Likely to Die Read Online Free PDF Page A

batting this around until we’ve got more specifics. Not just about this stuff, but the whole situation. The Chief’s setting this investigation up as a task force. He’s gonna give me detectives from a few other commands to work with the Squad; Mercer and some more guys from Special Victims because of the sexual assault angle.”
     “Where’s our base gonna be?” Mercer asked.
     “We’ll handle it out of an office in the 17th Precinct. Chapman, you’ll be going to the autopsy and dealing with the medical examiner, right?”
     Mike nodded and lifted his pad again to take some notes.
     “I also want you to sit down with someone from hospital administration. Get a complete breakdown and description of every one of these buildings—how they’re connected, what the access is, where every door and lock and guard is supposed to be, and where they actually are. I want a list of every employee in the medical center—doctors, nurses, students, technicians, messengers, bedpan cleaners. Every patient, ambulatory or not. Every name from that nuthouse psychiatric hospital next door—and I don’t want to hear any crap about ‘privileged information.’ They cooperate or they’ll all be in straitjackets by the time I get done with them.”
     Mercer also had his pen poised ready for his assignment.
     “Wallace, you start with the personal side. Find the ex, interview her neighbors and colleagues, get a picture of her habits and hangouts. Zotos will do this part of it with you. We need a location check—every other crime that’s occurred on premises here—and then move on to every other hospital in this city.”
     “Done, boss.”
     “After that, check with medical centers in Philly and Washington and Boston—see if anything like this has happened anyplace else. I’ll get somebody to supervise the garbage detail, and I’ll set up the tips hotline this afternoon. Alex, have your people check all your records for anything with a similar M.O. or connected to a medical setting.”
     “We’ll start on it right away. I’d also like to have a look at Dr. Dogen’s apartment if I can. I don’t mean for evidence—Mercer can do that. But when he’s finished, I’d like to go back with him once. It always helps me to get to know the victim, to get a sense of her life.” In murder cases, unlike rapes, there was no survivor for me to work with, no way to get inside the spirit that was destroyed by death. And if there was no family member to entrust that being, that life, to me for the purpose of the investigation there was no other way to come to know it.
     “No problem, boss. I’ll have the apartment processed today, then we can go back with Cooper whenever she’d like.”
     “Okay, Mercer. But be sure and have it sealed up—I don’t want any relatives or friends taking anything out of there until we know the lay of the land.”
     “What do you say we all meet at the end of the day and see what we got?” Chapman asked of Peterson.
     “Exactly. Be back at the 17th Precinct station house at seven o’clock. I’m sure the Chief will want a briefing on the situation, so come prepared. You, too, Alex.”
     I thanked him again and followed Mike around the perimeter of the soiled carpet toward the door. As I looked down to avoid stepping on Gemma’s deadly trail, my eye caught on a thick blotch of deep red color that almost looked like an intentional design set against the pale blue dhurrie. It was even and clear, quite a contrast to the ragged discoloration that marked the rest of the deceased’s path from the point at which the assault had started.
     “What do you think that is, Mercer?” I asked over my shoulder since he was still behind me.
     “What is?”
     “That mark on the floor, in the blood?”
     “Don’t go seeing ghosts on me, Coop. It’s just blood.”
     Mike had turned to look down, too, and both were bending over the spot I had focused on. “It looks like a cattle brand. Maybe