He drove, checking his speedometer and rearview mirror again and again, all the way to the back entrance of the mortuary where Eddy worked. It was deserted except for the broken-down hearse that seemed to be stored there permanently.
He stopped a moment to think it all through. First, he thoroughly cleaned his jackknife, then stuffed his blood-splattered clothes under the garbage in the mortuary’s disposal bin. He knew this was just regular trash. Eddy told him that human scraps were in special contamination units inside.
Still, he was certain that no one, homeless or otherwise, was going to go searching through a mortuary disposal bin looking for soft drink cans to recycle. People simply didn’t want to have anything to do with a morgue. Most probably avoided this back entrance to the building all together.
He tried to slow down, to remember where he might have left any evidence connecting him to the crime.
He was nervous, his mind was scattered, and he needed to get going. He didn’t want anyone seeing him fool around in the alley behind the mortuary.
What he needed to do right now was go home, clean himself from head to toe, and check through his car for anything of Jenni’s.
He knew the police would eventually come to question him.
Chapter 38
Mulzini drove into the garage of Ridgewood Hospital. He’d never admit it to anyone, but nothing spooked him more than driving into an underground facility of any kind. It felt like he was being dropped into a mine.
I got to find another way to make a living. Only crazy people do this.
He’d gotten himself involved in this whole mess by taking someone else’s on-call shift. He could still hear his wife Marcia when he told her where he was headed.
“That’s what you get for being Mr. Nice Guy.”
All he could think to say was, “I know. I know.”
“Kisses, big guy. I’ll see you when I see you.”
He didn’t tell her about Gina Mazzio’s involvement. She would have only laughed harder.
Yeah, Mr. Nice Guy.
Up ahead, uniforms were setting up floodlights and stringing yellow tape to cordon off the crime scene.
Oh, yeah. Looks like Mazzio’s little Fiat. Damn, blood smeared along the left side of the car.
CSI people were all over the place when he stepped out of his unmarked car and walked over to the murder scene.
He nodded to everyone and after looking at the woman, he thought she was probably the gal he’d interviewed about being stalked by that lab guy in Ridgewood.
He couldn’t be positive because most of her face and body was doused in blood.
Mulzini stepped closer. “From what I can see it must have been a razor. Looks like a pretty thin cut,” Mulzini said to the ME, whom he recognized.
“Don’t jump the gun, Inspector. I see one finger mark on her throat, but the rest is coated in blood. Going to have to wash her down to get a better look. But you’re probably right. Bet you a tenner that the perp tried to strangle her first and couldn’t bring it off.”
“Must be a Boy Scout,” Mulzini said. “Always prepared ... to kill ... no matter what.”
“Yeah, sure looks that way.”
* * *
Mulzini took the elevator up to the top floor of Ridgewood Hospital. He knew the deal. If he was going to try to keep this quiet, at least for a short time, he’d have to go through the bigwigs. It wouldn’t take long, though, before the whole hospital knew about the death.
He introduced himself to the administrator’s assistant, who buzzed her boss and noted who wanted to see him.
Alan Vasquez met Mulzini at his office door, told his assistant to hold his calls, and followed Mulzini inside.
“We’ve met before, Inspector.”
“I remember. It was about your niece. That was rough,” Mulzini said as they shook hands.
Vasquez waved him to a chair and slid into another chair next to him. They both stared at the photograph of a young girl.
Mulzini knew it was the administrator’s niece and he knew what had happened to her. It had been really ugly. He was thankful he’d not been directly involved in the case. He and Marcia were on vacation in Hawaii, but he met Vasquez when he returned home.
“I still miss her ... very much,” Vasquez said. He turned his attention back to Mulzini, who nodded his understanding.
“Well, I’m sorry to say that right now we’ve got a messy situation in the garage of your hospital.”
Vasquez glanced quickly again at his niece’s picture, then turned back and said, “I know. I was told to stay out of it while the police did their job. Normally, news of something like this would spread like wildfire throughout the hospital.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet with this epidemic no one has time to breathe. The whole city is practically in lockdown.”
“It’s been pretty intense,” Vasquez said.
“I’m gonna need to speak to Gina Mazzio. Probably a good idea if I took her home. She won’t be able to use her car for a couple of days and she may or may not know what’s happened to Jenni Webb, but either way it’s gonna hit her hard.”
“Let me get hold of the facility supervisor and check on her status.”
Mulzini nodded.
Vasquez stood, reached down for his phone, and punched in some numbers. “Hi, Hillary. Listen, is Gina Mazzio still in the building? Oh, I thought she worked the day shift.”
He looked at Mulzini and nodded.
“Okay ... I’m glad it was only a couple of hours overtime ... but she’s going to have to leave ...” He gave Mulzini a shrug and looked up at the ceiling. “You can’t have her for another two hours, Hillary, you’re going to have to let her go now.”
Mulzini could tell Vasquez was getting an earful of protest.
“Do the best you can.” He hung up. “Poor, Gina. It’s always one thing or another.” His eyes were sad as he looked at Mulzini. “The fates need to give that woman a break.”
