J. Konrath - Rusty Nail

“He was tortured.” Holly swallowed, then walked over to the corpse’s legs and peered at a stab wound. “These cuts have salt rubbed into them.”

Phil frowned. “Kind of silly, to interrogate a man with fishhooks in his mouth. How was he supposed to talk?”

“He wasn’t supposed to talk,” I said. “He was supposed to hurt.”

“He hurt, all right. I ran a blood sample and did an enzyme immunoassay. His histamine levels were off the charts. This man died in agony.”

“Why do some of the stab wounds look different?”

“It appears that two weapons were used, a thin, double-edged blade and a thicker one with a serrated back.”

The hunting knife that Benedict’s attacker left behind had a serrated back.

“Must have gotten bored with the little knife, gotten something bigger,” Holly said.

“Can you tell by the angle if the perp is right-handed or left-handed?” I asked.

Phil picked up a stainless steel protractor and worked out some angles.

“The big blade was wielded by a lefty. The smaller blade, by someone right-handed.”

Holly nodded. “So the killer had a knife in each hand.”

“Then how could he rub the salt in?” I shook my head. “No. I have a different theory.”

“We’re all ears, Lieutenant.”

I frowned. “I think we’ve got more than one killer.”

I’D BEEN NURTURING that theory since early this morning. All evidence pointed toward a meticulous guy with a blond beard, yet a sloppy redhead was the one who attacked Herb. I hadn’t been able to reconcile it. But if there were two killers at work, everything fit.

The Gingerbread Man’s partner had found a replacement.

Holly gave me a funny look. “Are you sure?”

“That’s how it looks. One of them is probably Caleb Ellison.”

“And the other one?”

I chewed on my other lip. “I don’t know.” I added, “Yet.”

Phil Blasky picked up his coffee and took a sip, making happy smacking sounds.

“You ladies are welcome to stay for the autopsy. There’s donuts.”

That didn’t hold a lot of appeal for me, though Holly seemed thrilled at the prospect. I stared down at Jensen’s body, puzzling why he died, wondering what his link to Caleb Ellison was, and found myself focusing on his tattoos.

In the middle of his biceps, slathered with hell imagery and the machine guns, there was a small piece of skin missing, the size of a quarter. Unlike the other wounds, this appeared to be a slice, rather than a stab.

I looked lower, and a similar patch of skin had been cut from his forearm. The other arm had three similar marks, on the back of the hand, the triceps, and the shoulder.

Someone cut off a few of his tattoos. And I had an inkling why.

“Do you have an extra pair of gloves, Phil?”

“There’s a box under the cart.”

I pulled out a pair and tugged them on. Holly did the same, though without much enthusiasm.

“We’re not doing a cavity search, right?” she asked.

I ignored her, picking up Jensen’s cold right hand and spreading out the fingers, which felt like stiff rubber. I peered at the webbing, and his palm, then worked up the underside of the arm until I got to the armpit. Not finding what I sought, I did the same with the left arm. Then I scrutinized behind the ears, and the back of the neck.

“Can we turn him over?”

Phil nodded, munching on a donut. His chin had strawberry jelly on it – I hoped to God it was strawberry jelly.

“On three,” I told Holly. “One, two, three.”

I pulled. She pushed. Jensen tilted up onto his side and flopped toward me, momentum taking him off the edge of the metal table. The headrest went flying. I had to push my hip against his clammy, naked hip to keep him from falling onto the floor, splotching my Kathleen B top with people juice. How many damn outfits could I ruin this week?

Holly tugged on his arm, sliding Jensen back into position.

The tattoo was over his right buttock. Homemade, black ink, three letters: DDD .

“Son of a bitch.” Holly rubbed a gloved finger over the ink. “This guy’s a Disciple.”

“I haven’t heard of that gang.”

“They’re from my town. The triple D boys. Detroit Devil Disciples. Operate on the East side, maybe a hundred strong. They run drugs, guns, a string of crack whores. Represent for Folks.”

“And you know them because…?”

She offered a small, private smile. “Let’s just say I’ve crossed paths with them a few times.”

I stared at the mark. Someone had cut off the others, and missed this one because it had been in an unobtrusive spot. Removing tattoos was symbolic, like stripping a gang-banger of his colors. Either his own gang did it because he betrayed them, or a rival gang did it to disrespect him.

There was also a third possibility: to keep Jensen’s identity hidden.

Mason’s search for Jensen in the National Crime Information Center records revealed a criminal record, until only a few years ago. The same for Caleb Ellison. It was highly doubtful they’d suddenly gone straight. Changing identities seemed a much better prospect.

“I have a few contacts in Detroit.” Holly stripped off her gloves and pulled a flip phone out of her front pocket. “Want me to see what I can figure out?”

At this point, I needed all the help I could get. “Be my guest.”

Holly trotted off, phone in hand. I pulled off my gloves and bellied up to the big slop sink, where I spent five minutes trying to get the stain out of my blouse.

“Jack! I got something!”

Holly had poked her head into the autopsy room.

“What?”

“Steve Jensen is using another name. I described him to the guy I talked to, and he pinned down an alias. A quick look at his record, and we got a list of associates, one of them named Caleb.”

“Caleb Ellison?”

“No. Caleb’s using an alias too. The guy you’re looking for is a redhead, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Caleb’s last known address is here in Chicago.”

I hurried over to Holly, the stain forgotten.

“What’s the address?”

Holly shook her head. “I want to go with you.”

“Holly, dammit, this is police business.”

“I got the information, I want to come with you.”

“No. Absolutely not.”

I felt eyes on the back of my neck. Blasky was staring at us, munching on a cruller. I took Holly into the cooler with me.

“Who did you call in the Detroit police to get this information?”

She played coy. “Who said I called the Detroit police? I’m a private investigator, remember? I have plenty of contacts.”

I pushed past her, walking out of the cooler, into the loading room. I could call the gang unit in Detroit, possibly get the same info Holly did, but I had no clue who to talk to, and no idea how long it would take.

“Jack…” Holly caught up, tugged on my sleeve. “Don’t be pissed. I just want to be a part of this.”

“You’re a civilian, Holly. I could lose my badge just for bringing you into the morgue.”

She made a pouty face.

“Come on, Jack. All I do is spy on cheating husbands, take pictures of fat guys trying to cheat insurance companies, and chase losers who jump bail. This is something real. Something important. Do you know how many times I heard Harry tell the story about the time he helped you nail Charles Kork?”

I ignored her, signing out, leaving the morgue.

“I have his address, Jack. I can back you up.”

“It doesn’t work that way, Holly. I need a warrant, cops on all the exits, the Feds want a piece; you being there could ruin the bust.”

“Fine. I’ll get him myself.”

She took off across the parking lot, walking at a brisk pace.