Carnegie, heading down Twenty-second. Pa.s.sed Cedar. Pa.s.sed Central. Keep looking around, Teddy reminded himself. Don't want to miss the bad guy because you were stalking some kid from the suburbs who expected drugs to be available on every street corner in the big bad city.

The Ford turned into the parking lot of the St. Vincent Charity medical building, across the street from the main hospital. The driver stopped to take a ticket from the machine at the entrance.

Okay, Teddy thought. A nurse or doctor who drove around wasting gas instead of going in to work a minute early. Someone who hated their job more than Teddy sometimes disliked his.

The Ford drove to the north edge of the parking lot and stopped. The driver got out but did not walk toward the hospital. He simply stood at the front of his car, facing the gra.s.sy area between the lot and Central Avenue.

Morgan took his little ticket from the machine and drove in, moving among the spa.r.s.ely parked cars. He pulled the cruiser into a s.p.a.ce between, what else, an SUV and another friggin' SUV, as quietly and calmly as if he were there to visit poor Uncle Moe in the cardiac ICU. The cars would hide at least part of the lettering on his vehicle, but nothing could be done about the rack of lights on the roof. Idiot detectives. He might as well have a neon billboard on top with the words I'm watching you, so if you were going to do anything incriminating you might want to wait until after my s.h.i.+ft.

But the figure by the other car got the hint anyway, because he had disappeared.

d.a.m.n.

Teddy Morgan turned down the volume on the portable radio clipped to his shoulder and exited the cruiser. The night had gotten chilly, the temperature dropping at least ten degrees since roll call. One hand on his gun-if this guy did those two bodies on the hill, then he had to be a complete psycho-and the other on his radio, he moved closer to the Ford. He made his feet light over the asphalt grit crunching beneath his boots and knew the noise from I-90 would drown that out. He did not see the driver inside the vehicle.

He reached the Ford. Vacant, as far as he could see, and he didn't want to use his flashlight. Between the lot and the freeway lamps he had a fair amount of ambient light. No figure.

Morgan whirled suddenly, worried that the killer might materialize behind him like in some B movie, but the pavement remained empty. He turned back. Gra.s.s and trees extended to the 90 off-ramp. Nothing moved.

A flash of darkness near the trees and Teddy saw the figure separate from one tree and move toward another. It didn't seem to be carting any bodies, only looking for something. With a flashlight.

Teddy considered his options, since no crime appeared to be in progress. The man could be a really eccentric doctor or a drug dealer picking up a stash. Maybe Teddy should run the plate first- The figure let out a small sound, like a m.u.f.fled shout.

The h.e.l.l with this. He charged across the gra.s.s, unsnapping but not drawing his gun. "Police! Stop right there!"

It turned. Dark coat, dark pants, face covered, or maybe the head was turned down.

Teddy pulled the gun out of its holster at the same time it occurred to him that the guy might not be able to hear him over the noise of a tractor-trailer now roaring by on 90. So he flicked on his flashlight with the other hand and aimed the beam square in the guy's face. "Police. What is your business here?"

The head snapped up and a woman stared at him in amazement and not a little fear, her mouth gaping in a red oval.

"Cleveland Police," Teddy said during a lull in the freeway noise. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"We're too late," she said.

She turned one wrist until the beam of her flashlight caught an object placed on the gra.s.s between two maple trees, and what Teddy Morgan saw in that light would give him nightmares for the rest of his life.

He really needed to get into another line of work.

CHAPTER 28.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9.

PRESENT DAY.

Officer Morgan seemed distinctly unimpressed with Theresa's medical examiner's credentials, her relation to a Homicide detective, and her explanation for stalking the Torso killer's old haunts. Perhaps he thought she might be one of those unbalanced investigators who committed the crimes themselves, like the arson investigator who set fires so that he could swoop in and be the hero. She couldn't blame him. Stumbling upon three bodies in two days did seem a bit much.

