LITMIR.BIZ

       FOURTEEN

      Sean and I sit on opposite sides of my kitchen table, case files and photographs spread out between us. We’ve enacted this ritual many times before, but in the past we sat on the same side of the table. Today this new arrangement seems more appropriate.

      For the past fifteen months, it’s been Sean’s habit to build a private file on every major murder case assigned to him. He keeps these files in a locked cabinet at my house, selectively adding to them as new evidence comes in. He digitally photographs what he can’t get me access to and dubs audiotapes of most witness interviews and interrogations. He’s broken countless rules and probably some laws by doing this, but the result has been to jail more killers, so he doesn’t struggle with the ethics too much.

      Sean brewed coffee while I was in the shower, and by the time I emerged wearing scrub pants and a Pearl Jam sweatshirt, a cup was waiting by my chair. This kind of courtesy grew rare after the first few months of our relationship, but today it doesn’t surprise me. The pregnancy is making him walk on eggshells.

      Captain Piazza hasn’t officially suspended Sean from the task force, but she did remove him as lead NOPD detective on the case. She only toured him through the crime scene this morning because his case clearance rate is so high. Piazza doesn’t know that Sean uses a lot of help from me to accomplish this, but after the captain’s little lecture at the LeGendre crime scene, I think she may suspect it.

      In any case, Sean’s information flow has not been cut off. His partner is shuttling between police headquarters and the task force headquarters at the FBI building, keeping Sean informed of all new developments by cell phone. Ironically, the fortresslike new FBI field office is situated just five minutes up the shore of Lake Pontchartrain from my house. Inside that building, at least fifty people are studying the same information we’re looking at now.

      “James Calhoun,” I read, naming the fifth victim. “What makes him different than the others?”

      “Nothing,” says Sean, leaning his chair back on two legs. “He was alone in the house. No sign of forced entry. One paralyzing shot to the spine, then the bite marks, delivered antemortem like the others …”

      Delivered is a pretty sterile word to describe the savage act of tearing human flesh with teeth. But that kind of semantic distance creeps into law enforcement work all the time, just as it does in medicine. When thinking about murder, I always try to keep the immediacy of the violence in the forefront of my mind.

      “… and a coup de grâce to the head,” Sean finishes. “End of story.”

      “Trace evidence?”

      “Aside from the note written in blood—the victim’s blood—nothing new.”

      “This guy is too good,” I say with frustration. “‘My work is never done.’ He must be wearing a space suit while he does this work of his.”

      “Then how is he biting them?”

      “He left saliva in the bite marks again?”

      “Yep.”

      “Huh. Is there any way Nathan Malik could have gotten out last night without his surveillance team knowing?”

      “I don’t think so.” Sean leans forward, bringing the front legs of his chair back to the floor. “But there’s always a way, I guess.”

      “No thermal-imaging camera to make sure a warm body was in the house?”

      “No. They were going to start using one tonight. It’s been about a week between each hit, like you said. I don’t think the feeling of urgency was there last night.”

      “Famous last words. Time of death?”

      “Probably about seven this morning.”

      I feel a peculiar shock of surprise. “So the crime happened in daylight. Lots of people moving around then. Getting their Times-Picayune, leaving for work.”

      He stares at me in an odd way, then shakes his head. “It’s Sunday, Cat. Nobody’s leaving for work.”

      “Church, then,” I say quickly, my cheeks coloring with embarrassment.

      Sean’s gaze doesn’t waver, and I sense that he’s ruthlessly gauging my mental state. “No witnesses so far,” he says at length. “We canvassed like crazy. We’re still trying to locate a couple of neighbors, but so far, nobody saw anything.”

      “The killer could have entered the house during the night,” I point out. “And only left during the day.”

      “Let’s get off Calhoun for a minute,” Sean says, tapping a pen on some papers in front of him. “The whole string—all five victims—what are you thinking? Just off the top of your head.”

      “I think it’s Malik. And if he didn’t do Calhoun this morning, somebody’s helping him.”

      “That’s who’s leaving the bite marks? An accomplice?”

      “Maybe, but not necessarily. That could still be Malik.”

      Sean squints as though he doesn’t understand. “Yesterday you said something about the killer using fake teeth to make the marks. I didn’t really catch all that. And when you got home …” He trails off, not wanting to mention the awful scene we played out while I was drunk.

      “I said the killer could be using someone else’s teeth.”

      “What did you mean? Like dentures?”

      “Dentures would work.”

      “But how would he make the marks look real? Wear them over his own teeth?”

      “He could do that. But he’d get his own saliva in the wound doing that. There’s another way. When dentists make dentures, they’re attached to a hinged metal device called an articulator. It simulates the opening and closing of the jaw. That’s how we fine-tune the dentures for proper occlusion.”

      “Occlusion?”

      “The way the teeth come together. The bite. Malik could make the marks with that.”

      Sean looks intrigued. “How easy would it be for him to get one of those?”

      “He could order one off the Internet. Or as I said yesterday, he could have stolen one out of Dr. Shubb’s office lab. You should check and see if Shubb has lost an articulator in the past couple of years. He might not even have noticed it missing.”

      Sean makes a note in a small wire-bound pad. “And the dentures?”

      “Same thing. Malik could have stolen them.

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