‘The Creed transfer is why we came.’
‘I know why we came,’ Ripley said.‘I’m just noting that so far, New Orleans has given me no dinner and average coffee.’
Ella went to respond, but the door knocked and Sergeant Fields leaned in with an apologetic look on his face.He was almost too large for the doorframe.
‘Sorry to interrupt you both.Either of you got a minute?’
‘Sure,’ Ella said.Ripley gestured with her cup.
Fields slid inside.‘We were called to a scene a couple of hours ago.Young woman, alleyway, about three miles from here.The scene’s a little weird, and the body’s still on site.I could use some behavioral eyes on it if you’ve got some time on your hands?’
Ella looked at him.‘How weird are we talking?’
‘The victim was strangled, and she had figurine glued to her hand.
‘A figurine?’Ripley asked.‘What kind of figurine?’
‘A ballet dancer.’
‘And how do you mean – glued?’
‘Exactly that.Some industrial adhesive by the looks of it.We’re not sure yet.’
Ella was already closing the folder.A ballet dancer.Glued to a dead woman’s hand.There was a story in that, and she wanted to know what it was.
‘Yeah,’ she said.‘We’ve got time.’
CHAPTER SIX
The road flashed by as Ella covered the four miles to Natkin Way.Ripley was beside her.They’d borrowed a cruiser because Sergeant Fields had taken other officers with him in his car.
‘Just what I wanted, Dark,’ said Ripley.‘Is one murder investigation not enough for you?’
‘We’re not investigating.We’re just taking a look.It’s not like we’ve got much else to do.’
Ripley laughed.‘I can think of a million other things to do.We could have gone to the cinema.’
‘You still have that option, but you know you want to check this out just as much as I do.’
Ripley didn’t answer, which was answer enough.
Ella turned a corner and spotted Fields’ cruiser two blocks ahead.Beyond it, yellow crime scene tape cut across the mouth of an alleyway, strung between a drainpipe on one side and a dumpster on the other.Two uniformed officers stood at the cordon.A third was further back, talking into his radio and trying to keep five or six onlookers from getting too close.The place, save for the gawpers, was as deserted as it came, with the only sign of life being a factory they’d passed about a hundred yards back.
Ella pulled up behind Fields’ cruiser and killed the engine.She jumped out with Ripley in tow and elbowed through the bodies.Voices babbled and phones were held aloft, but Ella paid them no attention.She hated how the prospect of witnessing a corpse summoned the masses.Everyone wanted a glimpse of someone else’s misery to make their own lives seem brighter by comparison.It never failed to turn her stomach, but she supposed she couldn’t blame them.In a world so often devoid of meaning, people would cling to anything that made them feel something, even if that something was revulsion.
At the tape, Fields was waiting, but beyond him lay the centerpiece.Ella stared at the body from twenty feet away.First came the emotional uppercut, then the moment of tribute she always paid to those who’d died before their time.The victim was a twenty-something brunette in a loose turqoise dress, and she was slumped against the wall like a discarded toy.
‘Here we are,’ Fields said.‘I’ve already been here once today.Forensics have only just gone, and the coroner will be here within the hour.’
Ripley gestured to the body and asked, ‘What do you know so far?’
‘Her name’s Rose Michaels.She still had her purse and cell phone.We pulled her name from that.Forensics said that was no signs of sexual assault, and she was strangled judging by the bruise on her throat.No other wounds.’
‘Who found her?’
‘One of the workers from that factory over the way.They were walking home from their night shift at 10AM and found her.The guy said the body definitelywasn’tthere on his way into work, so she was killed sometime after 10PM last night.First responder thought it might be an overdose, but the medics noticed the damage to her throat.That’s why it took us so long to get involved.’
‘Can we take a closer look?’