He alerted the Homicide unit as Theresa explained, trying to sound scientific and sane and still speak as quickly as she could because they needed to go! Now! "As near as I can tell from texts on the subject, Flo Polillo's remains were found between Twenty-first and Twenty-second and Central, behind a manufacturing plant that isn't here anymore. I suspect I-90 would run smack through the middle of that plant if it were. So if the killer wanted to repeat the original murders as closely as possible, he needed to come here."

"Who is Flopalillo?" the young officer asked. He kept looking at the milk crate and its contents with quick glances, as if the image might be less horrible if taken in measured doses. Theresa doubted this would help him. The lower half of a female torso, both thighs, and the right arm and hand had been stacked on their ends in the crate, the raw, gory edges peeking from the top of the newspaper they had been wrapped in, the fingers protruding as if they might wiggle in a friendly wave at any moment. Nothing could make it less horrible.

She explained about the Torso killer's fourth victim.

"So you came here tonight because you thought this guy might kill again and he might do it tonight and he might dump the body here," he asked with some skepticism. Never mind that he was there for the same reason-he had been a.s.signed. It was different.

"It seemed a distinct possibility." The double murder on Jacka.s.s Hill had come immediately after the Lady of the Lake, if Kim Hammond was supposed to be the Lady of the Lake, so why not telescope the rest of the series as well? "And that means that at this moment he's dropping off the rest of this woman's body somewhere around 1419 Orange Avenue. We have to go there. Now."

"There's no we here, um, ma'am," the cop said, trying for a combination of stern and courteous and missing both. "A car has been sent and they don't need help. This is our job, not yours."

He was correct, of course, in that she was not armed, not trained, did not get increased pay for hazardous conditions, and had no authority to apprehend or arrest anyone. But he made it sound like none of that mattered. All that mattered was that she was not a cop-not one of them.

"I understand. Besides, you can't leave this crime scene unsecured," she told him. "However, I can."

She walked to her car before he could argue, feeling fairly sure he wouldn't shoot her. Fairly sure. She hastily threw too much money to the young woman in the tollbooth for the half hour of parking and turned right on Orange, Fourteenth, then East Twenty-second. Down to Broadway, turn right. Once upon a time this area had been referred to as the Roaring Third, a rough conglomeration of bars and tenements. Her great-grandfather would have known that.

In the spa.r.s.e gra.s.s north of Broadway as it intersected with Orange, she found it.

"We could have caught the killer," Theresa complained to her cousin an hour later, "if that kid had come here when I told him to."

"Wasn't an option. He couldn't leave a dead body unattended. Besides, the killer could have dropped this off and been back in his car in ten seconds. He was probably halfway home by the time you found the first body-the first pieces of the body." Frank straightened up, towering over her and her find, his back to the phalanx of mobile news vans corralled behind the yellow tape. Their lights nearly blinded her, but she could see Brandon Jablonski front and center, his gaze fixed on her.

"We could have caught him," she said again. A gust of cool wind hit her face with no effect upon her internal temperature. They'd been so close.

Frank showed her no sympathy. "He could have caught you, wandering around like that. Or any of the other a.s.sorted killers, rapists, and general miscreants that roam this city after dark. What were you thinking?"

Angela Sanchez had gone to the post office building to see if they had outdoor cameras that might have caught the killer's brief stop by the side of the road. Two officers, armed with small but brilliant lights, combed the gra.s.s, but Theresa doubted they would find anything. The killer most likely placed one milk crate, made the twenty-foot walk back to his car, and did the same to the second. No dirt to retain tire tracks or shoeprints, no reason to hang around dropping a cigarette or a b.l.o.o.d.y glove.

Theresa said, "I was thinking this guy has to go to certain places to live out his little fantasy of re-creating the Torso Murders. All we have to do is be there. He should be the easiest killer to catch in the history of forensics and instead he drove right past us!"

