The visit to Dr. Steiner had to be put off. There was no way to show up at the morgue saddled with a big evidence box and hope to avoid any awkward questions.
Returning to the city police station with the box wasn't much less awkward. The sergeant at the front desk gave them an odd look, and so did a few others in the main office, but aside from that they were left alone. Kristeva alternated between peering up at Bowen's and Kincaid's office windows, expecting either one of them to come out and start questioning them at any minute, though so far they'd been left to themselves. Then he wondered why he expected such behavior from Kincaid at all, and peered toward Bowen's windows only. Their chief was looking at something in a folder as he talked on the phone.
"I can't figure out what the Sheriff's Department was doing with this," Devetko said, drawing his attention back. They were looking through the longhand notes, the shorthand notebooks stashed out of sight in the box since they seemed more likely to draw unwanted attention.
Kristeva lifted a shoulder. "It was a joint investigation, as far as I'm aware."
"Still, the city had jurisdiction, didn't it? It was our investigation. Why would the county end up with the most important files?"
"You're really going to ask that now, after all the other shit we've had to deal with? I figured the answer must be obvious..."
Devetko made a sour face. "Yeah, I can figure out the answer. Somebody didn't want Singer's files easily found. But why not?"
Kristeva briefly mulled over offering his own theory, decided against it, and shrugged instead. "No clue."
The other detective peered over the edge of the page he was browsing. "Yeah, sure you have no clue."
"The bigger thing I'm wondering about is, why hide the original when the report is already in the system?--unless there's something in here that was left out. Mark's note on the followup makes me think that's the case. I'm not seeing anything different just yet, though."
"Well..." Devetko flipped through a few pages and frowned. "Maybe he never transcribed all the notebooks...? Without poring over the whole mess there's no real way to tell. Unless there's somebody else who's familiar with his code."
"Probably just the people familiar with the original case, and the first one I'd think to ask is a no-go, for obvious reasons." Kristeva bobbed a pen in his mouth. "Wonder if Kinnie would know it. Seems like he has a good memory for random shit."
"You think Mark would've shown him these notebooks...?"
Kristeva made a face. "I don't know him well enough to say...but it seems like it would've been a bad idea. Short of talking to Rhoades or Chief Bowen, I can't think of anything else. Singer doesn't seem like he was the social sort, and it looks like he was doing everything solo, so who would he bother sharing it with--?"
"What about Cheryl, you think she'd know--?"
"Cheryl--?" Kristeva blinked, surprised to not realize who Devetko was even talking about at first, and earning a dubious look in response. "I'm not sure," he said. "She did say they were pretty close...you really think he'd share this kind of shit with her--?"
"He showed her that photo, didn't he? I'm not even saying he would've shown her the notebooks, just that maybe, if they were close, she would know about whatever code he used, too. Maybe he left something else behind in the house, who knows." He shrugged, holding papers aloft. "It's either that, or send these to a professional codebreaker somewhere and have them deal with it, and who knows how long that would take."
"Obviously we're not sending them away anywhere," Kristeva nearly snapped, getting another look. "Fine...I'll ask her. Needed to get in touch with her again, anyway."
"For what--?"
"For the reason I planned on talking to Dr. Steiner earlier." Kristeva slumped back in his seat a little. "We need a DNA sample. To compare to the skeleton."
"Oh." Devetko lowered the papers, subdued. "Dr. Steiner actually got DNA from that?"
"I don't know yet. He said it'd be iffy after so many years, but was worth a shot. The jaw is missing and the teeth aren't entirely intact, which rules out dental records; Singer's DNA isn't on file, and Cheryl's the only remaining blood relative I know of. So if the remains are going to be ID'ed, that's how it's going to be done." He grimaced a little and took the pen out of his mouth. "That's a conversation I'm really not going to like..."
"Well, she's held up this long. I doubt asking her for a DNA sample will jar her much." A pause. "Don't you have such conversations all the time...?"
"Actually a lot less often than you'd expect. Missing people usually aren't really missing..."
"Devetko?"
Both detectives sat up straight, then glanced toward Bowen's office. The door was open and Chief Bowen was leaning out; when he saw he had their attention, he gestured at Devetko.
"Got some info on that transfer request."
He turned and went back into his office. Kristeva glanced at Devetko just in time to see the stricken look come to his face; the other detective rose a little too abruptly, and followed Bowen into his office, the door shutting behind him. He stood stiffly in front of Bowen's desk as the chief held his telephone receiver in one hand and talked to him.
Kristeva almost jumped out of his chair when Det. Tulie appeared seemingly out of nowhere, leaning over his shoulder and whispering uncomfortably close to his ear, "I can go back in the storage room and listen in, if you want."
A grimace. "I'm not giving you an excuse to go boink Officer Such-And-Such, thank you very much."
Tulie shrugged and turned away. "Your loss."
Kristeva peered askance toward Bowen's office window. He picked up his own phone and pretended to punch a few numbers just to look busy; Tulie's offer, however distasteful, had been rather difficult to turn down. He heard an odd rolling noise and glanced to the side just as Officer DelBora propelled her chair over to the side of his desk. His ears burned when he noticed everyone else in the office looking in his direction; as soon as they saw this, they turned back to their own work. He hadn't realized just how silent the room was until everyone started buzzing again.
"Tulie did that thing where she talks about going to do that thing...?" DelBora whispered.
Kristeva glanced toward the ceiling. "I really don't feel like talking about this..."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm pretty damn positive, DelBora--"
"No, that's what Chief Bowen just said. 'Are you sure?'" When he looked at her, she nodded toward the office window. "His lips."
A frown. "You read lips?"
"My cousin is deaf. We used to play all the time when we were kids, I just picked it up." She squinted and frowned. "I can't tell what Chance is saying, he's turned away too much..."
"You're on a first-name basis with my partner--?"
Bowen, still holding the phone receiver and covering the mouthpiece with his other hand, frowned a little and shook his head. "'I can't hold on to it if you're not interested,'" DelBora said, then frowned herself. "I think that's what he said...not sure what it means, though."
Kristeva said nothing, not sure if it meant what it sounded like. Devetko said something in response; Bowen only shrugged, looking resigned and gesturing at him before putting the receiver back to his ear. Kristeva turned back to his own phone, and DelBora wheeled herself away faster than he would have thought possible, when Devetko opened the door and exited. When he sat back down Kristeva could have sworn his own ears were red, though he didn't look too closely. He dialed an actual number as Devetko looked at his desktop and then moved a few items into slightly different positions as if the situation required it.
"Anyway," Kristeva said, earning a look, "she's probably home so I'll see if she's okay with us just dropping in. Not that she shouldn't be, by now."
"Huh...?" Devetko said; then, "Oh." Moved a folder aside. "Right."
Kristeva had a couple of seconds--and rings--to ponder saying something bitchy, though nothing came to mind; he was puzzled to find that he felt more resigned than anything. A click and a voice in his ear snapped him out of the thought and he pushed himself out of the slouch he'd slipped into. "Hi, Ms. Singer?--sorry...Cheryl. I'm fine, thanks. Actually I was wondering if we could stop by and ask you a couple of questions...? It's nothing big yet...sorry...just some followup. Okay. We'll be by in a few minutes. Thanks." He hung up and stood, Devetko following suit. "Well...time to see if she has anything left to offer. God knows we haven't had very much to offer in return."
Devetko looked like he wanted to say something, but didn't. He retrieved his umbrella while Kristeva took his jacket off the back of his chair. On their way out of the station Kristeva pondered starting a different conversation, to try to break the tension a little, then decided to just let the awkward silence simmer on the drive there.
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