I can really carry my own bag
Simple courtesy, Agent Tremont. Were not without it, he said.
The bedroom was nice. She glanced in the doorway as Jude Crosby set her travel bag on the footrest at the end of the bed. She took a minute to dig into her overnight bag for her better camera to be added to the shoulder bag.
Youre a photographer?
Film is the best record of what we see, isnt it? she asked.
The room smelled sweetly and lightly of lavender cleaning solution. It was a beautiful room, and she was convinced that it did have a feel for the past, just as venerated old churches and other historic buildings often seemed to have.
Would it be more than just the sacred feel of history? she wondered.
Great, she said. Lets go.
Jude arched a brow. Thats it? You dont want to look around longer? Settle in?
Nope. She was grateful that shed been able to come so quickly; theyd received the call almost immediately after they saw on the news that a gruesome murder had taken place in New York. While Jackson had calmly spoken about travel arrangements and equipment, explaining the circumstances in which theyd be working, shed been online and discovered that if she left within the next ten minutes, she could be on a plane to LaGuardia that was scheduled for departure at ten, and would have her on the ground in New York by one. Shed jumped at the chance, although not without a few minutes of stern warnings from her associates. They mostly consisted of: Be careful. Well be right behind you. You know not to take chances. Remember that we work best when we can earn the cooperation of the local police.
Okay, Jude said. You need anything else?
She tapped her shoulder bag, a big soft leather sling she hadnt released since shed gone through the security lines at the airport.
Im good. I have everything I need for the moment.
He gave her a crooked smile. You travel light for a woman.
She felt her own smile tighten just a bit. Was he mocking her? She was fairly small and slim, she knew. Her appearance and gender often worked in her favor. She wasnt threatening in size and, sometimes, that was good.
Get along with the locals, she reminded herself. Dont think of me as a woman, Detective. Think of me as an agent, she said. And I wont think of you as a boy or a manIll think of you as a top-notch NYPD detective.
He laughed. Apparently, he did have a sense of humor. And he could laugh at himself.
As they left Blair House, Whitney found herself pausing to look at the large construction site next door.
Im assuming whatever was there wasnt protected by any historical society, she said.
No, there had been an ugly building there from the 1920s, or something like that, Jude said. Before that, it had been some kind of society buildingnot like high society. I mean I dont know. Some people claimed that it was a spiritualist house, or a place for Satanists, or something like that. Odd, though. Construction there has had to halt several times. A few workers were injured. I think one was killed. And then, of course, last night happened. The film company had acquired permits to use the area. They bought mega-insurance for the shoot, but I dont think it helps, because the murder was off-site.
And the woman who was murdered had been working there, Whitney said.
Yep, playing a gaslight prostitute, I believe. Honestly, its really no wonder that folks are crying Jacks back. Poor girl. Theres been some insinuation in early news reports that our victim didnt always get along with the other actresses. But maybe thats not a fair assessmentwe havent even really begun the investigation. From what Ive learned, the old Jack the Ripper found victims who were used up, missing teeth, old and ugly, but I guess none of his victims had a reputation for not being nice. Now, thats an interesting question. Does being nice or not nice have much to do with being a victim?
Whitney glanced at him. He was thoughtful, really thoughtful. She decided that he might have made a decent behaviorial scientist himself.
That is an interesting question, Whitney said, still looking at the cheap mesh fencing and the occasional ugly green plastic sheets that surrounded the construction site. It appeared that the majority of the old structure had been demolished; there were planks over what looked like foundations that were still in the process of being dug out and cleared. There were also piles of new timber lying aboutremnants, she presumedof the sets that had been hastily constructed for the on-location shooting that had been done the day before.
She thought the site was empty and then she realized that there was a gate around the other side, and by the gate there was a small section with a tented roof. Sitting beneath it, watching the entrance and reading a magazine, was a guard.
One guard watching the area, Whitney murmured.