"Don't shout," Frank warned her, jerking his chin at the reporters. "Those guys have parabolic mikes. But at least now we know he apparently plans to complete all twelve murders in twelve days. I won't have any trouble getting the manpower we need to get him tomorrow night. It's not too late."

"It's too late for her," Theresa said, nodding at the victim's calf. It protruded from the milk crate like a prop from the kind of late-night movie only bored teenagers watch.

"I can see that," Frank snapped. "What is here? I mean-"

"The upper half of a female torso, the lower halves of both legs, and the left arm. Exactly what we should have. He's read all the books."

"No head?"

"The cops in '36 never found Flo Polillo's head."

"Is that newspaper?"

After photographing the milk crate and its contents from every possible angle, Theresa had removed the arm and laid it in the clean body bag Don Delgado brought from the office. "Yesterday's Plain Dealer. It should be both the Plain Dealer and last year's issue of the Cleveland News, but of course the News has been defunct since 1960."

"Any ID so far?"

"There won't be. No wallet, no jewelry, not a sc.r.a.p of clothing. They identified Flo Polillo-one of only three of his victims positively identified-by her fingerprints."

"Maybe we'll do the same. It worked on Kim Hammond."

"I don't know." A cool dampness worked its way through her pants as she knelt over the palm, examining the skin with a halogen flashlight. "Nails are neat and conservative, no polish. No track marks. She's healthy but older."

"You can tell that from her fingernails?"

She cracked a smile for the first time that evening. "No, the arm itself. We show our age in the elbows and knees. You can exercise, eat right, get plastic surgery, but the elbows and knees will always betray you."

She unwrapped the next piece. The killer had cut through the leg at the hip and the knee, leaving the two ends of the femur only slightly damaged. Theresa closed her eyes, opened them. In this job she did not have the luxury of turning away.

"He did that neatly," Frank said, his voice sounding oddly strangled.

"He did it carefully," she said, correcting him, forcing herself to examine the flesh. "Not neatly. He made numerous cuts into the skin, leaving the edges ragged. Then he got through the tendons and cartilage with some kind of saw, I think."

"Handsaw or electric?" Frank still sounded oh-so-deliberately casual. Behind him she could hear the murmur of the paparazzi shouting questions to anyone who came near them.

"I can't tell. We need Christine for that. But he took chips out of the bone to get it done. It looks neat because he washed it all up so well. There's no blood. He let the body drain, then cleaned the pieces. He probably even dried them because the paper didn't stick too much."

Frank coughed.

She frowned at him. "You're not going to throw up in my crime scene, are you?"

"Wouldn't dream of it. Notice the paper?"

"Yeah, it's-" She looked down. In the too-bright light she recognized the photograph that had been rolled around the victim's thigh. Herself, standing on the hillside below 4950 Pullman, her head bent toward a flash of white skin on the ground. It had been taken the evening before by some reporter with a quality telephoto lens.

"This guy could be sending you a message, Tess."

"I doubt it." At her cousin's snort she added hastily, "He's throwing this series of murders together day by day and we have only one newspaper in town. It's not like he had a choice."

"Could have used the Beacon Journal," Frank grumbled.

She took the illogic of this as a measure of his agitation. "The Torso killer used Cleveland papers. Akron wouldn't count. Relax, cuz. He doesn't kill another woman for four or five more murders yet."

"Oh, comforting. So tomorrow's victim will be a man?"

"Yeah. His head will be rolled up in his pants and his body found about a thousand feet away."

"The Tattooed Man. Yeah, I remember. Where did he turn up again?"

"Back near Jacka.s.s Hill, in the valley under the East Fifty-fifth Street bridge. Within sight of 4950 Pullman."

Frank lit a cigarette, striking the match too hard and breaking it. He put the ends in his pocket and used a second one. "Then we'll get him there. I'll have every cop in Cleveland in that valley, from side to side. He won't get away this time."