Blue Labyrinth

by Douglas Preston

  Pendergast nodded.

  “In short, our perp was able to do what the CIA and FBI could not, plus a lot more.”

  “Exactly. The perpetrator has great ability. He may well be in law enforcement himself. Which is why I have no faith the NYPD will make any headway on this case.”

  “I understand Angler’s a good cop.”

  “Alas, that’s the problem. He’s just good enough to become a gross impediment to my own effort to find the killer. Better that he were incompetent.”

  “Which is why you’re being so unhelpful?”

  Pendergast said nothing.

  “You’ve no idea why they killed him, or what their message to you was?”

  “That’s the essential horror of it: I have absolutely no clue as to either the messenger or the message.”

  “And your other son?”

  “I’ve arranged for him to be in protective custody abroad.”

  The man loaded another magazine into the Sig, released the slide, emptied the magazine into the target, and pressed the button to reel the target in. “And what are your feelings? About the murder of your son, I mean.”

  Pendergast did not answer for a long time. “In the parlance of the day, the best answer would be: I am conflicted. He is dead. That is a good outcome. On the other hand… he was my son.”

  “What are your plans when—or if—you find the responsible party?”

  Again, Pendergast did not reply. Instead he raised the Les Baer in his right hand, left hand behind his back, in an unsupported stance. Briskly, shot after careful shot, he emptied the magazine into the target, then quick-changed to a fresh magazine, shifted the gun into his left hand, turned to face the target once again, this time from the other way, and—much faster now—again fired all seven rounds. Then he pressed the IN button on the wall of the baffle to reel back the target.

  The CIA operative looked over. “You tore the bull’s-eye completely out. One-handed, and a bladed stance, no less—using both strong and weak hands.” There was a pause. “Was that your answer to my question?”

  “I was merely taking advantage of the moment to hone my skills.”

  “You don’t need honing. In any case, I’ll put my resources to work immediately. As soon as I find out anything, I’ll let you know.”

  “Thank you.”

  The operative nodded. Then, fitting his earmuffs to his head, he put the Sig Sauer to one side and began refilling his own magazines.

  Lieutenant Vincent D’Agosta began climbing the broad, granite steps of the main entrance to the New York Museum of Natural History. As he did so, he glanced up through the noon light at the vast Beaux-Arts façade—four city blocks long, in the grand Roman style. This building held very bad memories for him… and it seemed like an unpleasant twist of fate that he would find himself entering it again, now of all times.

  Just the night before, he had returned from the best two weeks of his life: a honeymoon, with his new bride Laura Hayward, at the Turtle Bay Resort on the fabled North Shore of Oahu. They’d spent the time sunbathing, walking the miles of pristine beach, snorkeling Kuilima Cove—and, of course, getting to know each other even more intimately. It had been, quite literally, paradise.

  So it had been a nasty shock to report to work that morning—a Sunday, no less—and find himself assigned as lead detective on the murder of a technician in the Museum’s Osteology Department. Not only was he saddled with a case the minute he got back… but he’d have to conduct his investigation in a building that he’d really, really wished he never had to enter again.

  Nevertheless, he was determined to bring closure to this case and bring the perp to justice. It was exactly the kind of bullshit killing that gave New York a bad name—a random, senseless, vicious murder of some poor guy who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  He stopped to catch his breath—damn, he’d have to go on a diet after the past two weeks of poi, kalua pig, opihi, haupia, and beer. After a moment, he continued up the stairs and passed through the entrance into the vastness of the Great Rotunda. Here he paused again to pull out his iPad and refresh himself on the details of the case. The murder had been discovered late the previous evening. All the initial crime scene work had been completed. D’Agosta’s first task would be to re-interview the security guard who had discovered the body. Then he had a date with the public relations director who—knowing the Museum—would be more concerned with neutralizing bad press than solving the crime. There were another half a dozen names on his list of interviewees.

