Table of Contents
ALSO BY SARA PARETSKY
Hardball
Bleeding Kansas
Fire Sale
Blacklist
Total Recall
Hard Time
Ghost Country
Windy City Blues
Tunnel Vision
Guardian Angel
Burn Marks
Blood Shot
Bitter Medicine
Killing Orders
Deadlock
Indemnity Only
For Jo Anne, Jolynn, and Kathryn
Thanks for helping keep the rickety C-Dog ship
afloat all these years
THANKS
Thanks to Dr. Bill Ernoehazy for his advice on forensic evidence, and on preparing autopsy reports. For reasons of the story, I didnt follow his advice to the letter, so please dont be dismayed if you think Captain Edwards should have acted differently.
On a happier note, thanks to Edwina Wolstencroft and the Early Music Show for advice on Jake Thibauts song. Ms. Wolstencroft directed me to the trobairitz, who Id never heard of before. The translation of Maria de Ventadorns poem is taken from Meg Bogin, The Women Troubadours.
Thanks to Sue Riter for much more than I can say here. You made this book possible; you made it work.
Professor Israel bar-Joseph, an expert on nanoparticles at the Weizmann Institute, was kind enough to speak to me about gallium arsenide, among other matters.
Jolynn Parker provided crucial assistance in critiquing the book in manuscript form. Kathryn Lyndess support was invaluable in helping with the final rewrites.
The title of Chapter 55 is an old Russian proverb: Up a hill you push a cart; down a hill it rolls. There is some justice in this world, just not enough.
Dead in the Alley
Nadia Guaman died in my arms. Seconds after I left Club Gouge, I heard gunshots, screams, squealing tires, from the alley behind the building. I ran across the parking lot, slipping on gravel and ruts, and found Nadia crumpled on the dirty ice. Blood was flowing from her chest in a thick tide.
I ripped off my scarf and opened her coat. The wound was high in her chesttoo high, I knew thatbut I still made a pad of my scarf and pressed it against her. Keeping pressure on the pad, I struggled out of my coat and placed it under her. Left hand on chest, right hand underneath, pushing my coat against the exit wound. Without looking up or stopping the pressure, I shouted at the people surging around us to call 911, now, at once.
Nadias eyes flickered open as I cradled her. The ghost of a smile flickered at the sides of her wide mouth. Alley. Alley.
Shhh, Nadia, save your strength.
I thought it was a good sign, a hopeful sign, that she spoke, and I kept pushing against her wound, singing snatches of a cradle song, trying to keep us both calm. When the paramedics arrived, and pried my hands free from her wounds, they shook their heads. Shed been dead for several minutes already.
I started to shiver. It was only when the medics forced me to my feet that I felt the January wind cut into my bones. The medics brought me into the ambulance but left Nadia lying on the ground, waiting for a tech team to photograph her. The crew wrapped a blanket around me and gave me hot sweet coffee from their own thermos.
You did the best that could be done. No one could have done more. The tech was short and muscular, with wiry red hair. She was bleeding out within minutes of being shot. Im guessing the bullet nicked a major vein, but the ME will tell us more. Was she a friend?
I shook my head. Wed barely spoken, and at that point, in fact, I only knew her first name.
A cop poked his head through the open ambulance door. You the gal that put her coat on the dead girl?
Dead woman, I started to say, but I was too exhausted to fight that battle tonight. Nadia was dead, and whatever one called her, it wouldnt bring her back to life. I didnt move from the bench facing the stretcher but croaked out a yes.
Can we talk inside, maam? the cop said. The EMTs are going to take the dead girl to the morgue as soon as the photo team is through, and its five degrees here in the parking lot.
I handed the blanket back to the ambulance crew and let the cop give me a hand as I jumped off the back. Nadia was lying where Id left her, her face silver under the blue strobes, the blood on her chest black. My coat was still underneath her. I walked over and fished my car and house keys from the pockets, despite outcries from the evidence team. My handbag was lying a few feet from the dead woman, I muttered out loud. I picked up the bag, also against the outraged shouts of the officer in charge.
Thats evidence.
Its my handbag, which I dropped when I was performing first aid. You dont need it and I do. I turned on my heel and walked back into the Club Gouge. The bag was handmade from red leather, an apology of sorts from the friend of a dead missing person, and I wasnt going to risk losing it or my wallet in an evidence locker.
Everyone whod been in the club or the parking lot, except those crafty enough to escape ahead of the team in blue, had been herded into the building. A minute before, Id been too cold, but the club atmosphere, hot, nearly airless, made me ill. I started to sweat, and fought a rising tide of nausea.
The club staff, including my cousin Petra, were huddled by the bar. After a moment, when I decided I wasnt going to vomit, I shoved my way through the crowd to Petras side.
Vic, what happened? Petras blue eyes were wide with fear. Youre covered with blood.
I looked down and saw Nadias blood on my jeans and sweater, on my hands. My scalp crawled: maybe her blood was in my hair.
Someone shot a woman as she left the club, I said.
Was itwho was it?
I heard her called Nadia, I said slowly, fixing Petra with a hard stare. I dont know if thats her name, and I dont know her last name. If the cops, or a reporter, ask you questions about what happened tonight, you can answer only truthfully about things you actually know and saw. You shouldnt answer questions about things that are just guesses, because that could mislead the cops.
It would be best if you dont consult the other witnesses, a voice said.
A female officer had fought through the shouting, texting, Twittering chaos to appear at my side.
Under the club lights, I could see her face, narrow, with pronounced cheekbones, and lank black hair cut so short the ends only just appeared below her cap rim. I read her badge: E. Milkova. E. Milkova didnt look much older than my cousin, too young to be a cop, too young to be telling me what to do. Butshe had the badge. I let her guide me to the small stage at the back of the club, which the police had roped off with crime scene tape so they could use it for interrogations. She lifted the tape so I could crawl under, then dragged a couple of chairs from the nearest table. I reached a hand out and took one of them from her.
I was in that numb place you inhabit after youve been part of violence and death. It was hard to focus on Milkovas questions. I gave her my name. I told her Id heard gunshots and run to see what the problem was. I told her I didnt know the dead woman.
But you knew her name, Milkova said.
That was just from hearing someone call her Nadia. I dont know her last name.