* * *
Gina was rushing around the unit trying to finish handing out her meds. She’d just given the last injection when one of the nurses pulled her out of a room.
“There’s someone here to see you. He’s at the nurses’ station.”
“Who is it?”
“Don’t know him, but administration sent him down.”
What did I do now?
When she turned the corner and saw Mulzini, she broke out into a smile. “Inspector, what are you doing here? And from admini-stration?”
Mulzini wasn’t smiling. “Get your things. You’re off duty.”
“No, I’ve been asked to put in more time, sort of indefinite. I can’t leave now.”
“Yeah, you can. I’ve cleared it with the head honcho.”
Gina was puzzled. She went to the Nurses’ station, took the keys from her pocket, and unlocked the drawer where her purse was stashed.
A sudden chill jolted down her spine when she returned to the Inspector and studied his face.
He took her arm and led her to the elevator. “Jeez, is there anywhere we can talk. This place is too damn crowded.”
“We can go to the cafeteria. It’s probably the emptiest it’s ever been. No one is getting any time off.” Riding down the elevator, Gina tried to read Mulzini’s eyes, but he kept turning away. She gave up as they reached the cafeteria and the doors popped open.
It was more crowded than Gina had expected, but most of the people were family and friends of patients. Everyone was glum; she’d never seen the place so quiet.
“You want something?” Mulzini said.
“What I really want is for you to tell me what this is all about.”
They grabbed a corner table and when they were seated, Mulzini reached for her hand. “Jenni’s dead.”
It took a beat for it to register, and then her mind went blank.
“Did you hear what I said, Gina?”
All she could do was nod until his words registered. “You said Jenni is dead? The Jenni that’s staying a
t my apartment?”
“Oh, my God. Was it my fault? Should never have given her the keys to the Fiat. She really didn’t want to drive it. Oh, my God, what happened?”
“It wasn’t your fault, Gina. She was murdered.”
Gina took in a deep breath and for a moment thought she was going to vomit. She swallowed a couple of times and said, “Murdered? Who?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“How?”
“Maybe it’s better if we skip that for now.”
“No, tell me!”
“Someone slit her throat,” Mulzini whispered.
Gina’s head dropped onto her folded arms; she kept it there for a long moment, then looked up at Mulzini.
“Where did it happen?” She sat up straight.
“In the hospital garage as she was getting ready to drive home.”
Gina stared at the Inspector.
“I was hoping you might have a clue as to who did it.”
“Who? Who? I’ll tell you who. It had to be Russell, the lab rat! He threatened both of us.”
* * *
“You won’t be able to use your car for the next few days,” Mulzini said, walking Gina to his car. “I’ll give you a ride home.”
“Thanks.”
“They’ll be going through it with a fine tooth comb to see if the killer left any evidence.”
“I’m telling you, it was Russell Thorpe. He killed her.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“You know they had history—he tried to rape her once. And you also know about the stalking. Dammit! He hated her.” Tears ran down Gina’s cheeks.
“But why, exactly, did he hate her?” Mulzini thought Gina was more than emotionally distraught—she looked physically ill.
He hoped she wasn’t coming down with the miserable flu that was hitting everyone, including his own department. He was working double shifts like several others who were still standing.
“Isn’t what I told you enough?”
“No. It’s not hard evidence.”
“Okay, well, she’s been digging at him lately, pissing him off by calling him Russ instead of Russell.”
“I know about that, too. Big deal. I mean, isn’t that stuff kind of childish? Working up a real sense of killing hatred usually takes a lot more than that,” Mulzini said. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying it’s not possible. People can get crazy over the weirdest things.”
“Exactly. He is weird ... something’s just not right about that guy.”
“And if anyone is going to pick up on it, it’s certainly going to be you,” Mulzini said with a smile. “Look, I’ll be checking out this Russ-Russell guy again. He’s the only suspect we have right now.”
“I know you think I’m nuts, Inspector, and maybe I am. But I can’t help thinking that if I hadn’t agreed to work a couple of extra hours, Jenni would still be alive.”
“Maybe. And maybe you’d both be dead.” He squeezed her hand. “You’ve got to stop torturing yourself. It is what it is. If you keep going down that what if road, it’s just going to make everything harder for you.”
“I know that coward would never have tried to take us both on at once.”
The Inspector bit his lip, then said, “Where’s Harry? Is he off on an assignment? This would really be a good time for him to be here with you.”
“Harry and I are not engaged anymore.”
“What? Are you kidding me, Gina?”
“No.”
“You mind telling me what happened?” Mulzini pulled up and double-parked in front of Gina’s apartment complex.
She was sitting up straight, staring out the windshield. She looked like she could start crying again at any moment. He wasn’t good with that, women crying.
“We have some basic differences about our relationship that just isn’t working.”
“Okay, that’s the cleaned-up version. What really happened?”
Gina shifted in her seat. “Harry wants to get married, has wanted to for a long time.” She sighed, blowing air out between her lips. “Thing is, I’m simply not ready to get married. That’s it in a nutshell. I don’t know how else to describe it.”
