by Uc Amalu, Jr
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Jay turned left straight out of the lift, he marched down
the corridor and up to the reception desk. The secretary
looked up at him and smiled her usual glamorous smile.
“Hi, Detective Marnotti. I didn’t know you had another
autopsy scheduled in for today,” she said, flicking through
her appointment book.
“Nah, not today, beautiful. I’m here to see Augie. He called
me and said he had some results for me. He about?”
Jay’s head turned and looked towards the rooms further
down the hall.
Her smile grew bigger and she laughed, “Well that’s sure
better than a nasty autopsy any day, isn’t it? I’ll just page
him now for you.” She picked up the phone on the
counter in front of her and hit a small green button. Jay
heard her mumble a few words before she replaced the
receiver and looked back at him. “You can go on through.
He’s in Suite 3.”
“Thanks,” he said, heading off in the direction of the
Suites. Jay scanned the numbers on each door as he
walked down the hallway, there were so many doors and
they weren’t numbered in sequence, which he thought
was odd. He had been in Suite 2 before and yet it was not
next to Suite 3, not even close. He continued down the
aisle, looking left and right until he came to another
corridor that ran across his path, he took a chance and
made a left. A few steps further down on his right was a
plain grey door, marked Suite 3. Jay knocked and waited
to be allowed in.
“Ahh, Jay… Good to see you. Come on through.” Augie
stepped aside, holding the door open for him and he
walked through, stopping just inside.
Jay extended his hand and Augie accepted it, giving it a
firm shake.
“I hope you don’t mind chatting while I finish up with a
few samples I’ve been working with?” Augie asked,
motioning to the washtub.
“Not at all. The mood I am in today Augie, we could talk
on a volcano for all I care.” A huge smile beamed from his
face.
The two walked deeper inside the room and washed their
hands at the sinks before entering the autopsy suite.
“So why the happy face?” enquired Augie, pulling on a pair
of latex gloves. “Not that you shouldn’t be happy. You just
haven’t had a lot to smile about of late.”
“Seems like our luck is changing my friend,” he blurted
out. “We got Tessa’s killer!”
Augie stood so still he looked almost frozen to the spot.
“You what? Are you serious?” he looked at the excitement
on Jays face.
“Serious as they come!”
“When? Where? How? Why?” He stuttered and tripped over
his words with anxious anticipation for the details. “Who?”
Jay laughed heartily and walked to a tall stool sitting a
few feet away. He picked it up and brought it back to
where he had been standing and sat it down. “Her name
was Dr. Rose-Marie Sugars. Seems she was not quite as
professional as she should have been” He cocked one leg
up and half leant against the stool. Augie’s expression
turned to shock.
“Rose-Marie Sugars?”
“Yup. What? Do you know her?”
“Sure,” he replied, sealing a plastic bag and placing it on a
pile with several others. “The mother of our last mutilation
victim. Marla Andrews.” his eyes fell to the floor. “She
came in to identify the body and make arrangements to
send her to the funeral home.” He paused. “She seemed
so nice. Why, why did she do it?”
“It’s a long and twisted story Augie, trust me. The long
and short of it is that she killed Tessa and she is going to
jail!”
Augie appeared to be lost in a trance momentarily. Jay
snapped his fingers in front of him and said, “Earth to
Augie. You still with me?”
Blinking his eyelids a few times, his gaze returned to Jay
and they continued their conversation. “So if she killed
Tessa, did she kill the others? Her own daughter too?”
“Apparently not, and that’s the bad news. We still have a
monster out there stalking and mutilating women. We
need to get the freak Augie.” He steadied himself against
the chair.
“So it looks like this is a copy-cat killer then?”
“That sure is how it’s looking,” replied Jay. “I can’t figure
it out though, specific details weren’t released to the
press, so it must be someone who knows the nature of
the murders in their entirety.”
Augie rubbed his hands over his face, “Could there be a
leak in the department, Jayy?”
“There’s always that possibility, plenty of insiders with
access to this sort of information who just can’t resist
making a quick buck by selling it to the nearest weirdo off
the street. The press love the leaky cops!”
“There is another possibility, Jay.” Augie lowered his eyes
to the floor.
“What are you thinking?” Jay’s brow rose.
“Maybe our killer is an insider! That would explain a lot.
What are your thoughts?”
“Oh, hell I hope not, I work with cops everyday, I don’t
wanna wake up one day knowing that one of them is
capable of doing this.” Jay thought for a moment. “But it
does make a lot of sense though, doesn’t it?”
“It’s just one possibility. It could even be someone with a
passion for forensics and police procedures…” Augie tried
to reach another conclusion.
“Could be, I think it might be time to start taking an
inside look though. That makes more sense to me. Damn
it!” Jay slammed the stool against the bench beside
him. The thought of the killer being a fellow cop churned
his stomach. He worked beside a lot of officers, all good
men and he didn’t even want to consider the possibility
that any one of them could be capable of these murders.
He turned to Augie and asked, “How did Marla’s tox
results come out? Anything that can help us?”
Augie sighed and turned in the direction of a small door
off the main suite. ”Ed, can you bring me Marla Andre’s
tox results please?”
A voice echoed back, “No problem, Dr. August.”
Augie turned back to Jay and said, “U-fortunately there’s
nothing ground breaking in there. I was hoping for your
sake that we’d find something, but alas… It wasn’t to be.”
He held out his hand, awaiting Ed to pass the folder to
him.
“There you are, Dr. August,” Ed said quietly when he
handed him the results.
“Thank you, Ed,” he said.
Ed hung around in front of him for a few seconds before
Augie asked, ”Is there something else, Ed?”
“I’m sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you had
thought about what I had asked you this morning?”
“Oh. Yes, that’s right. Of course, it’s fine with me but just
make sure you have s
tored all the chemicals back on the
shelf before you leave, please.”
“No problem and thanks, Dr. August.” he stepped back
and raced back into the small room he had come from.
Augie returned to the file. His fingers parted the covers of
the folder and pulled out the sheet of paper inside. His
eyes scanned it carefully before handing it over to Jay.
“It’s almost like reading the results from Kylie-Anne’s
autopsy all over again. Nothing new I’m afraid.”
Jay stared at him, his frustration building within him.
“She had Halothane in her swabs, just like Kylie-Anne. No
other drugs or inhibitants in her system. Also just like
Kylie-Anne, her rape kit was positive for spermicide.”
“Christ! Why can’t we find something new?” Jay cried,
more of a statement than a question.
“I know exactly how you feel Jay, I do.” Augie assured
him. “Look, why don’t you go home Jay, the day’s nearly
done. Take an early mark like Ed and go enjoy yourself.
You need a break.”
“You’re right, I could use some time out.” Jay looked at
his watch, four-fifteen. “At least we have one small reason
to celebrate Tessa’s murderer is in custody and that’s
better than what we had yesterday.”
“That’s the way to think,” smiled Augie. “Now you get out
of here and let me finish bagging my goodies here.” He
nodded towards the multitude of slides, fibres and foliage
all placed in separate containers in front of him.
“Looks like riveting stuff,” he laughed. “I’ll see ya round.”