they ever satisfied that I won’t just pick up and begin again once I get her back?”
Panos nodded. “That’s a tough one, Frank. That’s shit tough.”
“That’s why I need to go. I need a bargaining chip. I tell Henry what I’ve got. I tell him to let Nora go and I’ll let it pass. She gets hurt, he goes down.”
“So you come to me with this story and now we won’t be able to use it?”
“Come on, Panos. Of course we’ll use it. After I get Nora, we print the whole thing.”
“That is not so honest.”
“They kidnapped my girl. I’m supposed to be a goddamn saint? You joking?”
Panos let out a grim laugh. “I see, Frank. And it is my humble guess that you want to confront our esteemed mayor at his big fancy gala party tonight?”
“That’s right. I want to get him tonight, in a public place, where he doesn’t have time to think. I don’t want Nora being held any longer than necessary.”
“Just so. Okay, Frank, you go to the big fun party tonight. You just be careful, okay? For you and your lovely Nora.”
On his way out, Frings saw a note written on a restaurant check at the top of a stack of papers o his desk.
Dear Mr. Frings,
I am a prisoner. There are two men watching me at all times. They (I know that you know who I mean) are destroying the evidence held in the files. I write you this note so that you will know the reason for events that may follow. They can not destroy the past, but they can edit our memory.
A.P.
Frings frowned. If they were destroying the evidence in the files, then only one other thing could expose the Navajo Project and that would be the convicts themselves. Red Henry would send his thugs after them, then all the loose ends would be tied up. No more evidence. He thought back to his time with Otto Samuelson and his meeting with Whiskers and wondered if they hadn’t already come to that same realization.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO
They knew Feral at the morgue and regarded him with the same combination of curiosity and fear that most City employees who knew him did. It wasn’t clear exactly who he was or what type of authority he held, but he had the backing of the mayor, and they knew to accede to his requests.
The morgue was a bright, sanitary place. Shining white-tiled walls provided a weird, near heavenly environment for the corpses spending their brief time there. None of the three steel autopsy tables were currently in use, and a large metal door led back to the refrigerated corpse room. The chief examiner was a small, portly man named Pulyatkin. He had huge hands and a face that took up a surprising amount of his head.
“Nice to see you today, sir,” Pulyatkin said to Feral.
“And you, Mr. Pulyatkin.” Feral had his hands in his pockets, and his right hand played with the handle of a short knife.
“What brings you here?”
“I’m looking for a missing woman.”
“Oh?”
“That’s right. White woman. On the younger side, late twenties, early thirties.”
“Is that it? Is that all you have?”
“Last three or four days.”
“Come.” Pulyatkin led Feral into the corpse room. The room was kept at a constant thirty-five degrees, and Feral pulled his collar up around his neck. The corpses—perhaps forty in all—were laid out under sheets on bunks stacked four high.
“Over here is where we have the John and Jane Does,” Pulyatkin said, leading Feral to the far left corner. “I think we have two women. Let’s see.” He drew back the corner of the sheet from a corpse and found the mostly missing head of a man. “Not that one,” he said, laughing nervously.
He found the two unidentified women and left the sheets pulled back to reveal their faces. “Is one of these the one you are looking for?”
“I will have to make a closer examination to be sure.”
Pulyatkin frowned and gestured for Feral to inspect.
“I need a minute to myself,” Feral said.
Pulyatkin had heard this request from Feral before, and as in the past, he acquiesced with a small nod and retreated back to the examination room. Feral looked at the two faces and picked the one that looked most like Nora, though it was not a close resemblance. The face would have been gaunt even in life. Pulling the sheet away so that he could get to her right hand, he fished the knife from his pocket and used