  He showed his shield to one of the guards, signed in, got a temporary ID, then made his way across the echoing expanse, past the dinosaurs, past another checkpoint, through an unmarked door, and down a series of labyrinthine back corridors to Central Security—a journey he remembered all too well. A uniformed guard sat, alone, in the waiting area. As D’Agosta entered, he jumped to his feet.

  “Mark Whittaker?” D’Agosta asked.

  The man nodded rapidly. He was short—about five foot three—and portly, with brown eyes and thinning blond hair.

  “Lieutenant D’Agosta, homicide. I know you’ve been over all this before, and I’ll try not to take up more of your time than necessary.” He shook the man’s limp, sweaty hand. In his experience, private security guards were one of two types—wannabe cops, resentful and pugnacious, or mild-mannered door shakers, cowed and intimidated by the real McCoy. Mark Whittaker was definitely of the latter breed.

  “Can we chat at the crime scene?”

  “Sure, yes, of course.” Whittaker seemed eager to please.

  D’Agosta followed him on another lengthy journey back out of the bowels and into the public areas of the Museum. As they walked through the winding corridors, D’Agosta couldn’t help glancing at the exhibits. It had been years since he’d set foot in this place, but it didn’t seem to have changed much. They were walking through the darkened, two-story African hall, past a herd of elephants, and from there into the Hall of African Peoples, Mexico and Central America, South America, hall after echoing hall of cases full of birds, gold, pottery, sculpture, textiles, spears, clothing, masks, skeletons, monkeys… He found himself panting and wondering how the hell it was he could hardly keep up with this fat little guard.

  They made their way into the Hall of Marine Life and Whittaker finally came to a stop at one of the more distant alcoves, which had been sealed off with yellow crime scene tape. A Museum guard stood before the tape.

  “The Gastropod Alcove,” D’Agosta said, reading the name off a brass plaque that stood beside the opening.

  Whittaker nodded.

  D’Agosta showed his shield to the guard, ducked under the tape, and motioned Whittaker to follow. The space beyond was dark and the air dead. Glass cabinets covered the three walls of the alcove, stuffed full of shells of all sizes and shapes, from snails to clams to whelks. Waist-high display cases, sporting still more shells, stood before the cabinets. D’Agosta sniffed. This had to be the least-visited place in the entire damn Museum. His eye fell on a queen conch, pink and shiny, and for a moment he was transported back to one particular evening on the North Shore of Hawaii, the sand still warm from the just-departed sun, Laura lying beside him, the creamy surf curling around their feet. He sighed and hauled himself back to the present.

  He glanced below one of the display cases, where a chalk outline and several evidence tags were visible, along with a long, long rivulet of dried blood. “When did you find the body?”

  “Saturday night. About eleven ten.”

  “And you came on duty at what time?”

  “Eight.”

  “This hall was part of your normal shift?”

  Whittaker nodded.

  “When does the Museum close on Saturdays?”

  “Six.”

  “How often do you patrol this hall, after hours?”

  “It varies. The rotation can be anywhere from half an hour to every forty-five minutes. I have a card I have to swipe as I go a
long. They don’t like us to make our rounds on a regular schedule.”

  D’Agosta took out of his pocket a floor plan of the Museum he had grabbed on the way in. “Could you draw on here your rounds of duty or whatever you call it?”

  “Sure.” Whittaker fumbled a pen out of his pocket and drew a wandering line on the map, encompassing much of the floor. He handed it back to D’Agosta.

  D’Agosta scrutinized it. “Doesn’t look like you normally go into this particular alcove.”

  Whittaker paused for a moment, as if this might be a trick question. “Not usually. I mean, it’s a cul-de-sac. I walk past it.”

  “So what made you look into it at eleven PM last night?”

  Whittaker dabbed at his brow. “The blood had run out into the middle of the floor. When I shone my light in, the… the beam picked it up.”

  D’Agosta recalled all the blood from the SOC photographs. A reconstruction of the crime indicated that the victim, an older technician named Victor Marsala, had been bludgeoned over the head with a blunt instrument in this out-of-the way alcove, his body stuffed beneath the display case, minus watch, wallet, and pocket change.

