Die Again: A Rizzoli And Isles Novel Part 29

"But you saw his photo yesterday. You said it might be him."

"I was wrong. It's not him." Millie's legs crumpled beneath her and she sank into a chair. "It's not Johnny."

Her answer seemed to suck all the air out of the room. Jane had been so certain they had the killer in their trap. Now, instead of Leopard Man, it appeared they'd caught Bambi. This was her reward for gambling everything on one shaky witness with an unreliable memory.

"Jesus," muttered Jane. "So we're back to nothing."

"Come on, Rizzoli," said Frost. "She was never really sure."

"Marquette's already on my back about the Cape Town trip. Now this."

"What did you expect?" said Millie. She looked up at Jane with sudden anger. "For you, it's just a jigsaw puzzle, and you thought I had the missing piece. What if I don't?"

"Look, we're all tired," said Frost, playing the mediator as always. "I think we should take a deep breath. Maybe get something to eat."

"I did what you asked. I don't know what else I can do for you!" said Millie. "Now I want to go home."

Jane sighed. "Okay. I know it's been a rough day for you. We'll have a patrolman drive you back to Maura's."

"No, I mean home. To Touws River."

"Look, I'm sorry I snapped at you. Tomorrow, we'll review everything again. Maybe there's something-"

"I'm done with this. I miss my family. I'm going home." Millie shoved back the chair and stood, eyes bright with a fierceness Jane hadn't seen in her before. This was the woman who'd survived against all odds in the bush, the woman who'd refused to kneel down and die. "I'm leaving tomorrow."

Jane's cell phone rang. "We can talk about it later."

"There's nothing to talk about. If you won't get me a flight, I'll do it myself. I'm done with this." She walked out of the room.

"Millie, wait," Frost said, following her into the hallway. "Let me get someone to drive you back."

Jane reached for her ringing cell phone and snapped: "Rizzoli."

"Sounds like this is not a good time," said criminalist Erin Volchko.

"As a matter of fact, it's a lousy time. But go ahead. What's up?"

"This may or may not improve your mood. It's about those hair samples you collected from the mounted Bengal tiger. The one in the Gott residence."

"What about them?"

"They're brittle and degraded, with thinning and fusion of the surface cuticle. I suspect that tiger was killed and mounted decades ago, because these hairs show changes due to age and UV radiation. That's a problem."

"Why?"

"The tiger hair pulled from Jodi Underwood's bathrobe showed no signs of degradation. It's fresh."

"You mean, like from a live tiger?" Jane sighed. "Too bad. We just crossed the zoo veterinarian off our list."

"You told me there were two other zoo employees in the Gott residence earlier that day, delivering the snow leopard carca.s.s. Their clothes are probably covered with all sorts of animal hairs. Maybe they shed hairs in the house, and the killer picked it up on his clothes. Tertiary transfer could explain how tiger hair got onto Jodi's bathrobe."

"So we could still be talking about the same killer, both murders."

"Yes. Is that good news or bad?"

"I don't know." Jane hung up with a sigh. I don't have a freaking clue how it all fits together. In frustration she unplugged the video camera from the monitor, coiled up the cables, and shoved everything into the carrying case. She thought about the questions she'd face at tomorrow's case conference, and how to defend her decisions, not to mention her expenses. Crowe would pick at her bones like the vulture he was, and what was she going to say?

At least I got a trip to Cape Town out of it.

She rolled the media cart back to the side of the room where she'd found it and shoved it against the wall. Paused as something on that wall caught her eye. Hanging there were the names and qualifications of the Suffolk Zoo's staff. Dr. Mikovitz, the veterinarians, and the various experts in birds, primates, amphibians, and large mammals. It was Alan Rhodes's curriculum vitae that she focused on.

DR. ALAN T. RHODES.

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE, CURRY COLLEGE. PHD, TUFTS UNIVERSITY.

Natalie Toombs had also attended Curry College.

Alan Rhodes would have been a senior student the year Natalie vanished. She'd left her house to go on a study date with a man named Ted, and was never seen again. Until fourteen years later, when her bones turned up wrapped in a tarp, the ankles bound with orange nylon cord.

Jane dashed out of the conference room and bounded up the stairs to the zoo's administrative offices.

The secretary glanced up with an arched eyebrow as Jane burst into the room. "If you're looking for Dr. Mikovitz, he left for the afternoon."

"Where's Dr. Rhodes?" Jane asked.

"I can give you his cell phone number." The secretary opened her drawer and pulled out the zoo directory. "Just let me look it up."

"No, I want to know where he is. Is he still here at work?"

"Yes. He's probably over at the tiger enclosure. That's where they arranged to meet."

"Meet?"

"That woman from the medical examiner's office. She wanted tiger hair for some study she's doing."

"Oh G.o.d," said Jane. Maura.

"HE'S SUCH A BEAUTY," SAID MAURA, STARING INTO THE ENCLOSURE.

From the other side of the bars, the Bengal tiger stared back, his tail flicking. Camouflaged perfectly, he was almost invisible except for those alert eyes peering through the gra.s.s, and the sinuously waving tail.

"Now, this is a true man-eater," said Alan Rhodes. "There are only a few thousand of them left in the world. We've encroached so deeply into their habitat, it's inevitable they sometimes take a few people down. When you look at this cat, you can see why hunters prize them so much. Not just for the pelt, but for the challenge of defeating such a formidable predator. It's perverse, isn't it? How we humans want to kill the animals we most admire?"

"I'm perfectly happy to admire him from afar."

"Oh, we won't need to get any closer. Like any cat, he sheds plenty of hair." He looked at her. "So why do you need it?"

