Kovacliska - Ashes To Ashes Part 42

"Dammit, John, I wanted to knock him on his a.s.s," Kate said.

"Then I probably just saved your job for you."

The sudden possibility that her career might indeed be in danger struck

Kate belatedly. G.o.d, why wouldn't Rob fire her? He was right: She'dnever given him more than the barest requirement of respect.

Never mind that he hadn't earned it. He was her boss.

She watched him as he stood near the ambulance with a mittened hand over his mouth. The crew was preparing to put the body in a bag.

When he came back, his face looked both waxy and flushed.

"That's-that's-horrific," he said, breathing heavily through his mouth.

He pulled off his gla.s.ses and wiped his face with a mitten.

"Incredible." He swallowed a couple of times and shifted his weight from

one foot to the other. "That smell .. ."

"Maybe you should sit down," Kate suggested.

Rob partially unzipped his coat and tugged down on the bottom.

His gaze was still on the ambulance. "Incredible .. . horrible .. ."

The search helicopter swept near, blades pounding the air like the wingsof a giant hummingbird.

"He's challenging us, isn't he? The Cremator," he said, looking toQuinn. "Taking the girl. Doing this here, where the meeting was held."

"Yes. He wants to make us look like fools while he makes himself look invincible."

"I'd say he's doing a d.a.m.n good job of it," Rob said, staring across theway as the paramedics loaded the corpse into the ambulance.

"Anybody can look like a genius if they have all the answers ahead oftime," Quinn said. "He'll screw up eventually. They all do. The trick isto get it to happen sooner rather than later. And to get him by theb.a.l.l.s the instant he stumbles."

"I'd like to be around to see that happen." Rob wiped his face again andadjusted the parka. "I'll go call Sabin," he said to Kate.

"While we still work for him." Kate said nothing. Her silence hadnothing to do with the county attorney or the suddenly precariousdisposition of her job.

"Let's go find Kovac," she said to Quinn. "See if they've found thedriver's license yet."

KOVAC STOOD ARGUING jurisdiction with an African American woman in adark parka with ARSON printed across the back. The car, smallish andred, was the centerpiece in a ring of portable lights.

The fire had gutted it and blown out the windshield. The driver's doorhung open, twisted by the tools the rescue squad had used to wrench itfree. The interior was a mess of ash, melted plastic, and dripping foamfire r.e.t.a.r.dant. The driver's seat had been eaten away, the flamesleaving nothing but a carca.s.s of distorted springs.

"It's an arson, Sergeant," the woman insisted. "It's up to my office todetermine the cause."

"It's a homicide, and I could give a s.h.i.t about the cause of the fire,"Kovac returned. "I want B of I in that car to get whatever evidence yourpeople haven't already f.u.c.ked up."

"On behalf of the Minneapolis Fire Department, I apologize for trying toput out a fire and save a life. Maybe we'll get that straight beforesomeone sets your car on fire."

"Marcell, I should be so lucky someone sets that piece of c.r.a.p on fire."

As crime scenes went, this one was a disaster, Kate knew. Called to afire, the firefighters didn't worry about trampling the scene. Their jobwas saving lives, not finding out who might have taken one. And so theyruined car doors and sprayed foam over any trace evidence that mighthave survived inside.

"The thing's already burned to a crisp," Kovac said to the arson investigator. "What's your hurry? Me, I got a flame-throwing fruitloop

running around killing women."

"Maybe this was an accident," Marcell shot back. "Maybe this has nothing to do with your killer and you're standing here arguing with me and wasting our time for nothing."

"Sam, we got the plates back." Elwood waded toward him through the snow.

He waited until he was near enough for confidentiality, even though there was no hope of keeping this news under wraps for long.

"It's a 'ninety-eight Saab registered to Jillian Bondurant."

The arson investigator saluted Kovac and stepped out of his way.

"As p.i.s.sing contests go, Sergeant, you just wrote your name in the snow.

THE BOFI Team swarmed over the burned-out Saab like vultures cleaning an

elephant carca.s.s. Kate sat behind the wheel of Kovac's car and watched, feeling numb and exhausted. The body-whoever she was-had been transported to HCMC. Someone else's corpse had just been knocked to number two on Maggie Stone's itinerary for the day that would soon be dawning.

Quinn opened the pa.s.senger door and climbed in on a cold breath of air.

Snow clung to his dark head like dandruff. He rubbed a gloved hand over it.

"It's pretty clear the fire was set on the driver's side," he said..

"It burned hottest and longest there. The dashboard and steering wheel

are melted. Our two best bets for fingerprints gone."

"He's escalating," Kate said.

"Yes."

:"Changing his MO."

"To make a point."

"He's building toward something."

"Yes. And I'd give everything I have to know what and when."