Jude pointed to a row of trailers on the other side of the street. Yesterday, throughout the day, there was tons of security. Thats the tail end of the movie crew. There was no shooting today, and the producer announced, after the report of Miss Rockfords murder, that they were done with the location. He glanced her way. I spent most of the day down here off and on, trying to get a real feel for what was going on, and what the situation was last night.
What is your feeling about it now?
He glanced her way and actually smiled. I have a feelingye olde cop gut feelingthat it does have something to do with the movie and the movie crew.
Whitney mulled over his words as he drove her down to the morgue. She listened to the constant honking that was as natural as conversation in this city. She watched the rush of pedestrians along the busy streets. People flocking through the intersections, the occasional dog walker pausing along the sidewalk with a Baggie.
Shed been a film student herself in the city, and she knew the area. But now, she felt as if she was seeing it all through different eyes. She thought about the age and the history of the city; the city buildings forming a concrete tomb over the iniquity and depredation of what had been the Five Points region. Wall Streetonce where the old wall built to protect the tip of the island had been. Few places rivaled New York City as a place where the sheer velocity of life trampled the pivotal spaces of history.
It all seemed new to her now: the slash of Broadway, the one-way streets, the parks, the people, the old and the new.
Well, her eyes were different now; she was different. And all because, once upon a time, she had determined to hold her own ground.
Life was different.
As was death.
As they headed for the morgue, Jude tried to forget the woman at his side.
Whitney Tremont. Special agent. Very special agent.
But, she did know how to be quiet. She was distracting, but that wasnt her fault. His. He set his mind back to the situation, and tried not to think that she was definitely an interesting and arresting individual.
Captain Tyler. Now, there was a dash of cold water. He wanted to find himand he would. Rush hourthat time when citizens took their lives in their hands just to step into the subwaywould most probably bring Captain Tyler back to his home haunts; the subway station where those who knew him would be kind enough to drop spare change or a dollar his way. The autopsy would be finished by that point.
He had spoken with many people who talked about how strange downtown could be at night. By day, the world itself hummed because of all the activity that occurred at the New York Stock Exchange. By night, restaurants closed. The gates to the churches were locked. Office workers were gone, and the major hotels were by Battery Park and the South Street Seaport. Nearby Tribeca and Soho entertained nightlife and housed hundreds of thousands of people. But here, at this end with the financial district and the government buildings, the night brought on a haunting quiet, as if the little area needed time to recoup from the madness of the light.
His only hope was in finding Captain Tyler, he thought. Or someone else who was like a ghost, left to eke out an existence from those who passed hurriedly by day, and forget them once darkness fell.
Jude parked his car, still lost in the case as he did so, and hoping against hope that it might be one that was solved quickly. Though he had his task force questioning the hundreds of people who had been involved in the film shoot, and he knew that theyd be eliminating those with airtight alibis, theyd also be making lists of those he needed to interview himself, or who needed to be investigated further. He almost forgot Whitney Tremont; in fact, he might have if she didnt give off a soft, underlying perfume, and if he didnt just feel the warmth of the body beside his own.
She was out of the car door, though, before he could walk around to open it for her. She was pure motion and energy.
Keep your thoughts going and dont worry about me, Detective, she said. Im right behind you. He grinned. So she was.
Jude Crosby was known at the morgue; he had no difficulty navigating the structure of the building, Whitney Tremont following closely behind him.
OCME, or the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, was housed on First Avenue. New York City held many firsts in the investigation of death; the Office of the Medical Examiner was established in 1918, the first of its kind in the country. OCME established the first toxicology laboratory and the first serology laboratory as well, at Bellevue Hospital, rather than the six-story headquarters where the executive offices, mortuary, autopsy, X-ray, photography and many labs were housed now.
Attending a victims autopsy was always paramount to him; no matter how great a medical examiner might be at a report, there was always something to be gained by attending. Many medical examiners did consider the autopsy to be the victims last chance to speak, and Jude believed them. You never knew just what a victim might say.
