49

Armitage, Ancha
Dieron Military District, Draconis Combine
8 November 3136

Loveland sat across from the ME in his basement office. The office was adjacent to the autopsy suite and perfumed with a lemony disinfectant that couldn’t quite cover the stink of rotted meat.

‘‘You’ve got to be kidding.’’ Loveland felt like he’d taken a sucker punch to the gut. ‘‘Please tell me this is a mistake.’’

‘‘No mistake,’’ the ME said. He eyed Thereon who sat to Loveland’s right. ‘‘I would never have caught this. What tipped you off?’’

‘‘Our unsub likes playing games. That K, for instance. He’s familiar with investigative techniques. It just felt obvious. All those cold hits, I started to wonder if there was something about cold we’d missed.’’

Loveland still couldn’t believe it. ‘‘Why didn’t this turn up before now?’’

‘‘Because a DNA match doesn’t hinge upon intact or fresh specimens. You get blood or skin cells or whatever, and then you extract the DNA, which means you bust up the cells. No one would study the cells themselves unless there was some reason to, which I just did on Jane Doe. There’s no mistake. All these cold hits from skin and blood?’’ The ME shook his head. ‘‘Every single specimen had been frozen ahead of time.’’

‘‘Meaning that our unsub is planting someone else’s blood and skin, and that person’s not in ISDIS,’’ Thereon said. ‘‘And if they’re not in the InterSphere DNA Index System, then it’s some victim we haven’t identified, or a new unsub we’ve never run across. My money’s on the former, but either way, that means—’’

‘‘End of the line.’’ Loveland sagged back with a sigh. ‘‘Shit.’’

 
The restaurant had a pianist playing tinkly jazz. His martini was dry and so icy Loveland’s teeth hurt. He sighed. ‘‘Fell on our asses.’’

Thereon nursed a vodka tonic. ‘‘We went as far as we could.’’

‘‘You mean, as far as he let us go.’’

‘‘He’s not God, and he’s not invincible. Remember, the one cold hit we’ve got that doesn’t match the frozen samples came from that prostitute on Proserpina. The one who turned up January, two years ago. I think that’s our guy. He slipped up. Things got out of control. He’ll lose it again.’’

‘‘Great. Wait around for him to kill someone else so we can catch him.’’ Loveland sipped vodka flavored with a whisper of vermouth. ‘‘So, what’ll you do now?’’

‘‘Same ol’, same ol’. Go back to the office, do the paperwork. Wait. You?’’

‘‘I’ll go back to being a detective-detective. But I’m going to put in for some time first. Maybe go see my kid.’’

‘‘Must be nice to have a family,’’ Thereon said.

‘‘Not when you got to shuttle between cities, but it could’ve been worse. Since the HPGs were down, judge wouldn’t let my second wife go off-planet. Pissed her off so bad I thought her hair was gonna catch on fire.’’

They laughed. Loveland tongued an olive off a swizzle stick and figured he’d had his greens for the day. Thereon shook ice into his mouth. ‘‘Never been married,’’ Thereon said around ice. ‘‘My dad’s on Misery, though. Time off wouldn’t be a bad thing. He’s due a visit.’’

‘‘Misery? Thought you came from Devil’s Rock.’’

‘‘Six of one, half dozen of the other,’’ Thereon said easily. ‘‘Besides, everyone knows: Misery loves company.’’

Loveland groaned. ‘‘Man, that’s so lame.’’