"Probably at a friend's house. She sleeps over a lot." Mother took another sip on her beer bottle.
"You guys like a beer?" asked Father.
"Do you know her friend's address or phone number?" asked Jana.
Lucas looked on stoically holding onto his calm. The father, scratching beneath his T-shirt and ogling Jana, replied, "She don't tell us who her friends are. How're we supposed to know who they are, much less have a number on 'em. Could we interest you two in a cold one?" he repeated.
"No, just please sign the medical release for her records, sir, and we'll be on our way," Jana said, her skin crawling.
Lucas escorted her off as soon as Mr. Nance released the pen and returned the signed card. When they got out of earshot, Jana whispered, "Missing Persons runs the entire gamut of human experience, Lucas, trust me. We see all kinds."
"Sad part is that they're parents. Ought to have a DMV- type office where people have to register before having r kids."
Now they raced to a Dr. Patel's office for Irma's records, getting there just at closing. The Pakistani doctor didn't want to be bothered, something about his kid's soccer game, but Lucas urged the doctor into cooperating, pointing out that he could be liable in a lawsuit if someone's child died because he was too busy to cooperate with police. They got the records.
Calling ahead to Mira's dentist, Dr. Edward Palmer, they got the answering machine. Too late for office hours, but in case of emergency dial Dr. Palmer at 555-9293.
Lucas made the emergency call, and got Palmer on a cell phone in his sports car, Lucas listening to the rev of the powerful engine in the background. Palmer, in sharp contrast to Patel, was instantly curious and interested in helping in any way that he could, promising to meet Lucas and Jana at his office.
"I'm turning around right now," he said. "Mira's a lovely, wonderful person, beautiful bicuspids."
They met Palmer outside, and he eagerly opened his office to them without question, hardly glancing at their badges. "I got a call earlier from her mother, but when you guys didn't show, I guessed you'd get around to it tomorrow. Any rate, here are her records. I had them pulled earlier." He lifted the file filled with Mira's charts from his desk and handed it to Lucas. "God, I hope she's all right. She's a great soul, that one. Full of life, always with a bright smile and kind word for everyone, you know? Wonderfully cared-for teeth."
Not any more if she's our girl, Lucas painfully thought.
"Thanks for your cooperation, Dr. Palmer," said Jana, who caught the doctor eyeballing her straight, bright teeth as if he wanted to get a closer look at them.
Outside, Jana congratulated Lucas on achieving the impossible, gathering up three dental records in one afternoon.
"I owe it all to your help," he countered. "Couldn't have done it without you. Fact is, if you hadn't like been with me to like deal with Dwayne Stokes, I might have like shot him."
She laughed at this. "I'm thirsty. Let's stop for a drink somewhere, shall we?"
"First things first. Next step, get all the data into Dr. Davies's hands and hope for a match."
"All work and no play, Lucas. You haven't changed."
Lucas drove Jana back to the precinct and thanked her for her help. It had grown late, and Jana decided to call it a night, so they parted on the street in front of the station house. "I hope you find the bastard who set you and Meredyth up, Lucas. And if there's anything else we can do over at Missing Persons, don't hesitate. Fact is, should there be a match with one of our girls, you'll have to include us."
"Will do."
"Good luck and good night."
"Thanks again, Jana."
"Nothing succeeds like results, Lucas, and you get results. It's why people respect you. You're no ordinary detective on the force, you are a force."
Lucas caught a light in her eye and a curl to her lips, a subtle invitation to call her at any time. She waved as she stepped away, again saying good night, adding, "It's been fun."
Overhead, in a precinct window, other detectives stared down on the scene, and Lucas could almost hear their catcalls and whistles behind the windowpane. He saw several of his colleagues raise hands and wave in the universal gesture that all men recognized as "go get 'em." Lucas knew instantly that rumors would be flying about Jana and him.
Lucas entered the precinct and went for the crime lab. He found the place empty save for a few medical personnel working at microscopes and a handful of others working on an autopsy. Chang was at the center of the postmortem, which looked as if it would go on for some time. Lucas looked around for anyone who might help him.
Dr. Lynn Nielsen stepped through a door and stood face-to-face with Lucas. The tall Scandinavian and the tall American Indian stared into one another's eyes. They had had few dealings with one another, she having only recently come on staff at the crime lab.
"Detective Stonecoat," she said, "we've found nothing but healthy tissue on the specimens found in your possession."
"Careful how you word that. I wouldn't want Internal Affairs thinking I had anything to do with excising those organ portions from someone's abdominal cavity."
"I'm certainly not proposing such a thing," she countered, as if angry he should suggest anything of the sort.
"Sorry," he heard himself saying. 'Translation problem," he suggested now. "At any rate, I have here three separate sets of dental records on possible matches, and the records need to go to Dr. Thomas Davies's team as soon as possible and put on priority."
"Oh, yes, Dr. Chang told me of your plans."
"Is Dr. Davies in?"
"He's promised to return after dinner and get right on it if we can have the records and the victim's teeth all in one place."
"Then you'll call him back, and he'll begin his analysis tonight?"
"You can be sure, Detective."
She took the three dental files from Lucas. "You work quickly," she commented.
"Is there any other way?" he asked, smiling. "Besides, if we can identify the victim, then we have a chance-"
"I know, we may be that much closer to the killer."
"Exactly."
"More so if the killer knew her."
"Precisely." Lucas thought of Dwayne Stokes. If the teeth belonged to Mira Lourdes, he would be elevated to suspect number one, but then why send her brutalized parts to him and to Dr. Sanger? What did Stokes have to gain by such a bizarre action? To throw them off his scent? Lucas could not fathom Stokes ever having that much cunning.
"Is everything all right, Detective?" she asked, seeing his troubled face.
"Yeah, fine. Just a passing thought. Okay, then you'll have Dr. Davies call me when he has results?"
She nodded, holding the dental records against her ample bosom with one hand and extending the other. As she shook his hand and said good night, she added, "I hope we have a long and fruitful working relationship, Detective." It sounded like a rehearsed line she had likely repeated often since coming on board.
"Yes, of course," he replied.
She then stiffly turned and went for her desk to make any necessary calls and arrangements. Her back to him felt like a dismissal.
Lucas, tired and hungry, left the crime lab and returned to his desk in the bowels of the precinct house, a building that had been built before the turn of the 19th century, in 1898, as a schoolhouse. The Spanish architecture and stone exterior gave it an Alamo appearance, despite all the modem improvements. Here in the closed-in Cold Room office in the dungeon like basement, its stone walls dripped with condensation. The conditions under which the old files had been housed since the early twenties had prompted the move to place them all on computer before they were entirely consumed by time, mold, and mites. In fact, some of the oldest of the lot had crumbled to dust and could not be saved.