“Except for a little run-in with the boss, I guess I’m fine.”
“Wasn’t about my being here yesterday, was it?” Lou asked.
“No,” Laurie said. “Something I did yesterday afternoon which I suppose I shouldn’t have. But it’s always easy to say that after the fact.”
“I hope you don’t mind my coming back today, but I understand you have a couple more cases like poor Frankie’s. They were found almost in the same spot by the same night security guard. So I was back out at the South Street Sea Port at five in the morning. Wow!” he said, suddenly spotting Laurie’s flask. “Fancy flowers. They weren’t here yesterday.”
“You like them?” she asked.
“Pretty impressive,” Lou said. “They from an admirer?”
Laurie wasn’t sure how to answer. “I guess you’d call him that.”
“Well, that’s nice,” Lou said. He looked down at his hat and straightened the brim. “Anyway, Dr. Washington said he assigned the cases to you, so here I am. Do you mind if I tag along again?”
“Not at all,” Laurie said. “If you think you can take several more autopsies, I’m glad to have you.”
“I’m pretty sure at least one of the deaths is related to Frankie’s,” Lou said, moving forward in his chair. “The name is Bruno Marchese. Same age as Frankie and about the same position in the organization. The reason we know so much so quickly is that his wallet was found on his body, just as Frankie’s was. Obviously whoever killed him wanted the fact of his death to be immediately known, like an advertisement. When it happened with Frankie we thought it had been a lucky accident. When it happens twice, we know it’s deliberate. And it has us worried: something big might be about to happen, like an all-out war between the two organizations. If that’s the case, we’ve got to stop it. A lot of innocent people get killed in any war.”
“Was he killed the same way?” Laurie asked as she went through the folders until she came across Bruno’s.
“Same way,” Lou said. “Gangland-style execution. Shot in the back of the head from close range.”
“And with a small-caliber bullet,” Laurie added as she finished with Bruno’s folder and picked up the phone. She dialed the morgue. When someone answered, she asked for Vinnie.
“Are we together again today?” Laurie asked.
“You’re stuck with me all week,” Vinnie said.
“We got two floaters,” Laurie said. “Bruno Marchese and…” Laurie looked over at Lou. “What’s the name of the other one.”
“We don’t know,” Lou said. “There’s been no ID.”
“No wallet?” Laurie asked.
“Worse than that,” Lou said. “Both the head and the hands are missing. This one they didn’t want us to identify at all.”
“Lovely!” Laurie said sarcastically. “The post will be of limited value without the head.” To Vinnie she said, “I want to be sure Bruno Marchese and the headless man get X-rayed.”
“We’re already working on it,” Vinnie said. “But it’s going to be a while. They’re in line. Busy down here today. There was some kind of gang war up in Harlem last night, so we’re knee deep in gunshot wounds. And by the way, the headless corpse is a woman, not a man. When will you be down here?”
“Shortly,” Laurie said. “Make sure we have a rape-kit for the female.” She hung up and looked over at Lou. “You didn’t tell me one of the floaters was a woman.”
“I didn’t have a chance,” Lou said.
“Well, no matter,” Laurie said. “Unfortunately, the cases you are interested in won’t be first. I’m sorry.”
“No problem,” Lou said. “I like to watch you work.”
Laurie scanned the material in the folder on the headless woman. Then she perused one of the overdose folders. She’d only got as far as the investigator’s report before she reached for the last folder and scanned its investigator’s report. “This is amazing,” she said. She looked up at Lou. “Dr. Washington said these cases were the same as Duncan Andrews. I had no idea he was speaking so literally. What a coincidence.”
“Are they cocaine overdoses?” Lou asked.
“Yes,” Laurie said. “But that’s not what makes them such a coincidence. One’s a banker, the other an editor.”