"It's for forensic a.n.a.lysis. The lab needs a sample of Bengal tiger hair, and I just happened to know someone with access to it. Thank you for this, by the way."

"Is this for a criminal case? It's not something to do with Greg Oberlin, is it?"

"I'm sorry, but I can't talk about it. You understand."

"Of course. The curiosity's killing me, but you have a job to do. So let's go around to the staff entrance. You should be able to find hair in his night cage. Unless you were expecting to pluck it straight off his back. In which case, Doc, you are on your own."

She laughed. "No, hair that's recently been shed will be fine."

"That's a relief, because you definitely don't want to go near this fellow. He's five hundred pounds of muscle and teeth."

Rhodes led her down a path marked STAFF ONLY. Hidden from the public eye by thick plantings, the employee walkway cut like a canyon between the walls of the neighboring tiger and cougar enclosures. Those walls blocked any view of the animals, but Maura could almost feel their power radiating through the concrete, and she wondered if the cats could sense her presence as well. Wondered if they were even now tracking her progress. Though Rhodes seemed perfectly at ease, she kept glancing up at the walls, half expecting to see a pair of yellow eyes peering down at her.

They reached the rear entrance to the tiger enclosure, and Rhodes unlocked the gate. "I can bring you through, into the night cage. Or you can wait out here and I'll collect the hair samples for you."

"I need to do this myself. It's for chain of custody."

He stepped inside the enclosure and unlatched the inner gate to the night room. "All yours. The cage hasn't been cleaned yet, so you should find plenty of hair. I'll wait outside."

Maura entered the night cage. It was an indoor s.p.a.ce, about twelve feet square, with a built-in waterer and a concrete ledge for sleeping. A tree log in the corner bore savage gashes where the animal had sharpened his claws, a stark reminder of the tiger's power. Crouching over the log, she remembered the parallel lacerations on Leon Gott's body, so similar to these. A tuft of animal hair clung to the log, and she reached into her pocket for tweezers and evidence bags.

Her cell phone rang.

She let the call go to voice mail and focused on her task. She plucked the first sample, sealed it, and scanned the room. Spotted more hairs on the concrete sleeping ledge.

The phone rang again.

Even as she collected the second sample, the phone kept ringing, shrill and urgent, refusing to be ignored. She sealed the hair in a separate bag and reached for her cell phone. She'd barely managed to say "h.e.l.lo" when Jane's voice cut in.

"Where are you?"

"I'm collecting tiger hair."

"Is Dr. Rhodes with you?"

"He's waiting right outside the cage. Do you need to talk to him?"

"No. Listen to me. I need you to get away from him."

"What? Why?"

"Stay calm, stay friendly. Don't let him know there's anything wrong."

"What's going on?"

"I'm heading your way now, and I've called the rest of the team to meet us. We'll be there in a few minutes, tops. Just get away from Rhodes."

"Jane-"

"Do it, Maura!"

"Okay. Okay." She took a deep breath, but it did nothing to calm her. As she ended the call, her hands were unsteady. She looked down at the evidence bag she was holding. She thought of Jodi Underwood and the strand of tiger hair clinging to her blue robe. Hair that was transferred from her attacker. An attacker who worked with big cats, who knew how they hunted and how they killed.

"Dr. Isles? Is everything all right?"

Rhodes's voice was shockingly close. He'd moved so quietly into the night cage that she hadn't realized he was standing right behind her. Close enough to have heard her conversation with Jane. Close enough to see that her hands were trembling as she slid the phone back in her pocket.

"Everything's fine." She managed a smile. "I'm all through here."

He stared at her so intently that she could feel his gaze penetrating her skull, tunneling into her brain. She made a move to leave, but he stood firmly planted between her and the cage door, and she could not squeeze past him.

"I have what I need," she said.

"Are you sure?"

"If you'll excuse me, I'd like to leave now."

For a moment he seemed to be weighing his options. Then he stepped aside and she slipped past, close enough for their shoulders to brush. Surely he could smell the fear on her skin. She didn't meet his eyes, didn't dare glance back as she exited the enclosure. She just kept walking down the employee pathway, her heart leaping in her throat. Was he following her? Was he even now closing in?

"Maura!" It was Jane, calling from somewhere beyond the screen of shrubbery. "Where are you?"

She took off running toward that voice. Pushed through a tangle of bushes into the open, and saw Jane and Frost, flanked by police officers. All their weapons simultaneously rose and Maura halted as half a dozen barrels pointed straight at her.

"Maura, don't move!" Jane commanded.

"What the h.e.l.l are you doing?"

"Come toward me. Slowly. Don't. Run."

They still had their guns pointed in her direction, but their gazes weren't focused on her. They were staring at something behind her. Every hair instantly stood up on her neck.

She turned and looked straight into amber eyes. For a few heartbeats she and the tiger regarded each other, predator and prey, locked in a stare. Then Maura realized she was not the only one facing him. Jane had stepped forward, was even now moving past her, to place herself between Maura and the tiger.

Confused by this new aggressor, the animal took a step back.

"Do it, Oberlin!" yelled Jane. "Do it now!"

There was a sharp pop. The tiger flinched as the tranquilizer dart pierced his shoulder. He didn't retreat but stood his ground, eyes fixed on Jane.

"Hit him again!" ordered Jane.

"No," said Oberlin. "I don't want to kill him! Give the drug time to work."

The tiger sagged sideways, caught himself. Began to stagger in a drunken circle.

"There, he's going down!" said Oberlin. "A few more seconds and he'll-" Oberlin stopped as screams erupted from the public pathway. People sprinted past, scattering in panic.

"Cougar!" came a shriek. "The cougar's out!"

"What the f.u.c.k is going on?" said Jane.