A Necessary Evil Read Online Free PDF Page A

oftentimes even reckless. It didn't help matters that she had made a pass at Maggie several years ago while they worked their first case together. Throw into the mix the fact that Racine had saved Maggie's mother from committing suicide. But Maggie had repaid that favor by rescuing Racine's father from a serial killer. Theirs was, indeed, a complex relationship. Okay, so maybe Maggie wasn't quite objective when it came to Julia Racine, let alone her job performance.
    "She's dragging her feet on identifying the other two victims," she said anyway.
    "Is that her responsibility or the M. E.'s? Maybe it's him who's dragging his feet? Sounds like you need to give Racine a break."
    Maggie shrugged. She wasn't sure why Gwen wanted her to play nice with Racine all of a sudden. How could Gwen defend a woman she'd never met? "She doesn't play by the rules," Maggie offered as a weak defense and realized her mistake as soon as she saw Gwen's smile.
    "And you do?"
    "Sometimes I bend the rules. Weren't you the one who told me about a dozen years ago that there are no rules in battling evil?"
    "There are always rules," Gwen said, serious again. "Good is held to them, evil is not. Sort of an unfair advantage right from the start."
    Marco chose that moment to deliver the plate of steaming, garlic-scented mushroom caps and small serving plates. "Ladies, enjoy. I'll return in a few minutes."
    Both of them stared at the appetizer even though Maggie had been starving.
    "So what about Stan?" Gwen said and scooped up several of the mushroom caps onto Maggie's plate. She served herself a couple as well, but kept her plate to the side. "Why is he dragging his feet?"
    "From what I understand there was little tissue left." Maggie glanced around the restaurant. The tall wooden booths allowed much privacy, but this was also a regular hangout for high-level politicos. Which meant plenty of eavesdroppers, too. Satisfied that no one was trying to listen to their conversation, Maggie continued, "There were no dental records to match, either. Stan says he wasn't able to do an autopsy, but he also hasn't sent them to a forensic anthropologist."
    "And you're thinking you've got just the forensic anthropologist he could send it to." There was another knowing smile, and Maggie tried to suppress a blush.
    "That's not exactly what I was thinking." She knew Gwen was referring to Adam Bonzado, a professor in West Haven, Connecticut, with whom Maggie had worked the previous year. A professor of forensic anthropology who had made it quite clear he was interested in more than Maggie's bones.
    "Seriously, though," Gwen continued, letting her off without what Maggie had come to expect was Gwen's regular lecture about her nonexistent love life. "What are the chances of using an outside expert like Professor Bonzado? Would Stan be offended?"
    "Actually, I would hope he'd welcome it," she said, slicing off a bite of mushroom. "I've already mentioned the idea to Racine that the other two victims should be handed off to an expert. It's up to her to bring it up with Stan. As soon as I got to the site today, he reminded me that technically this wasn't even his case." Maggie gulped the remainder of her Diet Pepsi and started looking for Marco.
    "What did he mean, it wasn't his case?"
    "Traditionally when a body's been dismembered, or in this case decapitated, whoever has the heart has jurisdiction."
    'That's ridiculous," Gwen said with enough force to make Maggie stop searching for a waiter and get her attention. Evidently she realized her mistake. Gwen sat back and in a much calmer, more controlled voice she said, "It's silly, isn't it? I don't remember such an archaic rule. I mean, what if the rest of the body is never found?"
    "First, Racine needs to check the computer again and see if any torsos have shown up. The killer could be traveling to dump them somewhere else." Maggie watched her friend out of the corner of her eye as she opened the menu and pretended to be interested.