The 9th Judgment

I stood aside and watched the CSIs work, thinking about how an hour before, Elaine Marone had been shopping with her husband and her toddler, and now Claire's team was wrapping their bodies in clean white sheets, zipping up the body bags. I was glad the cold finality of those zippers closing was something Francis Marone would never hear.

I was wishing again, hoping that the spent slugs would compute, that there would be some useful physical evidence in this bloodbath, when Conklin called out, "Linds. Check this out."

I walked over to the Marones' minivan and saw that my partner was pointing to the three-letter signature on the windshield. He turned his brown eyes on me and said, "That's not lipstick."

I shined my light on the letters and felt my stomach drop.

"That's blood," Conklin said. "He wrote the letters in their blood with his finger."

One of Clapper's techs took close-ups. Another swabbed the letters on the windshield. My flicker of hope burned bright.

Could it be?

Had the Lipstick Killer gotten so lost in his madness, he'd left a bloody print behind for the good guys?

Chapter 42

AT EIGHT THIRTY that night, Sergeant Jackson Brady faced the motley gang of Homicide inspectors and patrol cops who were grouped around him in our squad room. He jammed a videotape into our old machine and said, "If anyone sees something I missed, shout it out."

The screen sparked with a grainy black-and-white image of a man in the lower right corner, walking up the center aisle of the garage, heading toward the Dodge Caravan near the end of the row.

The images were halting, dark, snowy-the result of bad lighting and cheap tape that had been recycled hundreds of times. Still, we could see the killer. As before, he wore a billed cap and a two-toned baseball jacket. He kept his head down and faced away from the surveillance camera.

Brady narrated as the pictures rolled.

"Here, he has his hands in his pockets. As he approaches the victim's van, he hails Mrs. Marone. What's he saying? Asking the time, maybe? Or does she have change for a twenty?

"Now she puts her packages on the van's backseat and slides the door closed. She goes to the driver's side, talking on the cell phone to her husband."

I watched the screen as the killer moved in on the still-living figure of Elaine Marone. I studied the way he walked, examining his body language and hers. He seemed apologetic as he went toward her, and Elaine Marone didn't appear alarmed.

I remembered Brady saying that this guy "passes as ordinary." And I thought about the most vicious of the serial killers-the ones that movies were made about-and every one of those psychopaths looked ordinary.

"See, now, the gun is out," Brady said. "Nine mil, Beretta. Nifty suppressor. She takes a quick look into the backseat, then stretches out the handbag. She's saying, 'What do you want?' She's trying to buy the killer off, not getting anywhere. The Highlander blocks the camera's view of their lower bodies, but from the way he's suddenly bent over, I think she's kicked him.

"Now he's slapping the handbag out of her hand, and there's the first gunshot. She presses her hand to her upper chest."

Brady talked, but I could see for myself that Elaine Marone went for the killer's gun hand. He grabbed her wrist with his free hand, squeezing it hard, and he wrenched himself free. That's when he left bruises on her wrist. A second later, Elaine Marone's body jerked four times, then slumped out of sight.

The back door of the van was opened, and the killer fired one shot into the backseat, then disappeared from view.

"Look," Brady said. "Here's our shooter again. He's holding Elaine Marone's body around the waist with his left arm and using the index finger of her right hand to write his signature on the glass. She didn't have lipstick," Brady said, "so he improvised."

I asked Brady to roll the tape back, and I watched again as the killer used the dead woman's hand to write "CWF" in her blood. He used her finger, not his, and besides, the bastard was wearing gloves. My hope for a fingerprint died.

Brady was saying, "He left the van doors open and arranged the bodies. Now here he is, walking up toward the fifth tier, where the next camera picks him up getting into the elevator. We have the tape from that, too. It's ten seconds, a close-up of the top of his cap, no logo. Now he exits at street level.

"Three minutes and forty seconds," Brady said, pointing the remote at the monitor, shutting it off. "That's how much time elapsed from when he drew his gun to when he disappeared."

Chapter 43

WE WERE ON the wide leather couch in the living room, waiting for the eleven o'clock news. My feet were in Joe's lap, and Martha was snoring on the rug beside me. I was frustrated and beyond exhaustion. I wanted to sleep, but my mind was spinning.