  D’Agosta consulted his tablet. “Any special events going on yesterday evening?”

  “No.”

  “No sleepovers, private parties, IMAX shows, after-hours tours? Things of that nature?”

  “Nothing.”

  D’Agosta already knew most of this, but he liked to go over familiar ground with a witness, just in case. The coroner’s report indicated that the time of death had been around ten thirty. “In the forty minutes leading up to your discovery of the body, did you see anyone or anything unusual? A tourist after hours, claiming to be lost? A Museum employee out of his or her normal working area?”

  “I didn’t see anything odd. Just the usual scientists and curators working late.”

  “And this hall?”

  “Empty.”

  D’Agosta nodded out past the alcove, toward a discreet door in the far wall with a red EXIT sign over it. “Where does that lead?”

  Whittaker shrugged. “Just the basement.”

  D’Agosta considered. The South American gold hall wasn’t far away, but it hadn’t been touched, nothing had been stolen or disturbed. It was possible Marsala, on his way out after completing a late-night assignment, had disturbed some bum, taking a catnap in this desolate corner of the Museum, but D’Agosta doubted the story was even that exotic. What was unusual about the case was that the killer had apparently managed to leave the Museum without notice. The only way out at that time of the night was through a heavily guarded checkpoint on the lower level. Was the killer a Museum employee? He had a list of everyone working late that night, and it was surprisingly long. Then again, the Museum was a big place with a staff of several thousand.

  He asked Whittaker a few more perfunctory questions, then thanked him. “I’m going to look around, you can head back on your own,” he said.

  He spent the next twenty minutes poking around the alcove and adjoining areas, regularly referring to the crime scene photos on his tablet. But there was nothing new to see, nothing to find, nothing that appeared to have been overlooked.

  Fetching a sigh, D’Agosta stuffed the iPad back into his briefcase and headed off in the direction of the public relations department.

  Observing an autopsy ranked low on the list of Lieutenant Peter Angler’s favorite activities. It wasn’t that he had a problem with the sight of blood. In his fifteen years on the force, he’d seen more than his share of dead bodies—shot, stabbed, bludgeoned, run over, poisoned, pancaked on the sidewalk, cut in pieces on the subway tracks. Not to mention his own injuries. And he was no shrinking violet: he’d drawn his gun in the line of duty a dozen times and used it twice. He could deal with violent death. What made him uneasy was the cold, clinical way in which a corpse was systematically taken apart, organ by organ, handled, photographed, commented on, even joked about. That and, of course, the smell. But over the years he’d learned to live with the task, and he approached it with stoic resignation.

  There was something about this autopsy, however, that gave it a particularly macabre cast. Angler had seen a lot of autopsies—but he’d never seen one that was being keenly observed by the victim’s own father.

  There were five people in the room—living people, anyway: Angler; one of his detectives, Millikin; the forensic pathologist in charge of the autopsy; the assisting diener, short and shriveled and hunched like Quasimodo—and Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast.

  Of course, Pendergast had no official status here. When Pendergast made his bizarre request, Angler had considered denying him access. After all, the agent had been uncooperative in the investigation to date. But Angler had done some checking up on Pendergast and learned that—while he was known in the Bureau for his unorthodox methods—he was also held in awe for his remarkable success rate. Angler had never seen a dossier so full of both commendations and censures. So in the end he decided it simply wasn’t worth trying to bar the man from the autopsy. After all, it was his son. And besides, he had a pretty good sense that Pendergast would have found a way to be present, no matter what he said.