"And why."

Quinn shook his head. "I don't care why anymore. There, are no valid

reasons. There are only excuses. You know all the contributing factorsas well as I do, but you also know not all kids with abusive parentsgrow up to abuse, and not all kids with emotionally distant mothers growup to kill. At some point in time a choice is made, and once it's made,I don't care why, I just want the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds off the planet."

"And you've appointed yourself responsible for catching them all." "It's a s.h.i.t job, but what else have I got going for me?" He flashed thefamous Quinn smile, worn around the edges now, running on too little sleep and too much stress.

"You don't need to be here now," Kate said, feeling the fatigue and thepressure in every muscle of her body. "They'll fill you in at themorning briefing. You look like you could use a couple hours' sleep."

"Sleep? I gave that up. It was taking the edge off my paranoia."

"Careful with that, John. They'll pull you out of CASKU and stick you inThe X-Files."

"I am better-looking than David Duchovny."

"Far and away."

Funny, she thought, how they fell back into the old patterns of teasing,even now, even after all that had gone on tonight. But then, it wasfamiliar and comforting.

"You don't need to be here either, Kate," he said, going serious.

"Yes, I do. I'm the closest thing Angie Dimarco has to someone who caresabout her. If that body turns out to be hers, the least I can do is missa little sleep to hear the news."

She expected another lecture from Quinn on her lack of culpability, buthe didn't say anything.

"Do you think there's any chance that body is Jillian Bondurant?" sheasked. "That she wasn't victim number three, and she did this toherself?"

"No. Self-immolation is rare, and when it does happen, the personusually wants an audience. Why would Jillian come here in the dead ofnight? What's her connection to this place? Nothing. We'll know forcertain if it's Jillian after the autopsy, seeing as we can comparedental records this time, but I'd say the chances this is her and thefire was self-inflicted are nil."

Kate turned up the corners of her mouth in a pseudo-smile. "Yeah, I knowall that. I was just hoping that corpse might be someone I wasn'tresponsible for."

"I'm the one who called the meeting, Kate. Smokey Joe did this to say"f.u.c.k you, Quinn.' Now I get to wonder what set him off. Should I havebeen harder on him? Should I have tried to pretend I feet sympathy forhim? Should I have stroked his ego and made him out as a genius? Whatdid I do? What didn't I do? Why didn't I know better?

If he was at the meeting, if he was sitting right there in front of me,why didn't I see him?"

"Guess your super X-ray vision that allows you to see what evil lurks inthe hearts of men is on the fritz."

"Along with your ability to foresee the future."

This time the smile was genuine, if sad. "We're a pair."

"Used to be."

Kate stared at him, seeing the man she'd known and loved, and the manthe intervening years had turned him into. He looked tired, haunted. Shewondered if he saw the same in her. It was humbling to admit that heought to. She'd fooled herself into believing she was fine. But that wasall it had been: an act, a ruse. She had fully realized that truth anhour ago as she stood in the warm shelter of his arms. It had been likesuddenly having back a crucial part of herself she had spent yearsrefusing to acknowledge was missing.

"I loved you, Kate," he said softly, his dark gaze holding hers.

"Whatever else you think of me, and of the way things came apart, Iloved you. You can doubt everything else about me. G.o.d knows, I do.

But don't doubt that."

Something fluttered inside Kate. She refused to name it. It couldn't behope. She didn't want to hope for anything with regard to John Quinn.She preferred annoyance, indignation, a dash of anger. But none of thatwas what she really felt, and she knew it, and he would know it as well.He'd always been able to read the slightest shadow that crossed hermind.

"d.a.m.n you, John," she muttered.

Whatever else she might have said was lost as Kovac's face appearedsuddenly at Quinn's window. Kate started and swore, then lowered thewindow from the control panel on the driver's door.

"Hey, kids, no making out," he quipped. "It's after curfew."

"We're trying to save ourselves from hypothermia," Quinn said. "I have atoaster that gives off more warmth than this heater."

"Did you find the DLT' Kate asked.

"No, but we found this." He held up a microca.s.sette tape inside a clearplastic case. "It was on the ground about fifteen feet from the car.It's a pure d.a.m.n miracle one of the firemen didn't squash it.

"It's probably some reporter's notes from the meeting," he said.

"But you never know. Every once in a blue moon we find evidence there isa G.o.d. I've got a player somewhere on the seat there."

"Yeah, that and the Holy Grail," Kate muttered as she dug through thejunk on the seat: reports, magazines, burger wrappers, "Are you livingin this car, Sam? There are shelters for people like you, you know."

She came up with the player and handed it to Quinn. He popped theca.s.sette out and carefully inserted the one Kovac handed him on the endof a ballpoint pen.