“According to Dr.Baxter, for the adipocere to form, her body would need to be placed in ideal conditions no later than mid-June.”
“And when was Wagner last seen alive?”
“June 12.”Larkin pinned the photo of Wagner’s face to the board.Her third eye was stark against the pallor of her greasy skin.“To use an idiom suitable for a killer nurse,” he began, “I believe she got a taste of her own medicine.”He picked up his mug and took a sip of the now-lukewarm coffee.“Autopsy report is pending.If Dr.Baxter was serious about my cases having priority, perhaps we’ll hear from him come morning.Until then, I can’t be sure of the caliber bullet or tool used for dismemberment.”
“This is going to be exactly like the Niederman case,” Doyle said.
“Not exactly.We already know the victim.”
“I mean, it’s going to be difficult to muster giving a shit, you know?”Doyle’s brows were drawn together.“Wagner murdered a lot of innocent women, including a teenage girl.”
“Her victims deserve justice and remembrance in a court of law,” Larkin added, while motioning to the photo of the dismembered body, “I suspect Matilde Wagner ended up like a game of Operation gone wrong to keep her from talking about the relationship she had with Adam Worth.Because of Sal Costa’s admission, we know she was in business with him.”
“You think the sender offed Wagner?”
“Not him, specifically.Remember the ants and the aphids,” Larkin said.“Worth makes his clients’ crimes a reality, but when the relationship is no longer beneficial, he uses what they’ve done as blackmail, turning a mutualistic relationship parasitic.Earl Wagner murdered Charlie Stolle.Matilde murdered Earl.”
“Worth pits them against each other?”
“Yes.He’s hands-off—always.”
Doyle sipped his coffee, thoughtful.“I guess that logic applies to Alfred Niederman as well.Worth egged Noel Hernandez into a physical confrontation.It was only bad luck that Megan York got involved.”He leaned in to more closely study the photographs, rubbing the stubble on his chin with his index and pointer fingers.
“What,” Larkin asked.
Doyle tapped the image of the fridge door.“What if Worth does the same thing with the messages?Stolle admitted to having written that ridiculous fax, as well as the note on the back of the postmortem photograph, but that still leaves the VHS tape from last month, which I don’t think he’s responsible for.”
“Why don’t you think so.”
“Because there’s only so much one person can do to alter their penmanship, and we saw that his technique for doing so was using his nondominant hand.”
Larkin turned to the bulletin board and considered.“Worth blackmails his clients, they write the correspondence, which muddies the waters and keeps his own penmanship a mystery, thereby rendering it an unreliable clue.”
“Worth is personally responsible for the notes you’ve gotten, though,” Doyle added.“The ones with the cut-out letters.”
“Oh, absolutely,” Larkin agreed without hesitation.He took one more sip of coffee before setting the mug aside.“He can’t resist making it personal.Those letters are his special touch.”
“And unless one of his clients is ambidextrous,” Doyle continued, “I’d say we’re looking at two different people for the VHS tape andthis.”He tapped the photo of the fridge a second time.
“That’s always a possibility,” Larkin said.“I’m ambidextrous and my lefthanded penmanship is distinctly unique from my right.”
“How many people are truly ambidextrous?”Doyle countered.
“One percent of the human population—around seventy-eight million.Statistically, if we consider the thirteen thousand criminals convicted of violent felonies in New York City last year, one hundred and thirty of them are likely to be ambidextrous.”
“That’s very impressive,” Doyle said.“But do you believe it?”
“It’s mathematics, not ideology.But I understand your point.”Even though the bullpen was empty, the building was not, and Larkin found himself double-checking the open door of the Fuck It before saying, quieter, “We both know, whether my lieutenant wants to believe it or not, that Worth has a connection to law enforcement—Detective Stolle was proof of that.And if prison bars won’t stop him, Sal Costa and Harry Regmore might be involved in a limited capacity.”
“It’s like going after a hydra….”
Larkin nodded before tacking another photo to the board.“This is where you come in.I believe the message ‘Pin me to Detective Larkin’ is in direct reference to a brooch we found inside Wagner’s mouth—pierced through her tongue, to be exact.To me, it looks like costume jewelry, but this many cases in, it would be remiss to make such an assumption.”
Doyle was shaking his head as Larkin spoke.“Not costume,” he confirmed.“That’s mourning jewelry—hair jewelry, to be specific.The braided lock would have belonged to the deceased and the brooch would’ve been worn by the mourner—typically a family member.This was probably designed for a mother, wife, maybe a sister.”
“Interesting,” Larkin murmured, still staring at the photograph.
“It probably belonged to a parure,” Doyle continued thoughtfully.“In nineteenth-century Western mourning, jewelry sets for a woman of means would have also included a pair of earrings, necklace, and bracelet.Do you have any photos of the back side?”