  The pathologist, Dr. Constantinescu, also seemed to know of Pendergast. Constantinescu looked more like a kindly old country doctor than a medical examiner, and the presence of the special agent had thrown him for a loop. He was as tense and nervous as a cat in a new house. Time and again, as he’d murmured his medical observations into the hanging mike, he’d paused, glanced over his shoulder at Pendergast, then cleared his throat and begun again. It had taken him almost an hour to complete the external examination alone—which was remarkable, given the almost total absence of evidence to discover, collect, and label. The removal of the clothing, photography, X-rays, weighing, toxicity tests, noting of distinguishing marks, and the rest of it had gone on forever. It was as if the pathologist was afraid of making the slightest mistake, or had a strange reluctance to get on with the work. The diener, who didn’t seem to be in on the story, was impatient, rocking from one foot to the other, arranging and rearranging instruments. Throughout it all Pendergast stood motionless, somewhat back from the others, the gown like a shroud around him, eyes moving from Constantinescu to the body of his son and back again, saying nothing, expressing nothing.

  “No obvious external bruises, hematomas, puncture wounds, or other injuries,” the pathologist was saying into the microphone. “Initial external examination, along with X-ray evidence, indicates that death resulted from a crushing injury to the cervical vertebrae C3 and C4, along with possible lateral rotation of the skull, transecting the spinal column and inducing spinal shock.”

  Dr. Constantinescu stepped back from the mike, cleared his throat yet again. “We, ah, we’re about to commence with the internal examination, Agent Pendergast.”

  Still Pendergast remained motionless, save perhaps for the slightest inclination of his head. He was very pale; his features were as set as any Angler had seen on a man. The more he got to know this Pendergast, the less he liked him. The man was a kind of freak.

  Angler turned his attention back to the body lying on the gurney. The young man had been in excellent physical condition. Staring at the corpse’s sleek musculature and lines graceful even in death, he was reminded of certain depictions of Hektor and Achilles in Black Figure pottery paintings attributed to the Antiope Group.

  We’re about to commence with the internal examination. The body wasn’t going to be beautiful much longer.

  At a nod from Constantinescu, the diener brought over the Stryker saw. Firing it up, the pathologist moved it around Alban’s skull—as it cut bone, the saw made a distinct, grinding whine that Angler hated—and removed the top of the head. This was unusual: in Angler’s experience, usually the brain was the last of the organs to be removed. Most autopsies began with the standard Y-incision. Perhaps it had something to do with the cause of death being a broken neck. But Angler felt a more likely cause
was the other observer in the room. He stole a glance toward Pendergast. The man looked, if anything, even paler, his face more closed than ever.

  Constantinescu examined the brain, carefully removed it, placed it on a scale, and murmured some more observations into the mike. He took a few tissue samples, handed them to the diener, and then—without looking over this time—spoke to Pendergast. “Agent Pendergast… are you planning on an open casket viewing?”

  For a moment, silence. And then Pendergast replied. “There will be no viewing—or funeral. When the body is released I’ll make the necessary arrangements to have it cremated.” His voice sounded like a knife blade scraping against ice.

  “I see.” Constantinescu replaced the brain in the skull cavity, and hesitated. “Before continuing, I should like to ask a question. The X-rays appeared to show a rounded object in the… deceased’s stomach. And yet there are no scars on the body to indicate old gunshot wounds or surgical procedures. Are you aware of any implants the body might have contained?”

  “I am not,” Pendergast said.

  “Very well.” Constantinescu nodded slowly. “I will make the Y-incision now.”

  When nobody spoke, the pathologist took up the Stryker saw again, making cuts in the left and right shoulders and angling them down so they met at the sternum, then completing the incision in a single line to the pubis with a scalpel. The diener handed him a set of shears and Constantinescu completed the opening of the chest cavity, lifting away the severed ribs and flesh and exposing the heart and lungs.

  Behind Angler’s shoulder, Pendergast remained rigid. A certain odor began to spread through the room—an odor that always stayed with Angler, much like the whine of the Stryker.

  One after the other, Constantinescu removed the heart and the lungs, examined them, weighed them on the scale, took tissue samples, murmured his observations into the mike, and placed the organs in plastic bags for returning to the body during the final, reconstitution phase of the autopsy. The liver, kidneys, and other major organs were given the same treatment. Then the pathologist turned his attention to the central arteries, severing them and making quick inspections. The man was working rapidly now, the polar opposite of his dawdling with the preliminaries.