He knew that time had made him jaded; hed seen the dead so often. He noticed the odor of decaying flesh, and the stronger odors of the chemicals that were used to mask the smell. He noticed them, but he barely thought about them. He thought of the place as sterile. He wondered if his religious teachings as a child kicked in when he saw the dead; the spirit didnt reside in the flesh. The dead were far from feeling pain. They had gone to a better place.
He wasnt sure if he completely believed that. He did believe that they suffered no more in the fragile shell of the flesh.
There was a saying on the wall outside the autopsy room, there for all to see, a Latin motto: Let conversation cease, let laughter flee. This is the place where death delights in helping the living.
He hoped that Virginia Rockford could help point them toward her killer.
There were eight steel tables in the room, and three of them had occupants. Thousands passed through the doors of the morgue yearly, but not all were murder victims. Suicides came here, along with those who died in accidents, and those who died while in apparent good health. There were those who had died by violence, and those who had died unattended. There were many reasons to come to the morgue. It was a big city; people died in strange ways.
Two assistants were working with Fullbright when they suited up to join the procedure. The body had been stripped and cleaned by the assistants, and somehow, that made the injuries done to Ginger Rockford all the more macabre. He could clearly see the gashes in her throat, and the hideous slashes that had been made in the lower abdomen.
He was aware of everyone around him, and especially, Whitney.
Whitney worked with her camera; he wanted to stop her. He had to remind himself that she was an agent, and not a gawker. Whatever photos and digital film she took would be for the purposes of the investigation.
Clothed in scrubs, Whitney might have blended in with the workforce, except that he could see that she was also wearing a pair of neat little fashionable heels that werent usually worn by techs in the morgue. When he had introduced her to Fullbright, shed stood a slight distance back as well, as if trying to make herself unobtrusive.
When he looked at her, curious as to whether or not she could really watch the autopsy and learn from it, he discovered that he was almost transfixed by her eyes. They were nearly gold. The color had to be hazel, but the green and brown blended so remarkably that the color was almost like the sun. And her skin was the most amazing shade of golden copper he could imagine. It seemed as if every race into which humanity had divided had recombined in her, and that mixture was arresting; she was a beautiful young woman, but much more as well. She stood still, and yet seemed to be brimming with energy. Character, curiosity, passion and a certain appearance of honor seemed to be imprinted in the very structure of her face.
And she was young; too young to be jaded. He had the feeling she still believed in Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
Jude, look well, Fullbright said, and he clenched hard on his jaw, returning his full attention to the sad matter at hand. The two great lacerations to the throat severed both the major blood vessels in the throatjust as in the case of Polly Nichols, the woman most detectivespast and presentbelieved to have been the Rippers first victim. And if youll note the mutilations on the abdomen, you see how jagged this first cut is, and youll see how violent and savage the rest are. Jude, these are nearly the exact wounds as perpetrated by a killer over a hundred years ago.
He stared at the woman, holding back a groan. He didnt discount the idea that they might be looking at a mimic who had an agenda that would send the city into a real panic, attempting to re-create the slayings of a long-gone killer.
But he didnt discount the idea yet that they were looking at an isolated incident, and that Virginia Rockford had managed to really anger someone intent on killing her specifically. And solely.
Whitney spoke up. I spent the hours on the plane here reading up on the crimes, since the press seems to believe theres a copycat out there. She walked to the side table where she had left her shoulder bag and dug in it briefly to produce a piece of paper with a picture on it. Polly Nicholsa morgue photo. Care to compare the medical examiners report with our corpse?
Jude looked from her unique eyes to the photo, and despite his determination to keep an entirely open mind, he had to give the comparison credence.
The Rippers victim had been older; life had not been kind. The image was not that of a pretty young woman.
Whatever else Virginia Rockford might have been, she hadnt been old. She had been attractive; killed when it seemed that the world was waiting for her.
But, despite the difference in the living appearances and situations of the women, the wounds on the bodies were the same.