"D'you know of any problems she might've been having? Any people she was having issues with?"
The actual investigation, so to speak, had finally begun. Nina and Ed now found themselves standing in front of a nurse's station at a hospital in the Bronx, inquiring after Samantha Glass. The nurse behind the station sighed.
"She had an issue with a lot of the parents, but it was understandable, especially to her," she replied. "Pediatric oncology. Cancer, you know. No one wanted to believe it was happening to them."
"Any threats?" Nina asked. The nurse shook her head.
"None that I knew of," she said. "Dr. Glass wasn't one who liked to share her personal life. She'd have tried to handle it on her own."
"Is there anything else you might be able to tell us?" Ed asked. The nurse sighed again.
"That case she testified in a while back," she said. "Dr. Glass never said anything, but you could tell she was upset about that so-called doctor being acquitted. It took her a while to get back to normal."
"Thanks," said Nina, "We'll let you know if we need anything else."
The nurse turned back to her work and Nina turned to her partner as they walked off.
"That makes one of them," she said. "Garrett and Marshall had no problems with the acquittals they were involved in, but Glass did."
"The case she was involved in, another doctor got acquitted; same field as she was. Mercy killings, or so he said. Got him off, in any case. Whole city was pissed," said Ed.
"I wonder why," Nina said dryly, "Pediatric oncology; idiot was killing kids. How stupid was that jury?"
"Couldn't tell you," Ed replied. "Wouldn't be surprised if he was our next victim, though."
Nina snorted. "Well, there's a fine thing for a Homicide cop to say."
"Doctors are supposed to help people, not kill 'em. I'm hardly the only one that wouldn't care."
"Well, let's look at what we've got, then. Three victims, three cases, three acquittals. A defense attorney who was getting threats, a psychiatrist whacked out of nowhere, and a doctor who'd have tried to handle it on her own."
"There's New York for you, then. CSU didn't find anything that would give us anything to get a face to tie to all this."
"I get the feeling that whoever's behind this planned it like that until he's ready to give it all up.'
"Or set it all up."
"We still looking at the McCoy theory?"
"Until something tells us otherwise. Can't rule anyone out."
"Let's go see what Mr. Marshall's colleagues have to say about him, then."
They did. His office had already been emptied out by his family, but his colleagues were still there. Ironically enough, he had been in the office located next to Anna Flynn's. Kaye watched the two detectives as they looked through what was left, and shook her head.
"Well, he was determined; I'll give him that," she said. "Liked to take on high profile stuff. Cop killings and such."
"The case he took on against McCoy," said Nina, "Was it a cop killing?"
Kaye nodded. "It was. He was pretty cheerful about getting an acquittal on that one. I never got the impression he liked cops much, but there you have it. Jack, on the other hand…"
"We know," said Ed. "Believe me, we know. You know anything about the threats he was getting?"
"They came from all over," said Kaye, frowning. "I had him give the written ones to me so that I could keep 'em on file. They're in my office."
"Would you mind letting us see them?" Nina asked.
"I'll get them. If you'll wait here…" said Kaye. Both detectives nodded and she walked off.
"What d'you think the odds are that we'll find one from the DA's office?" Nina asked.
"I don't want to know," said Ed. The door opened again, and in walked Kaye with a box.
"They're all here," she said. "I'll leave you to look at them."
And she did. Nina sat on the edge of the desk and pulled out a bunch of envelopes.
"Might as well get started…" She trailed off and then sat one of the envelopes in front of Ed. "Look what we have here."
He'd debated on whether or not to take Kaye's advice, had decided to, and had, at the last moment, changed his mind, and hung up. Now, two days later, he wished he hadn't. This latest case was bothering him. And it wasn't only because he was up against Danielle Melnick, either. No…that wasn't it at all.
"Have we found anything that might break the alibi Victors gave us?" he asked, finally breaking the silence that had lingered over the office for most of the time that he and Connie had been in there. She looked up and shook her head.
"Not so far," she said. "Everyone's statements seem to back him up. Someone's got to be lying."
"Unless the evidence was planted as was claimed," Jack said dryly. Connie rolled her eyes.
"I doubt it," she said. "Someone's lying. Look at this." She moved so that he could see what she was looking at and went on. "They don't match. They back Victors up, but they don't match."
"He was with me at my place, hanging out; he was down at the club with me," Jack read, unable to keep a sarcastic note out of his voice. "Lovely. Now who's lying?"
"They both are," Connie replied simply. "If they'd gotten together, they'd have had the story straight, but they didn't."
"Which means that they either don't know where he really was, or they were there with him and they're trying to save their own asses."
"Aren't you an optimist?"
"I'll be an optimist when this case is over. Right now, I'll settle for matter of fact."
"Of course you will. I'll get Green and Cassady to talk to them again."
"Thanks."
Connie rose to her feet and moved to leave the office. "Anything else you need while I'm at it?"
"No. Not at the moment, anyway. I'll let you know if anything comes up."
"Well, I'll be back later, then."
And then she was gone. The door closed behind her, and there was silence. Jack almost wished that she'd stayed, but at the same time, he was almost thankful for the silence. He wondered if he'd completely blown any chance of talking to Anna at all by not taking Kaye's advice. He decided he hadn't. Looking down a the remaining stuff spread out over his desk, he sighed. It was going to be a long day.
She'd been staring at her phone for the past two days. He'd called. She knew it because she'd been holding her cell phone when he had. It had rung twice before she realized it, and then stopped. And she knew he'd hung up because she had it set so that it rang four times before going to voicemail. It had upset her more than she'd thought it would.
"Staring isn't gonna make it ring, hon," Tallulah remarked. "You sure you don't want to come?"
Anna nodded, but didn't look away from her phone. Tallulah sighed and sat down across from her.
"You meant to talk to him this time, didn't you?" she asked quietly. Anna nodded again, wordlessly. Silence reigned between the two siblings for a long moment before she spoke
"I didn't think it would upset me like this," she admitted. 'Before, I didn't care, but now…"
"Now that you've been avoiding him for a while, you mean? Anna…" Tallulah trailed off and shook her head. "I hate to say I told you so, but…"
Anna rolled her eyes. "I get it," she said. "This is what happens when I play hard to get a hold of."
"Well, yes, and no. You can't tell me that you didn't think he'd give up on you sooner or later."
"I didn't think it would be this soon. You don't know him like I do; he's more stubborn than I am."
"That's definitely saying something."
"You're not helping."
"Well, I'm not trying to help. I'm trying to talk some sense into you, but apparently, that's not going to work."
"I just want him to call again. I swear on everything here that I'll actually answer this time, if the damn phone will just ring…"
"It goes both ways, squirt. Either he calls you, or you call him. I'm sure you have his phone numbers."
"Do you have any idea how awkward that sounds?"
"Oh, get over it."
"Mom! Dad wants to know if you're coming, and if you are, he says hurry up already!"
Tallulah made a face. "My child calls," she said, rising to her feet. "We'll be back in a few hours."
Anna nodded, without saying anything, and turned back to her phone. Tallulah disappeared from view, and the garage door slammed behind her. Anna continued to stare at the phone, for a long moment, before finally reaching for it.
Flipping it open, she hit what had become the first number on her speed dial.