Tuesday 2nd December
The Parking Lot, Bellevue Hospital, Fifth Avenue
There was no sign of Eames at their SUV and Goren supposed he could have gone back inside and still not found her. So he resisted the temptation to call her cell, got the downwind side of the vehicle and stayed the one place she would come back to. Though with the snow starting to fall more heavily, it would not be long before he reached for his phone.
It was probably no more than three or four minutes before he saw her come around the corner of the building, the amount of snow on her coat and woolly hat telling him she had been mostly outside. He did not move from the driver's side door.
"I'm sorry Alex" he said. "I lost focus there a while. Allowed my fascination with literary parallel to get the better of me."
"It's not that" she replied not looking at him. "Stomach upset this morning. Needed some air"
He ducked round to see her face "You've been crying".
Goren had only seen that perhaps three times in all the years they knew each other. And he was sure he was right.
"It's the wind" she said knowing it was like telling that to a human lie detector and trying to get away with it.
"Want to try that answer again?"
"No because if I say yes you'll want to know why"
"Not if you don't want to tell me Alex" he said gently.
She scuffed the snow with her foot "Yes okay I've been crying"
"You want to go home? To the docs?"
"No"
"Want me to drive?"
"Are you kidding me?" she muttered.
He stepped aside, went around the other side of the car and got in.
Eames removed her hat and gave it a shake off before starting the engine and giving the wipers and fan a little time to clear the screen. Goren was waiting for her to speak first.
"So do you think there might have been some hate factor behind the choice of dump site?"
"Don't know what to think right now" he pulled off his gloves.
If that was the way his partner decided she wanted to go right now, that's the way he would follow.
"Antony Brown either killed Ann Lessiter or was set up to look like he did. By the other man"
Eames eased the SUV out of its slot. "The blood on the axe was hers and I did some rough calculation last evening. If she was lured to meet with Brown on Thanksgiving he could have killed her down in Red Hook…say by ten thirty? Gone back up to the Bronx to ditch the axe and still been at that burger place…by what time on the register slip Goren?"
"Twelve fifty" he said opening his folder to the bag. "Meets with the second man who might have killed him and dumps him consistent with two pm. And on a holiday there's not the business and commercial traffic on the roads to slow you down. Be helpful if his car turned up"
"If it does it will burned out somewhere I bet" said Eames. "And he may not have used his own. Could have stolen cars in advance. Had one waiting down in Red Hook to make his getaway in. Had a case in Vice like that one time. We were sure a pimp killed a business rival and dumped him on the Staten landfill. His car came up clean but later, just chance, matching blood turned up in another reported stolen and later found abandoned"
"You get him?"
"Only because one of his girls turned him in"
Goren doodled a moment. "What do you think about the idea of us going fully public on this whole thing? Brief on the idea of a Shakespeare obsessed serial?"
Her head whipped round "I think we'll need to cancel all police leave from now until New Year to cope with the response. It will be chaos! I'm surprised to hear you say that Goren"
He sighed. "Unless we can find the key to this or get a really lucky break, a piece of dumb luck there's bound to be pressure to do that. Maybe even at this meeting Ross has called this afternoon"
"We'll have every woman called Juliet in the city scared to open her front door" muttered Eames. "And I can't think of other examples right now, but there must be plenty"
"So that's a no?"
"Call it a hope not"
Major Case Squad Room
When they returned there were several clues that perhaps the decision Goren spoke of had already been made. Or at very least, some early preparations were in hand to allow for it. Just inside the main Squad Room door were two large boxes containing spare telephones ready to be plugged in. One of those annoying people from Personnel made up the rules on what size desk you could have, was in Ross' office with someone from Buildings Maintenance and what looked like a floor plan.
Possible she was checking they didn't have four drawer file cabinets where they were only supposed to have ones with three, but everyone doubted that. It looked more like they were calculating how many extra desks they could legally or physically squeeze into the room. And in the two side rooms Ross fought regularly to keep as work and informal meeting space, someone from the IT section seemed to be running a check on the network cabling to permit more terminals to be installed.
It had all the signs of them gearing up for a temporary expansion of the Squad to handle a major incident, with the help of officers who would be drafted in from all over 1PP and perhaps beyond. Availability more than experience and ability often the qualifying factors for them. The public reaction, possible panic and the media scrimmage Eames spoke of were just some aspects of what made that situation hell. The other, for Captain Ross especially, would be trying to lash together the permanent staffing with a bunch of strangers, some of whom would need directions to the rest rooms.
Little wonder a few faces were rolling their eyes when they returned and according to Faith Dempsey one "rumour" was that were going to run with the idea of a crazed academic or failed drama student.
"Eames?" Goren said as they sat down. "Would you mind if I gave this a bit longer? I thought I'd chase up the precincts and Squads did not even send a positive 'no' on similar cases"
"Sure" she said "Hand me over your messages relating to other things. I'll see if I can bat those off too"
"Thanks" he said reaching for his phone as Logan and Wheeler returned.
"Oh great" Mike hissed. "Looks like we may be about to become call centre central"
"Perhaps it's so we can take orders for Santa?" said Megan. "Don't bother calling Mike. I know for a fact you've been a bad boy this year"
"I've been very good being bad though" he winked.
"So you would like us to think" snorted Eames. "You just come back from seeing the Lessiter's?"
Logan nodded. "I suppose you could call them and the Olsson's the lucky ones. Looks like we know who killed Ann, even if it is more complicated than that. And of course there are…let's say features of Antony Brown gave that father some satisfaction"
"You really don't like him Mike do you?" said Goren who had read his report from Friday.
"Neither do I" said Wheeler with a shrug. "Now I met him. Domineering, bullying sort…way he more or less ordered his wife around…like she was a servant to get us a coffee. And you could see the Olsson's were uncomfortable"
"How's the husband holding up?"
"Hard to say Alex" replied Mike. "Doing as his old man tells him it feels to me. Hardly saw him without Bernie there though I guess that's normal. Anyway we'll leave you to it. I can see Bobby's dying to get hold of his phone, even if Christmas did come early for him this year"
He leaned over and hissed "And if you decide you don't want your present after all, send her over to me. I'll provide the stockings"
"You're disgusting Logan" said Eames. "Take him away Megan"
"My pleasure"
She gave Logan a shove in the direction of their desks. Goren picked up his phone saying nothing but suspecting Logan might change his mind on that if he realised Caro would arrive with a little "surprise package" of her own. Of their own.
Fifteen minutes later he was into his sixth call and well aware of Eames keep checking her watch. Nor did he miss her a while later, slip her cell into her pocket and leave the room. For some place to make or take a private call. It was half an hour before she returned and he was sure she had been crying again. Goren said nothing. There were too many things today leaving him unsure where to go next.
To be continued…