Flowering Judas(113)

“All right,” Ferris Cole said. “You’ve finally lost me.”

“I’ll tell you some other time when I’m not racing against time to stop a pack of idiots from mucking up the evidence enough to shoot their own case in the foot. Just get those bodies for me, if you can, and give them a thorough going over that won’t get blown to pieces in court. And thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Ferris Cole said. “This is very interesting. My life doesn’t usually run like an episode of Law and Order.”

Gregor wanted to say that everybody’s life ran like an episode of Law & Order these days, because there were so many episodes of Law & Order that they must have covered the known universe of contemporary American situations by now. He hung up the phone instead and called Rhonda Alvarez. He had her cell phone number now. She picked up immediately.

“I’m glad you called,” she said. “I ran those numbers you gave me.”

“And?”

“Absolutely right, Atlantic City. We’ve got an address. Are you going to want somebody to go over there?”

“Yes, of course.”

“You’re going to have to get local cooperation for that,” Rhonda said. “I mean, officially, we’re not actually in this at the moment, if you know what I mean. There are problems with jurisdiction. But we get along with the cops around here. I could talk to them beforehand.”

“I’d appreciate it,” Gregor said. “Can you do me one more favor? Can you text message from that phone?”

“Sure.”

“Send me a text with the names and numbers of the people we have to contact,” he said. It’ll be easier that way. I can just put the phone down on a desk somewhere and let them have at it. I’m in a moving car at the moment. Writing things down would be difficult.”

“All right, I can do that.”

“Thank you,” Gregor said. “I’ll talk to you later. We seem to be coming up on our destination. Or something.”

“Right,” Rhonda Alvarez said.

The phone went dead in Gregor’s ear. He closed it up and put it in his pocket. They were curving around to the parking lot now. Howard Androcoelho was waiting for him by the back door, shifting nervously from foot to foot. There was a middle-aged woman with him, looking angry.

2

The middle-aged woman turned out to be Marianne Glew. Marianne Glew turned out to be one of those women who smile too much, too often, and with too little reason. Gregor gave her as much of a smile as he could manage, and let himself drift through her opening monologue.

“Mr. Demarkian!” she said. “I should have met you before now. I should have had Howard bring you to my office as soon as you got here. I didn’t think. There’s been so much going on. And not just in the police department. I don’t have to tell you, I’m sure. A town like this is a gigantic time suck. It really is. There’s no end to the kind of things we have to do just to keep going. And of course, the public is the public. It wants lots of services and low taxes at the same time, and if it doesn’t get them it never stops complaining. It’s quite a balancing act. We were so glad you were able to come in and help us out. Of course, I always knew nobody had murdered Chester Morton—not then, at any rate—but you know what people are like. Charlene wouldn’t give up. Maybe I wouldn’t, either, if I were somebody’s mother. At any rate, you’re here. That’s the thing. And we’re very glad to have you!”

Somewhere down the block, there were wind chimes. Gregor could hear them as the wind blew. It was too hot for this time of year. Gregor was tired.

“Well?” Marianne Glew said.

“Mr. Demarkian wants to look at some of the evidence we’ve collected,” Howard Androcoelho said. “He wants to look at the backpack. I don’t know if he wants to see the skeleton of the baby, but I’ve told him we don’t have it. Not here in the station, at any rate. It’s over there at Feldman’s, and they’re not very happy about it. It’s not like a regular body. Nobody’s going to come forward to claim it. They don’t know what they’re going to do with it. And I don’t, either.”

They both looked at him. Gregor took an enormous, deep, cleansing breath and counted to ten in his head.

“I don’t need to see the skeleton,” he said. “Not right away. I want to look at the backpack and the contents of the backpack.”

“Well,” Howard said, “then you come this way. I mean, right through here and down the hall. The other way from the main office. You just come through here.”