of a white female. A head and an arm,” he said. “They’re still looking for the rest of the body.”
That confirmed Eric’s fears. “Where?”
“BFI landfill.”
“Identifiable?” Eric asked.
“Why are you so interested, Eric? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“I have a missing employee—and under suspicious circumstances.”
“Just a minute.” Pope picked up his desk phone and dialed a number.
Eric heard enough of the conversation to assume that Pope was talking to someone at the county morgue. When the police chief replaced the receiver, he had a bemused grin on his face.
“That was Lilly Caskins,” Pope said. “I thought she might email us a photo of the head, but it seems we’ll have to drive to the morgue if we want any information.”
Eric was more than a little irritated by Lilly Caskins’s rudeness, but he said nothing. She wielded a lot of political power, but even she had her limits. She’d do well to remember that. Political loyalties swing to whoever is in power.
“You don’t have to go, Eric. I take it you want to verify the victim is or isn’t your employee.”
“I know it’s unusual for the prosecutor’s chief deputy to get involved this way,” Eric replied, “but we may have a personal interest in the identity of the victim. I just pray it’s not Nina.”
“We?” Pope asked.
“I’m sorry, I thought I told you. I’m here at Trent’s request.”
“He sent you on his behalf? Why?”
“You know how the game is played, Marlin. Trent was worried his personal presence would imply something he didn’t want to be implied. So I’m doing the legwork.” He knew Pope would understand.
“By the way, Eric, how did you find out about this?”
“Trent was made aware that Nina Parsons, one of our deputy prosecutors, didn’t show up this morning to do the weekend charging documents for tomorrow’s court.” Eric went on to explain. “As you know, when someone is arrested after regular court hours, a deputy prosecutor has to prepare affidavits and the ‘charging information’ for a judge to determine if the prisoner should be held over for court on Monday mornings.”
“Who reported Nina missing?” Pope asked.
“Cindy McCoy,” Eric said. “She was supposed to meet Nina at the office this morning. Nina was preparing Cindy to take over the weekend precharges. It had been Nina’s job until recently. Anyway, when Nina didn’t show up, Cindy called Nina’s home and cell phone. When she couldn’t reach Nina, she called Trent at home.”
Pope raised an eyebrow, and Eric explained. “She tried to call me first, but when I didn’t respond . . .”
“Because you were at your engagement party. That’s understandable.” Yet Pope surprised him by asking, “Aren’t you jumping to conclusions that the body at the landfill is Nina?”
Eric leaned forward in his chair. “Trent called me at Katie’s this afternoon to tell me Nina was missing from work. It was right after Jack left the party. I put two and two together, and . . . look, I may be wrong here, but I have another reason to believe it’s Nina.”
“I have the feeling you’re going to tell me something I don’t want to hear,” Pope said.
Eric had finally worked around to the point he needed to make. “I may have screwed up, Marlin.”
CHAPTER SIX
Somewhere on the East Coast a cell phone rang. “Yes,” a woman’s voice answered.
“It’s done.”
Under normal conditions she would have disconnected and destroyed the cell phone. The job was done. Payment would be made. But this time was different.
“Call back,” she said, and hung up.
The next call would come from another public pay phone, and she would use another of her cell phone numbers. She pulled the battery from the back of the disposable phone, removed the SIM chip, and broke it in half. She would burn all of it later. Nothing would lead back to her.
Her job as a fixer required that she not leave anything to chance, and she was good at that. She had to be. A woman fixer was unheard of in the business a few years ago, but she had proven her worth to the organization. She did what needed to be done, no matter how undesirable.
Her crew had collected the body of the dead woman, and the same evening they killed the prostitute and her pimp. For her plan to work, the first body had to disappear entirely, and the other two bodies—or the heads, at least—would be left in a very public place.
The two contractors she had selected for this job were good. They did as they