Don’t bother it, and it won’t bother you, I told myself. But I moved my hands away just the same. I was the lucky one person out of two hundred and fifty who was allergic to stings. When I was a teenager, a particularly nasty wasp had stung my hand, which quickly led to anaphylactic shock. My throat had swelled up to the point that I couldn’t breathe, and only an emergency room injection of epinephrine had saved my life. It wasn’t an experience I cared to repeat.
Luckily, the bee had interests other than me, and it buzzed off to molest some flowers at an adjacent table.
I sipped my iced tea. I closed my eyes. The sun felt good. I decided to order a club sandwich, not caring if Rick showed up or not.
“Sorry I’m late…”
Rick was slightly out of breath. I had the impression that he’d been running, and was more flattered by his hurrying to meet me than I was irritated at his lateness.
Rick sat down, then picked up the water glass at his place setting. He drained half of it in one gulp.
“Did you catch any of the press conference?” I asked.
“No. Conference call with Washington. How’d it go?”
“Fine. Roxy actually did okay. Remained calm and poised, answered everything correctly. And she looked better in my jacket than I did.”
Rick leaned in, his eyes twinkling. “No. She didn’t.”
I was being honest, not fishing, but it felt nice to hear just the same.
My sandwich came, and I apologized for having ordered without waiting for him.
“Can we split this club, and then I’ll order another one?”
“Sure. That’s fine. But…”
“But what?”
I was hungry, but looking down at the food made my stomach twitch. What if this restaurant had been on the Chemist’s list? What if I took a bite and would be dead in thirty seconds?
Rick apparently sensed my hesitation.
“Life is about risk, Jack. You can run away, or you can face it head-on.”
He leaned in closer, his knee touching mine under the table. Then he picked up half of the sandwich and took a big bite, some mayo dribbling down his chin.
I felt my heart rate increase. Maybe I was overtired. Or hormonal. Whatever problem I was having, I promised myself no more one-on-one time with Rick.
Another ambulance streaked by, followed by two news vans. I didn’t like the implications of that at all.
I pulled my radio out of my purse and tuned in to the police band. A few seconds later Rick threw down some money and we jogged up the street.
I worked out three times a week, weights and aerobics, and twice a month I attended a four-hour tae kwon do class, so I was able to keep pace with Rick the three blocks to the station house without collapsing or throwing up. But I did feel sick when I saw the ambulances at the corner of my precinct building.
A dozen uniforms were cordoning off a section of street, directing traffic, and questioning onlookers. Several paramedics were milling around two bodies. They didn’t seem to be in a hurry. I managed to locate Herb in the crowd. Even though he was no longer my partner, he still managed to beat me to the crime scene.
“What happened?”
“I just got here. Some kind of traffic dispute.”
“The radio mentioned the Chemist.”
“Could be. Two dead, no marks on their bodies.”
“Don’t touch him!” Rick yelled at one of the medics who was crouching down next to a victim. “Risk of contamination!”
If the witnesses weren’t spooked before, that started a mass exodus to the police lines. Herb went north and I went south, explaining to the crowd that they were perfectly safe, and if anyone saw anything we’d like to talk to them. I managed to snag a retreating party of businesspeople, and Herb caught a kid on Rollerblades. While we did that, Rick produced a gas mask and some rubber gloves, and examined one of the bodies.
The trio gave me a rundown of what they saw, beginning with the honking and ending with the perp stabbing each victim in the neck with something. He wore a suit, had an eye patch, and drove a white Honda Accord with scratches on both sides. None of them got the license plate.
Herb’s witness gave a similar version of the story, but said the victims were shot in the neck with some kind of gun, rather than stabbed.
As we conferred, a uniform named Justin Buchbinder came to us with a jackpot: a witness with a camera phone.
“My name is Doris, Doris Washburn. I took three pictures.” She was young, chic, in business attire. “The quality isn’t the greatest, but I got one of the killer, and one of his car.”
She showed me how to view them on her cell phone. The perp’s head was turned, and the license plate on the car too pixilated to be read, but the forensics guys had digital filters that might help improve the images. The third picture unfortunately only captured the man who later died, pointing his finger and yelling.
“We’ll need to keep your phone.”
“I need my phone for work. Can’t I just send you the images?”
“Will they lose quality?”
“No. I can send them to your e-mail address.”
I called Hajek at the crime lab, and Doris sent the photos to him using her phone.
“Get anything?” I asked him while the data transferred.
“A headache. Neck strain. A sore back.”
“No prints?”
“The Chemist used gloves for everything. I even found a glove print on the toilet handle.”
I thought about that. The only people that paranoid about leaving prints are those with prints on file. This guy was in our system, somewhere. People who have been arrested had their fingerprints taken. So did government employees like cops, Feds, and military. Plus, fingerprinting was becoming more common in the private sector, for both security reasons and to ID workers.
“How about the devices? Any way to trace them?”
“The M44s had serial numbers, but they’d been removed. Acid etching didn’t bring them up. Wildlife Services uses them to kill coyotes, but these seem to be older models. Could have picked them up anywhere.”
“How about the other traps?”
“Made from common household items. I got a copy of the CDC report-even the poisons are from pretty common plants. Many are available growing wild, or at garden shops. All of them can be ordered over the Internet. No way to trace them. I’m getting the e-mail now, hold on.”
This was becoming silly. How is it possible to kill so many people and leave zero evidence?
“Well, the bad news is, the pictures are awful.”
“Can you fix them?”
“Let’s see.” I heard him typing, and then humming softly. “I’ll transfer them to my image enhancer. Clean up the noise… resize the image… reduce JPEG compression… and it’s even worse than before. Let me work on it. Will you be at this number?”
I told him yes, and hung up.
“Where’s the new partner?” Herb asked.
“Lunch.”
“Shouldn’t you call her?”
“Probably. I want my jacket back.”
I called Dispatch to get Roxy’s number. Surprisingly, a man answered when I dialed her number.
“I’m looking for Roxanne Waclawski.”
“Are you a friend or relative of hers?”
“I’m her partner, Lieutenant Daniels from the CPD. Can you put her on?”
“I’m afraid not, Lieutenant. I’m an EMT. We got a call of a woman passing out at a Willoughby’s on Michigan and Huron. Your partner is dead.”
I squeezed my eyes closed so hard, I saw stars under the lids.
“How did she die?”
“It appears to be heart failure. But in someone this young…”
“Okay, you need to be careful. She was probably poisoned, and some of it may still be on her. I need you to talk to the manager. Try not to let anyone leave until I get there.”
“Was this-”
“Don’t say anything more. I don’t want to cause a panic. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
I hung up and looked at Herb.
“She’s dead. It’s a few blocks away. I need you at the crime scene.”
Herb hesitated for a moment, and then said, “No.”
“Goddammit, Herb-”
“Goddammit, Jack, I’m not Homicide anymore.” He looked as angry as I’d ever seen him. “This isn’t my case, and you’re not my partner.”