Spectrum (The Karen Vail Series) by Alan Jacobson

Author:Alan Jacobson [Jacobson, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2014-10-07T00:00:00+00:00

36

>BELT PARKWAY

Springfield Gardens, Queens

Thursday, April 1, 1999

Vail paged through the copy of her file, comparing it to the one they had been using in the meeting—also a duplicate, since Fonzarella insisted on having the original in his possession.

“Anything?” Russo asked as he changed lanes on the Belt Parkway.

“The scratch actually looks okay—just the usual flubs the police administrative aide makes from time to time. Nothing major.” And the forged signature—oh, crap. That’s when I sprained my finger. That’s why the signature didn’t look right. Shit, that’s just great. I left the commissioner’s meeting for nothing?

“So what does that mean? It’s okay? All this for nothing?”

“No, hang on. Give me a minute.” Think of a bullshit excuse. No. I can’t do that to Russo. She turned the pages, looking for something—anything—and that’s when she saw it.

“Wait a minute.” Vail flipped the document, went back, and then rifled through the remaining pages. “It’s missing.”

“What’s missing? I thought you said the sixty-one was—”

“No, this is a DD-5. After Manos was murdered, the detective handling the case—Berger—he went down with a hip, right?”

“Yeah, had the thing replaced, never made it back on the job. Surgeon botched it, was wheelchair-bound for a couple years and then had an embolism. He bit the dust last year.”

“Okay, so remember when you brought me into the case my first day on the job? Berger let me make a copy of the file to look over, so I could get a feel for how an investigation was run. A day or so after CSU finished up, Carole Manos’s mother found a book kicked under the couch that she swore was not her daughter’s. She brought it by the precinct and left it with the PAA, who put it in Berger’s mailbox. When he got in the next morning, he vouchered the book as investigative in case he needed it at a later date, he wrote up his DD-5, and that was that.”

“Right, I kinda sorta remember something like that.”

“Well, now DD-5 number 14 is missing from the file.”

“Misfiled?”

“No, it’s just not there.” Vail stared at the copied report. Doesn’t make sense. It was there when I made the copies of the file and now it’s not? “Do me a favor. Let’s stop by Property and get a look at this book mentioned in the DD-5.”

“Why?”

“Just being thorough.”

“What kind of book is it?”

“Something titled … ” She scanned the report. “Here it is. How Humans Die. An old, worn copy.”

“How Humans Die. What the hell kind of book is that? Fiction? Nonfiction?”

“I’ll have to look it up when we get back to the house.”

“You do that,” Russo said. “Not sure it’s something I’d want to read. I’ve seen enough humans die. That’s all I need to know on the subject.”

THEY ARRIVED AT headquarters, officially known as One Police Plaza, and entered at street level through the employee entrance. A cop sat behind a duty desk that was lined with gadgets, levers, switches, and LED lights.

“What the hell does all that high-tech shit do?” Vail asked.

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