Marker by Cook Robin

Author:Cook, Robin [Cook, Robin]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2005-12-06T23:33:46+00:00

fourteen

WHEN LAURIE GOT OVER TO the Manhattan General Hospital, she was ushered directly into Roger's office, where he was waiting for her. The first thing he did was close the door. Then he gave her a sustained, silent hug. Laurie hugged him back, but not with equivalent ardor. On top of the residuals from the marriage flap, she knew she wasn't going to be entirely forthright with him about her own situation, and it made her feel self-conscious. If he noticed her restraint, he didn't mention it. After the embrace, he turned his two straight-backed chairs around to face each other just as he had done the day before. He had Laurie sit in one, and he took the other.

"I'm glad to see you," he said. "I missed you last night." He was leaning forward into her space with his hands clasped and his elbows on his knees. Laurie was close enough to smell his aftershave lotion. His day was just beginning. His fresh shirt still had the telltale creases from the laundry box.

"I'm glad to see you, too," Laurie said. She reached out and handed him the investigative reports and the death certificates on the six cases from Queens. She hadn't had time to make copies, but it didn't matter. She could just as easily download them again. By giving him the material, she hoped to deflect the conversation away from her mental state, at least for the moment. Besides, she was eager to tell him her idea.

Roger scanned the pages quickly. "My word! They do seem similar to ours, even to the extent of occurring at around the same time in the morning."

"That's my take. I'll know more details when I get the hospital charts. But for the sake of the discussion, let's assume they are mirror images. Does that suggest anything to you?"

Roger looked down at the papers, thought for a moment, and then shrugged. "It means the number of cases has doubled. We now have twelve cases, not six. No, we have thirteen, including the death last night. I assume you've heard about Clark Mulhausen. Are you going to be doing the autopsy?"

"No, Jack is doing it," Laurie said. She had told Roger a little about Jack during their five-week courtship, including the fact that she and Jack had been lovers. When Laurie had first met Roger, she had described herself as "mostly unattached." Later, when she and Roger had gotten to know each other better, she had admitted that she had used that particular description of herself because of unresolved issues with Jack. She had even gone to the extent of confiding that the problem involved Jack's reluctance to make a commitment. Roger had accepted the news with great equanimity, which had enhanced Laurie's estimation of his maturity and self-confidence, and the issue had never resurfaced.

"Look at the dates on the Queens cases," Laurie suggested.

Roger again glanced through the papers then looked up. "They were all in the late fall of last year. The last one was in the latter part of November.

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