The guys eyed each other, and Bracco cleared his throat. "He died in the hospital, sir," he said. "We know what he died of."
"We do?" Glitsky replied. "What was that?"
"He got run over. Thrown about thirty yards. Smashed into a garbage can."
"And your point is? Look, let's assume we find somebody who wanted to run over Mr. Markham and in fact did a pretty good job of it. So we arrest our suspect and somehow we've never looked at the autopsy. You know what happens? It turns out he died of a heart attack unrelated to his injuries in the accident. Or maybe somebody entirely different from our suspect stuck an ice pick in his ear, or poisoned his ice water. Maybe he was a spy for the Russians and the CIA took him out. The point is, somebody's dead, we check the autopsy first. Every time, capisce?"
He looked up and gave them his terrible smile. "Welcome to homicide, boys, where the good times just keep on comin'."
6
Eric Kensing still wore his blood-spattered green scrubs. He was slumped nearly horizontal in a chair in the doctors' lounge on the ground floor, his long legs stretched straight out before him, his feet crossed at the ankles. The room was otherwise empty. A lock of gray-specked black hair hung over his forehead, which he seemed to be holding up with the heel of his right hand.
He heard the door open and someone flicked on the overhead lights. He opened his eyes. It was his soon-to-be ex-wife Ann. "They said I'd find you here." Her voice at whisper pitch, under tight control.
"Looks like they were right."
She started right in. "At least you could have called me, Eric. That's what I don't understand. Instead I find it out on the goddamn radio. And with the kids in tow," she added, "thank you very much."
He got to his feet quickly, not wanting to give her the edge. "Where are they now? Are they okay?"
"Of course they're okay. What do you think? I left them at Janey's. They're fine."
"Well, good." He waited, forcing her.
"So why didn't you call me?"
He backed up a step, crossed his arms. He had an open, almost boyish face in spite of the worry lines, the bags under his eyes, a puffiness at his once-proud jawline. But around his wife he'd learned, especially in the past year or two, to suppress any animation in his face. Not that he felt any conscious need to do that now anyway, but he was resolved to give Ann nothing. He might have been molded from wax, and could easily have passed for someone in his early fifties, though he was fifteen years short of that. "Why would I call you? His wife was here, his family. Besides, the last I heard you'd broken up again. For good."
She set her mouth, drew a determined breath. "I want to see him," she said.
"Help yourself. As long as Carla and his kids are gone. I'd ask you to try and be sensitive if they're still around."
"Oh, yes. Mr. Sensitive. That's your role, isn't it? Bedside manner, comforting the bereaved?"
"Sometimes." He shrugged. "I don't care. You do what you want. You will anyway."
"That's right. I intend to." Her nostrils flared. "How did he die here? How could that happen?"
"He got smashed up, Ann. Badly."
"People get smashed up all the time. They don't die."
"Well, Tim did."
"And you don't care, do you?"
"What does that mean? I don't like to lose a patient, but he wasn't-"
Her voice took on a hysterical edge. "He wasn't just a patient, Eric." She glared at him. "Don't give me that doctorspeak. I know what you really think."
"Oh, you do? What's that?"
"You're glad he's dead, aren't you? You wanted him to be dead for a long time."
He had no ready response. Finally, he shook his head in resignation and disgust. "Well, it's been nice talking to you. Now excuse me-" He started to walk by her.
But she moved in front of him. "Where are you going?"
"Back to work. I've got nothing more to say to you. You came here to see Tim? You found me easy enough. You won't have any problem. Now please get out of my way. I've got work to do."
She held her ground. "Oh yes, the busy doctor." Then, taking another tack. "They said you were on the floor."
"What floor?"
"You know what one."
He backed up a step. "What are you talking about?"
"When he died."
"That's right," he said warily. "What about it?"
He'd had long experience with her when her emotions took over, with the sometimes astounding leaps of logic of which she was capable. Now he saw something familiar in her eyes, a kind of wild lucidity that he found deeply unsettling. "I should tell somebody," she said. "I'll bet I know what really happened up there."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes you do, Eric. I'm the only one who knows what you're really capable of. How unfeeling you can be. How you are."
"Oh please, Ann, don't start."
"I will start. You killed him, didn't you?"
He thought she'd been going there, and now that she had, the depth of his rage allowed for nothing but pure reaction. Summoning all of his control, he turned to make sure no one else was within earshot, then leaned in toward her, inches from her face. He forced a brutal smile. "Absolutely," he said with all the cold conviction he could muster. "I pumped his IV full of shit as soon as I could get away with it."
She backed away and froze.
He had her. Her delicious panic impelled him to continue striking. "I kill people here all the time. It's one of the unsung perks of the job."
She stared at him with real fear for a long moment. But he'd shocked her back to herself. Her shoulders relaxed; she gulped a few breaths. "You think that's funny?" she asked. "You think it's something to joke about?"
"You think I'm joking? Were you joking when you asked me?" But then, suddenly, it had gone far enough. "Get a grip, Ann. Did I kill him? Jesus."
"You were there and you hated him."
"So what? Maybe you didn't understand the message. He got run over."
"And brought here."
"It was the closest ER, Ann. I didn't somehow arrange it."
"You should have taken yourself off his case."
"And why is that? So I wouldn't have a chance to kill him? Maybe you don't get it-how about if I wanted to kill him? How about that?" He stared at the total stranger with whom he'd lived a dozen years, who'd borne him three children. For an instant, he wanted to get another rise out of her.
But that gambit had played itself out. She shook her head finally. "You didn't kill him," she said. "You don't have the guts."
"You said it, not me. But whether I did or not, he's gone, isn't he? That's going to be tough on little Annie, isn't it?"
He'd hit her again where it hurt. She set her jaw, then suddenly reached out and pulled violently at a sleeve of his scrubs. "You son of a bitch. What am I supposed to do now, Eric? Tell me that. What am I supposed to do?"
"Whatever you were going to do, Ann. I don't really care. He wasn't coming back anyway." Then, a last thrust. "Don't tell me you don't have a fallback boyfriend?"
She came forward now in a wild fury, her fists flailing at him. "You bastard!" She kept coming, pounding at him, spewing obscenities, until finally he'd gotten ahold of both of her wrists. He gripped them tightly in front of him.
"Ow! Let me go. You're hurting me."
"Good."
"Let me go, damn you!"
"Don't you dare swing at me again. You hear me?" He held on for one more moment, squeezing with all of his strength. She continued to struggle against him, making little inhuman cries with the exertion, trying to pull her arms away, to twist her body, but he had her and wasn't letting her go. Finally, he pulled her close in to him and locked her in his gaze. She wasn't ready to give it up, not yet, but he kept her in an iron grip, until at last he felt the fight go out of her. "Do you hear me, goddamnit?" he whispered.
"Yes. Let me go."