chapter nine

Shin’s pixilated face floated in the L-shaped space of my Nokia Handy. He was walking out the door from the downtown morgue on his way to the detective sedan. They had just finished the cut.

“Missing me already?” Shin sat down behind the wheel and cranked the AC.

“What did the M.E. find on Britney Devonshire?” I said.

“No real surprises. Probable cause of death—accidental overdose. But she had Blue Lotus in her blood as well as Green Ice.”

“Ice and Spice.” Blue Lotus was a synthetic marijuana often smoked by fans of Green Ice. “Was she pregnant?”

Shin raised his chin. The smile vanished as he shook his head. “No. Why?”

I held up the blood spot I’d found tucked in her pocket-Bible. Then I told Shin about the texts to her friend and the calls to microbiologist Dr. Lee. “So if she wasn’t pregnant . . .”

“Maybe it’s from an earlier pregnancy,” Shin said. “The M.E. said Devonshire never delivered a kid. That doesn’t mean she never miscarried or aborted. Maybe she held onto the blood spot and used it to pressure the reluctant boyfriend.”

“Dr. Lee’s not her boyfriend.” I told Shin about the noticeable lack of texts and pictures from Britney Devonshire’s phone. “More likely she feigned pregnancy to shake down a married client with a lot to lose.”

Shin listened intently. “That’s a bold play, Eddie. Risky with a guy who knows his science.”

“Yeah.” The kind of desperate ploy a systems kid who’d run out of options might try. “Any sign of sexual assault?”

“None, Eddie.” Shin ran his hands over his face. He looked tired. Shin knew the stats as well as anyone. If a woman is killed, nine times out of ten her husband or boyfriend pulled the trigger.

“No sign of foul play at all? You sure?”

He nodded. “I think you’re making too much of those texts.”

“Hmm.” There was no way the department would spend the cash for DNA tests unless Britney Devonshire’s death was ruled a homicide.

“Eddie,” Shin said, cracking his knuckles. “I see where you’re going with this. Just between us, I agree the OD might not have been so accidental.”

I waited.

“She’d just lost her job. She had money problems. Most likely—this girl accidentally on purpose took a one-way trip with the Green Angel. But homicide—you’re too far out over your skiis.”

“You check her accounts?”

“Of course.” Shin looked a little put out by my question. “She made good money but spent more. Tracked down that derma ad too. Britney made peanuts on it. The cookie jar was bare. No cash deposits or record of money transfers from this Dr. Lee. If she tried to pressure him and that went south too? No surprise she wanted out, is it?”

“You’re gonna write it up as suicide?” I said.

Shin shook his head. “We can’t prove it wasn’t accidental, so I don’t see a reason to contradict the coroner. No next of kin is listed, but somebody might turn up. Why make it worse if they do, you know?”

I nodded, reminded again of why I liked Shin so much.

A lopsided grin spread across Shin’s affable face. “Eddie, it’s this desk-duty. You’re like a Terminator-terrier chewing the ball to bits. Get cleared for active duty. We need you.”

I thought about the newscast I’d seen, the higher body count since Nieto’s release. Maybe Shin was right. Maybe I was just guilt-tripping myself over landing us in all the shit with the OIS.

Britney Devonshire’s death was a non-starter for the department. The overdose of a stripper wasn’t exactly a high priority in a city with three hundred odd homicides—courtesy of the Zeta war. But the fact this system kid had suddenly put a spike in the wrong arm so soon after that happy-talk text to Mercedes ate at me. Especially given the timing of phone calls to Dr. Lee and that blood spot.

“I’ll send you her final autopsy report soon as I have it,” Shin said.

“Do me a solid,” I said, “and don’t close out the file yet. Nothing adds up on this. That’s interesting, don’t you think?”

“You crazy hakujin,” Shin said, shaking his head. “I’m raising three kids and juggling a full caseload. I don’t have time for interesting. I hardly have time to eat. You feel me?”

“Meet me at the dojo,” I said. “We can grab a bite after. I’m buying.”