Page 16 of Unbearable
“Looking forward to it.” She let the door swish closed behind her as she walked back out into the hallway. If she hurried, she would have time to catch the other detective, catch up with Danny, and grab a sandwich before she had to be back. She shook her head to clear her mind. The dead had no auras surrounding them anymore. All she saw was gray space.
Sean, however, glowed with the most beautiful blue-green light. It reminded her of the aurora borealis she saw pictures of in books. It made her want to pack her bag and fly to Norway every time. She could just imagine gazing up at him from her bed, the glow surrounding them. She shook her head again. Back to the murder.
“Bianchi!” she said, walking into the detective’s office twenty minutes later.
“How you doing, girly?” he responded. Dominic Bianchi had to be pushing sixty if he was a day. Word around the office was that he could have risen all the way to the top, except he liked what he did. His father and grandfather had been detectives in the Boston PD It was in his blood. “What can I do for you?”
“Sean Ryan at the ME’s office was telling me you caught a murder with some similarities to one I pulled today. Had a medallion around his neck? A religious one?”
“A St. Matthew medal,” he answered. “You should go to church more. Learn your saints.”
“My parents were Protestants, so it wouldn’t do any good. What can you tell me about your victim?”
“Let’s see.” He pulled a folder off a stack on his desk and flipped it open. “Name was George Goodwin from Buffalo, New York. In town on business. Worked for a bank. Mid-thirties, fit, middle class, white.”
“No leads on the suspect?”
“Not yet. Still looking, but I’m not feeling confident we’ll find who did it.”
“Can I get a copy of what you have?”
“Yeah, I’ll send it over to you.”
“Perfect, thanks, Bianchi.”
“No problem. Let me know if you find anything I missed.”
“I doubt that,” she said, leaving his office. She found Danny sitting at his desk in their office down the hall. “You’re back early.”
“Nobody saw anything. The custodian managed to get the scene locked down before most of the kids got there. He and the principal checked that the guy was dead, locked down the field, and called us. No one recognized him from his photo,” he answered. “I was just typing up my notes.”
“I might have something.”
Danny stopped typing and turned to face her. They shared an office large enough for both desks, a filing cabinet, and a large whiteboard. It wasn’t spacious, but it worked. “ME’s office called. They found a St. Francis medal hanging around his neck. It’s like our first guy, only his was a St. Bernadette. It also seems Bianchi had a case that was similar about a month ago. He’s sending it over.” She sat at her desk and checked her email.
“Christ. I thought two were bad, but now you’re saying there are at least three? You think there might be even more?” he asked.
“Don’t know yet. Seems worth a look though.” She printed a picture of the medal from the other crime scene and taped it to the whiteboard.
“Their vic have a name?”
“Yeah.” She leaned back over her desk and printed out a photo. Taping it to the board, she wrote the name “George Goodwin.” “It might be nothing, but I thought I’d check.”
Returning to her desk, she downloaded the preliminary medical examiner’s report. She printed a picture of their victim and added it to the board. Under it, she wrote “John Doe.” At least they had been able to identify the first victim, Trent Alleman.
“We need to find out who this guy is,” Danny said. He returned to typing his notes but paused. “By the way, how didyou score an autopsy this fast? It usually takes a day or two of waiting.”
“I guess Sean thought it was a high priority.”
“Uh-huh.” He smirked before turning back to his computer. She ignored the implication and the fact that her face grew hot. Instead, she started pouring over missing person reports. Someone had to be missing him.
CHAPTER 6
Dover was flippingthrough shows on her television that evening when her phone buzzed. Pulling up an app, she stared at the face at the other end of the line.
She debated ignoring him for a few minutes before he scowled at the small camera next to the exterior door of her apartment building. She doubted ignoring him would in any way deter him from coming upstairs, so she pressed the button to unlock the door.
“I brought food,” he said a few minutes later when she opened her door.