J. Konrath - Dirty Martini

My reaction was physical. The thought of going back into that chamber of death scared me more than anything had ever scared me in my life.

Wells seemed to sense this. “We’ve cleared the remaining traps. There were only two left.”

“There may be others.”

“We went in with X-ray, ultrasound, and a K9 unit. The house has been disarmed. You can use my mask…” Her voice trailed off, implying the if you’re afraid .

“No need. Let’s go.”

I had to will my legs to move, as they’d suddenly become stiff. It was like approaching a firecracker that should have gone off but hadn’t.

Bravery isn’t the absence of fear. It’s the ability to still function when fear overtakes you. Some people are naturally brave. Others, like me, learn to fake it. I still had no idea if faked bravery and real bravery were the same thing. Cops didn’t talk about their fears. Instead they drank, got divorced, committed suicide, or all three. It beat dwelling on being killed in the line of duty.

So into the house we marched, stiff upper lips in place. Wells took me past the living room, past the staircase, and back into the kitchen, where a black, charred stain marked the linoleum where Stryker had burned alive.

The refrigerator was open.

Curiosity overtook my jitters and I peered inside.

Standard fridge contents. Milk. Cheese. Lunch meat. Beer. Condiments in the door. But one item was out of place.

On the top rack, laid out on a CorningWare plate, were three severed fingers.

I knew immediately whose they were.

Officer Scott Hajek, my lab guy, was short, plump, and needed both hands to carry his crime scene kit, housed in an oversized Umco tackle box. He came into the kitchen and set the heavy case by my feet.

“Anything good to eat in there?” Hajek asked.

“Only finger food,” I replied.

Hajek squinted into the fridge through Coke-bottle glasses, then frowned.

“That’s bad.”

“It was that, or a hand on rye joke.”

“Where’s Herb? He has that gallows humor schtick down to a science.”

I had no idea where Herb was. After he’d disappeared last night, I hadn’t heard from him.

Hajek opened up his case, the hinged drawers expanding to three times the size of the base. After digging around for a few seconds, he came up with a vial of black fingerprint powder-to contrast the white appliance-and a horsehair brush.

He found several latents on the door handle, and several more on the front surface of the fridge. He used Pro-Lift stickers to remove and mount the prints.

“Got a glove mark.”

He handed over the Pro-Lift card, and I noted the black oval smudge, no ridges. Someone had opened the refrigerator wearing gloves. I compared two other decent partials to a laptop display showing Alger’s prints, and found that they matched. The homeowner used his own fridge; no surprise there.

Hajek then printed the severed fingers. He used modeling clay to avoid getting ink all over, and as I’d suspected the fingers belonged to former Chicago police officer Jason Alger.

It had been my suspicion that the cop had been killed, his fingers severed, and then his prints manually placed on the letter to the superintendent. The Chemist had known Alger’s prints would be on file, and had wanted to lead us to this death trap.

“Can you lift any latents from the dead tissue?” I asked, hoping that perhaps the Chemist had handled Alger’s fingers without using gloves.

“I could fume with iodine or cyanoacrylate, but let’s try good old low-tech to start off.”

Hajek dug around in his box and found a glass microscope slide. He handed it to me.

“Press this between your palms. My hands are always cold.”

I did as instructed, and after a few seconds he took it back, wiped it with a nonabrasive cloth, and pressed the slide to the back of one of the fingers.

“Glass is great for picking up oils. The fingers are cold, so we warm the slide, and the oils cling to the glass.”

He removed the slide and peered at it through a jeweler’s loupe.

We repeated the process four times, and then he said, “Got one.”

He dusted the slide, mounted the print with the Pro-Lift sticker, and frowned.

“Gloves.”

The Chemist was careful. I didn’t hold out hope for finding any prints elsewhere in the house, but sent Scott off to do the thankless work just the same.

“Dust any of the traps that the bombies have deemed safe. Hand railings. Toilet handles. Doorknobs. Light switches. You know the drill. Plus find Henderson-he’s been taking swabs from the IEDs, which you’ll need to identify some of the poisons.”

Scott made a face. “I’ll be here the rest of my life.”

“Don’t be silly. You’ll be done in three years, tops.”

I let him get to work, then pulled the pen from behind my ear and took out the notepad I’d been carrying in my waistband. So far the To Do list read:

trace M44 purchases

Alger-arrest record

talk to neighbors

question mailman who delivered letter

security tapes at BT scenes

witness search at BT scenes

survivor interviews/background checks

research IEDs

I scratched off talk to neighbors . Three teams had done extensive door-to-doors, and no one in the area had noticed anything unusual at Jason Alger’s house. In fact, some of the neighbors didn’t recognize Alger at all. I lamented how things had changed since I joined the force. Twenty years ago, people knew everyone on their block. These days, folks kept to themselves.

Maybe they were concerned some maniac might chop off their fingers and turn their house into a chamber of horrors.

I circled Alger-arrest record . There was a chance Alger had simply been a target of opportunity. But a plan this meticulous made me think that someone had a major beef against the former cop. I added IA after his name and decided it was time to get home to shower, change, and see what was going on with Latham.

The trip to Bensenville took almost an hour. Once I exited the expressway I fell in behind an ambulance, its sirens going full tilt. I hugged its bumper. Ambulances, fire trucks, and patrol cops had remote control devices called MIRTs-mobile infrared transmitters-used to change red lights into green ones. Being part of Detective Division, I didn’t warrant the five-hundred-dollar gizmo, but following an ambulance worked just as well.

Luckily, the meat wagon appeared to be taking the same route I was. Hitting all of these greens, I might even get to the house in record time.

I considered what I’d tell Latham when I saw him. What was I afraid of? Trust? Commitment? Family? My living situation changing? Losing my independence? Love?

I didn’t know. I was obviously afraid of something, but couldn’t figure out what it was.

And then, abruptly, I decided that I didn’t care what I was afraid of. I could fight the fear. I didn’t feel brave, but I was damn good at faking it.

I would marry Latham.

I noticed I was still following the ambulance, which was a little creepy, considering I was almost home.

When it headed down my street, I felt downright paranoid.

And when it pulled into my driveway, I went from paranoid to panicked.

I threw the car into park and rushed onto the lawn. Two paramedics were approaching my front door.

“I’m a cop. This is my house. What’s going on?”

“Had a call from this house a few minutes ago. Man complaining of abdominal pain, vomiting, and some paralysis.”

Botulism. Those were symptoms of botulism toxin.

“It might be… it might be botulism. Do you have antitoxin?”

“Not in our kits.”

I fumbled for my keys, trying to open the dead bolt, wondering how the Chemist could have found me so quickly. People close to me are always getting hurt. If Latham died because-