No one had bothered to tell her, and she was caught off guard. “Leon'11 confess to anything anyone puts to him now, so long as you promise to keep him safe from the Claw; but tell me this, Alan.”
“ Yes?”
“ Has he confessed to being the Claw?” Before he could answer, she added, “Look at this,” and took from her purse a manila envelope, spreading its contents before him: two electronic photos of Archer's hair which she had taken from the lab.
“ What is it I'm looking at, Jess?”
“ This was taken a few hours ago, and this was on file. It's a strand of Archer's hair.”
“ Does this mean something?”
She explained how she had gotten the first strand, her belief that it was lifted from the body a good seven minutes before Archer arrived on scene.
He looked over the two photos for some time, his features not giving anything away, but his eyes showing a dubious and steady blink, the big hands folding about the photos. “You sure that you labeled it correctly?”
“ Yes! Dammit, I knew you'd say that.”
“ Even if I believe you, Jess, it's slim evidence at best. Do you have anything else on the man?”
She couldn't hide the look of disappointment on her face.
“ D.A. wouldn't touch this. It'd be your word against Archer's, and Archer could make a case for your having a longstanding poisoned relationship that-”
“ Forget it,” she said abruptly.
“ Wait a minute, Jess.”
“ Just forget it, Alan.”
The waiter arrived to clear their dishes, and they fell silent.
After he left, Alan began, “Jess, it's not that I don't believe that you believe-”
“ I won't bore you with any more of my doubts, Alan.”
“ Come on, Jess. That's not fair.”
“ I wouldn't want to bring you down from that high you've been riding since Helfer was cuffed.”
He tossed down his napkin and leaned in across the table. “That's bull, Jessica. I'm not railroading this creep. He's as guilty as guilty gets and-”
“ And so is someone else, someone who drove him, controlled Helfer, gave him a new name, a new identity, and gave him orders.”
“ There's not a shred of forensics evidence to support you, nothing other than Leon Helfer's word, which is less than nothing, Jess.”
“ All true, thanks in large part to Archer, who, by the way, still has not been so much as reprimanded for his part in slowing this investigation.”
“ Internal Affairs is looking into your allegations.”
“ Allegations?”
“ Yes.”
“ And what does Internal Affairs know about hiding evidence in a test tube or beneath a microscope?”
“ Christ, it's not as if Archer conspired with the killer. If he let some things go, if he became a little careless, it was for mundane, perhaps petty reasons.”
“ Well, I'm not so sure.”
She got up to leave, but he stood also and grabbed her by the wrist. “What's that supposed to mean?”
“ I'm still unconvinced he had nothing to do with Dr. Darius' fall prior to his going into the hospital, if not his so-called suicide.”
“ Christ, you really dislike this guy, don't you?”
“ Don't you see? Archer did all he could to slow the progress of the investigation until he was firmly in place as Darius' logical successor. And I don't understand why you and the others choose to look the other way.”
She hurled away, and he threw money on the table and rushed after her. Neither of them had noticed the darkly clad, heavily made-up man at the booth beside them who now stood and quietly left in their wake.?
Twenty-Five
I want Emmons' body shipped to Quantico.” Jessica stood over Simon Archer's desk, her tone lean and spiced with a tinge of officiousness. “I'd like your cooperation.”
“ What can you possibly expect will come of carting the poor woman's body to and from Virginia, Dr. Coran?”
“ Well, I won't know that until-”
“ Then you can speak with the family members. I'll not be a party to unnecessary pain and injury to the bereaved.”
“ I'll deal with her family.”
She started away from his office when he got to his feet and said, “Do you really think Quantico can do any better than we've managed here?”
“ We have the most sophisticated equipment on earth, Doctor, some of which you've only read about, the experimental laser photography, for instance, and our electron microscopy is of the most recent vintage. If any minute differences… ahh… Doctor, at this point, I'm asking your cooperation, but if you try to stand in my way, I'll steamroll this right over your head.”
“ You have no jurisdiction here. It ended with that retch's arrest.”
“ Oh, but I do. So long as the FBI holds open the case, and since the NYPD asked us in… Well, just check with the commissioner and the mayor, if you like.”
Archer stared a hole in her but said nothing. She smiled, saying, “Being at the top's a bitch, Simon, especially when the top isn't the top.”
“ Just what is it you think you will find?” he persisted.
“ Look, Dr. Archer, we're not in this to prove your team in error, or-”
“ What, then?”
Others about the lab heard the raised voices and began to stare.
“ We're interested in looking more deeply into the physical evidence, and the best way to do that is to transport, whole, one of the victims, perhaps two.”
“ Two? But the others are all in the ground.”
“ That didn't stop us during the Chicago Vampire manhunt.” They had unearthed two bodies for exhumation then, and she knew that Archer was aware of the case history.
“ Look,” she said solicitously, “I've got a military plane on standby and we'll take the body to Quantico with or without your consent.”
He put up a palm to her. “No, no, you know you have my full support, Dr. Coran. It's just… well, I'd hoped we had put this horror behind us.”
“ I can certainly understand that.”
“ With Helfer in custody-”
“ That's not enough. We have to be absolutely certain, and I'm afraid the forensics evidence provided to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt-”
Archer's shoulders hunched with his raised arms as he protested, “I oversaw that evidence myself, and it is enough to bury Helfer several times over. What can you possibly mean, reasonable doubt?”
“ Reasonable doubt that he acted alone.”
“ But all the evidence points to that single fact.”
“ I know… I know, and it's all so pat.”
He was again staring at her before he caught himself. He cast his dark gaze elsewhere, but not before she registered the pent-up rage seething below, held in check. The unflappable Dr. Archer had been flapped.
“ Well,” he muttered, “it sounds as if you need nothing from me.”
“ No, I don't. I'll take the heat from the family and any other interested parties.”
“ I guess you've been made aware that they've ordered some sort of internal investigation of the department.”
“ No, really? I had no idea,” she lied. “Routine, they say.”
“ Oh, yes, I suppose so when such a position is held for so many years by someone such as Dr. Darius.”
“ Yes, well, they do seem to be concentrating on efficiency levels, that sort of thing. Who knows, perhaps we'll get some additional influx of funds. God knows we need it.”
“ I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.”
She turned on her heels and disappeared down the hall, tapping out a light Morse code with her heels and cane as she did so. Dr. Archer flicked a switch on his intercom and spoke to Laurie Marks, telling her to prepare the Emmons body for transportation.
He clicked off the intercom and said to the empty room, “Fine, Dr. Coran, you will have your cadaver, but you will never get the eyes back.”