Holy smokes, Tommy said.
It couldn’t be. Or could it?
The man the clerk described seemed very familiar.
And the more she thought about it, the more it seemed to click. Hard to swallow, but not unbelievable.
The kid had described the pathologist, Mark Dickinson.
He said the guy who bought the Jack Sparrow costume was a tall, gangly man with long, unfashionable hair and small wire glasses.
The victims had been poisoned with a substance that only Dickinson had found and identified despite other pathologists who had initially done the autopsies.
In fact, the more Tommy thought about it, the more sense it made. Except the reason why he would do this? And then her blood ran cold as she remembered all the calls she had received.
Tommy was out of breath by the time she raced up the police department steps and into the station.
“I need to see the chief,” she panted to the snotty clerk who’d never liked her.
“Sorry, he’s not available,” the pert clerk said without looking up.
“Goddamn it then find him! This is a matter of life and death.”
“Settle down. I’ll make a call.”
After a few seconds of mumbling into the phone handset the woman turned to Tommy.
“He’s up at the cabin at Mille Lacs this week. Costello is filling in.”
“Then get me Costello!” Tommy was irritated she even had to ask.
A few seconds later the woman hung up the phone and taking her time looked over at Tommy.
“He’s at court right now.”
“Kelly, then. Now.”
While the woman called back to Kelly’s desk, Tommy tried his cell phone again. She had tried calling him a few times on the drive over but her call had gone straight to voice mail.
The clerk hung up the phone.
“Detective Kelly is out of the office.”
“Then you better find out where he went, right now or I’m driving up to the chief’s cabin in Mille Lacs and telling him what I know after I tell him about your incompetence.” Tommy was fuming.
The woman picked up the phone and dialed in a hurry. After another mumbled conversation, she hung up the phone and as slow as she could, turned to Tommy.
“Detective Kelly is at an appointment at the morgue.”
Tommy’s heart raced and she tore out of the office without a backward glance at the clerk.
He was meeting with the killer and he didn’t even know it. She had to warn him.