I enclosed Danny’s head in a plastic bag and covered him with a sheet while the crew for Channel 7 destroyed the scene because they were ignorant or did not care, or maybe both. The helicopter’s passenger door had been removed, and the cameraman hung out in the night as the light nailed me for the eleven o’clock news. Then the blades began their thunderous retreat.
“Goddainnsonofabitch!” Marino was screaming as he shook his fist after them. “I ought to shoot your ass out of the air!”
Chapter Ten
A car was dispatched there, I zipped body inside a pouch, and when I stood I felt faint.
For an instant I had to steady myself as my face got cold and I could not see.
“The squad can move him,” I told Marino. “Can’t someone get those goddamn television cameras out of here?”
Their bright lights floated like satellites up on the dark street as they waited for us to emerge. He gave me a look because we both knew nobody could do a thing about reporters or what they used to record us. As long as they did not interfere with the scene, they could do as they pleased, especially if they were in helicopters we could not stop or catch.
“You going to transport him yourself?” he asked me.
“No. A squad’s already there,” I said. “And we need some help getting him back up there. Tell them to come on now.
He got on the radio as our flashlights continued to lick over trash and leaves and potholes filled with muddy water.
Then Marino said to me, “I’m going to keep a few guys out here poking around for a while. Unless the perp collected his cartridge case, it’s got to be out here somewhere.”
He looked up the hill. “Problem is, some of those mothers can eject a long way and that goddamn chopper blew stuff all the hell over the place.”
Within minutes, paramedics were coming down with a stretcher, feet crunching broken glass, metal clanging, We waited until they had lifted the body, and I probed the ground where it had been. I stared into the black opening of a tunnel that long ago had been dug into a Mountainside too soft to support it, and I moved closer until I was just inside its mouth. A wall scaled it deep inside, and whitewash on bricks glinted in my light. Rusting railroad spikes protruded from rotting ties covered with mud, and scattered about were old tires and bottles.
“Doc, there’s nothing in there.” Marino was picking his way right behind me. “Shit.”
He almost slipped. “We’ve already looked.”
“Well, obviously, he couldn’t have escaped through here,” I said as my light discovered cobblestones and dead weeds. “And no one could hide in here. And your average person shouldn’t have known about this place, either.”
“Come on.” Marino’s voice was gentle but firm as he touched my arm.
“This wasn’t picked randomly. Not many people around here even know where this is.” My light moved more.
“This was someone who knew exactly what he was doing.”
.. “Doc,” he said as water dripped, “this ain’t safe.”
“I doubt Danny knew about this place. This was premeditated and cold-blooded.” My voice echoed off old, dark walls.
Marino held my arm this time, and I did not resist him.
“You’ve done all you can do here. Let’s go.”
Mud sucked at my boots and oozed over his black military shoes as we followed the rotting railroad bed back out into the night. Together, we climbed up the littered hillside, carefully stepping around blood spilled when Danny’s body had been rolled down the steep slope like garbage. Much of it had been displaced by the helicopter’s violent wind, and that would one day matter if a defense attorney thought it did. I averted my face from the glare of cameras and flashing strobes. Marino and I got out of the way, and we did not talk to anyone.
“I want to see my car,” I said to him as his unit number blared.
“One hundred,” he answered, holding the radio close to his mouth.
“Go ahead, one-seventeen, II the dispatcher said to some body else.