He took her arm and held it tight. “I’m the last one in the world to give advice about love and marriage, but I’ve always thought you two were a great match.”
“I’d better go in now,” Gina said.
“Is there anyone who can stay with you?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “I can always call my brother and his girlfriend. But thanks for asking ... and for giving me a ride home.” She started to get out of the car, stopped, and looked back at him. “It means a lot to me that you took the time to find me and tell me about Jenni. Nothing’s going to take away the pain, but ... but ... you know what I’m saying.”
Mulzini could feel his face redden. “Well, you’re not only one of my favorite people, but Marcia likes you, too, and she never likes any of the women I do.” He started to get out of the car.
“You don’t need to come in with me,” she said.
“Yes, I most certainly do. You’re not going in there until I check it out.”
Chapter 39
Mulzini drove straight to Russell Thorpe’s apartment after dropping off Gina and making a couple of phone calls.
“What’s this all about?” Russell demanded when told he was being taken to the police station. “I haven’t done anything.”
“I need to ask you some questions,” Mulzini said.
“Can’t you do that here?”
“We’re going down to the station.”
When they got there, Mulzini planted Russell in a stuffy interrogation room and left him there alone in the cramped, intimidating hole.
The Inspector watched through the one-way mirror as the lab rat, as Gina Mazzio called him, glanced at the one-way mirror a couple of times, shook his head, and returned to staring at the blank wall opposite him. Unlike most people, guilty or innocent, he didn’t become jumpy or impatient after several minutes went by.
Not this creep. He knows he’s being observed ... and doesn’t give a shit.
Russell spent most of the time tapping out some kind of rhythm on the table to music only he could hear. If he was in any way ruffled, he didn’t show it.
Mulzini got tired of the game after almost 20 minutes and went back into the room. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Russ. Would you like something to drink— water, soda, coffee?”
There was only the slightest twitch of his upper lip that might or might not indicate a negative reaction to not using his full first name, as Gina had mentioned.
“No. I’m good. I’d just like to get out of here. I start work early tomorrow and the way things are going, I’ll probably have to work overtime.” He looked at his watch. “It’s getting late, man.”
“Yeah,” Mulzini said. “It must be really hard on the hospital staff, what with this flu epidemic and everything. I’ve never seen Ridgewood that pushed before.”
“Yeah. That’s why I need to get a good night’s sleep.”
Mulzini smiled at Russell. “Well, I won’t keep you here much longer.”
The Inspector, sat down across from Russell, placed a file folder on the table, and opened it. “I assume you’re aware that Nurse Jenni Webb was murdered in the garage at Ridgewood.”
“Murdered? Jenni Webb?”
“Yes.” He let that hang for a moment, then said, “What time did you leave work today?”
“Regular time,” Russell said. “About four.”
“Regular time? With all this flu going on?”
“That’s what I said. You can check with the department.”
“Already did that.”
“Then why—”
“—We both know you didn’t particularly like Ms. Webb, is that correct?”
“She was all right.”
Mulzini continued to stare at Russell, keeping his head level and lowering only his eyeballs ever so often to glance at t
he file’s contents.
“So what’s this all about?” Russell looked him square in the eye. “Why’d you bring me in?”
“I understand Jenni almost took out a restraining order on you. Were you stalking her? That’s what she told some of the hospital staff?”
“I thought she was cute so I followed her one day.”
“I think you’re lying to me, Russ. We both know you’ve known Jenni for a long time.” Not even a lip twitch this time. “We’ve already had a conversation about the attempted rape.”
“Can I go now?”
Mulzini stood so quickly the chair he’d been sitting on flew back and hit the wall. “No, God dammit, you cannot go.”
Russell’s jaw dropped. “What do you mean I can’t go?”
“You hated Jenni Webb.” He took a deep breath. “I think you killed her.”
“I didn’t!”
“You stalked her, threatened her, and when she still didn’t come around, that didn’t stop you ... you killed her.”
“Stopped what?”
Things had been going the way Mulzini wanted until Russell asked that question.
This guy thinks he’s slick.
Mulzini leaned over the table until their faces were up close and personal. “You didn’t like the way she treated you. And as stupid as it sounds, the ignition point was that she called you Russ, instead of Russell. You couldn’t stand that, even hated her for it, according to some sources.”
“So?” Russell glared back at him. “She was one wacko chick, Inspector. Just because she fucked around with my name doesn’t mean I killed her. That’s plain nuts.”
Maybe it was, but Mulzini was definitely getting the same bad vibes as Gina about this lab rat. But that’s not the solid evidence he needed.
* * *
Russell felt damn good about himself when he left the station, got into his truck, and headed for home. He knew the Inspector didn’t have anything on him, and neither did Gina. Otherwise, he’d be locked up.
He’d been heavy into Dad Todd’s game with the Inspector.
His foster dad taught him well. Look people in the eye when you talk to them, especially when you’re in the hot seat. They always think you’ll give yourself away by doing or saying something stupid.
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