CHAPTER 36

Three hours later I was in my office, door locked, shades drawn. I had my feet up on the desk, looking straight ahead at nothing. My cell phone chirped. I ignored it. The office phone rang once. Again. Ignored that. Then I heard footsteps in the hall and a knock at the door.

“What do you want?” I said.

It was Vince Rodriguez, standing over me, looking like he needed instructions on how to live the rest of his life. Like most cops, however, he was used to putting things away, and that’s what he did.

“Tell me what happened?”

“I gave them a statement at the scene,” I said. “Tape recorded it, so you can listen along if you want. They took my shirt, photos of my hands and arms. Probably looking for the slash marks that would show how I cut Nicole’s throat. You want a drink?”

I pulled the Powers from my desk drawer. Rodriguez took off his coat, hung it on a hook, and sat down.

“You didn’t kill Nicole,” he said. “I know that. So does Headquarters.”

“I’m impressed.”

“What I don’t understand is why you were down there.”

I poured a bit of whiskey, neat, into a chipped coffee mug and offered it to Rodriguez, who took a pass. I swirled the brown liquid around and then set the mug down.

“Like I told the police, Nicole and I were going out for breakfast. Check her phone records. She called me an hour or so before I found her.”

“I don’t need to check the records,” Rodriguez said. “Nicole called me directly after. Told me she was going to meet with you. Didn’t say what it was about, but she sure didn’t mention breakfast.”

I expected Rodriguez to come by. Sooner or later. He seemed too smart not to. It wasn’t even a bad thing. Nicole was dead. Just as dead as Gibbons. Just as dead as Gibbons’ landlady. Maybe Rodriguez could help.

“What’s the working theory downtown?” I said.

Rodriguez folded back into his chair.

“Wrong-place, wrong-time bullshit. Nicole was working late, decided to take the El home. Nicole was working late, decided to go out for a smoke.”

“She doesn’t smoke, and her car was in the parking lot.”

“Like I said, all bullshit. But really, where else can they go?”

“Someone had access to the crime lab.”

“Already checked. Nicole’s was the only key card used last night. So unless her killer came in with her, Nicole had to have been attacked outside.”

“Doesn’t play, Rodriguez. At six in the morning Nicole had no reason to leave the building. I talked to her. She was expecting me and should have been down in the lobby.”

“Which brings me back to my question. What did you have her working on?”

It was better than even money that I had somehow signed my friend’s death warrant with my DNA request. If I could take it back, I would. If I could take her spot on the coroner’s gurney, I’d do that, too. Instead, I would try to make her death matter.

“She was running some tests for me.”

“On the old rape you told her about? She shared some of the details.”

“Yeah, I figured she would. I gave her a piece of evidence. A shirt from the victim.”

“Where’d you get that?”

“For right now, let’s just say I acquired it.”

Rodriguez nodded. I continued.

“When she called this morning, she told me she had gotten a profile. Told me it had come back as a match in CODIS. She said it tied in to some results you had gotten from the attack on that kid.”

“Jennifer Cole?” Rodriguez said.

“Yeah.”

“Nicole said that?”

I nodded. Rodriguez clasped his hands on top of his head and looked up at the ceiling.

“What’re you thinking?” I said.

“I’m thinking she made a connection.”

“One that got her killed,” I said. “What happened with Jennifer?”

“Leave that for now. We need to figure out what Nicole got off your girl’s shirt. Where is it?”

“Nicole kept it in the lab,” I said.

“Shit. Her workstation was clean.”

“What about her computer?”

“Nothing there but her assigned cases.”

“Whoever killed her got inside,” I said. “Took everything with them.”

“Maybe not. Let me use your computer.”

Rodriguez slid behind the desk and fired up my Mac.

“Nicole didn’t trust her boss,” the detective said. “Thought he was working with the DA to bury cases that deserved to be investigated.”

“Sounds like Nicole.”

“Yeah. Anyway, she wanted to build a case. Created her own private backup system.”

Rodriguez pulled a thin black object from his jacket pocket and slid it into a slot on the side of my computer.

“I pulled this off her key chain at the scene. It’s a memory stick. The question for us is, did she have time to run a backup?”

“Have you taken a look?”

“No. She trusted you. Figured I’d wait.”

I offered a small toast with my mug.

“Thanks, Detective. You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yes, I did. If we get a lead, this goes off the books. You and me. Once we find him, whoever killed Nicole isn’t getting a trial. You understand?”

I understood and told him as much. The detective gave me a short nod and dropped his eyes.

“Good.”