Mortal Fear by Greg Iles Read Free Book Online Page B

one cara Mercedesbut the plate expired last year.
    So who is the guy?
    An accountant for a glitzy firm in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
    I realize that Kiesha is trying to communicate something to Chief Tobin through eye contact alone. Despite her telepathic urgency, she is unsuccessful.
    What is it, dear? asks Arthur Lenz, as though he has known the woman since childhood.
    Hes dead, she says, almost as if against her will. David M. Strobekker was beaten to death in an alley in Minneapolis eleven months ago.
    A hot tingle races across my forearms.
    Holy shit, says Mayeux. What are we dealing with here?
    Daniel Baxter points a finger as thick as a Colt Python barrel at Kiesha. Details?
    Minneapolis homicide says it looked like a mugging gone bad. Strobekker was single, probably homosexual. He was slumming on a bad stretch of Hennepin Avenue. His skull was so pulped his boss couldnt recognize his face.
    Dr. Lenz emits a small sound of what I can only interpret as pleasure.
    Positive ID? asks Mayeux.
    Dental records and a thumbprint, Kiesha replies. His company kept thumbprint files; dont ask me why. But it was Strobekker for sure.
    Not for sure, I say, surprised to hear my own voice.
    Why not? Baxter asks sharply.
    Well... say Strobekker is the killer. Say he decided to fake his own death so that hed never be suspected in later crimes. He takes a thumbprint from a wino, puts that in his own personnel file, then kills the wino and pulps his face.
    What about the dental records? asks Baxter.
    I shrug. Im just thinking out loud.
    You watch too many movies.
    I must see the body immediately, Lenz says to Baxter, his eyes still on me.
    Jeff, call the Minneapolis field office, orders Baxter. We want a judge wholl give us an exhumation orderASAP. Then call the airport and book the first flight up there.
    What are you looking for? I ask.
    A pineal gland, among other things, says Lenz, watching me closely. Ever heard of it?
    I shake my head while I memorize the term. My knowledge of anatomy is limited, but my wifes is encyclopedic.
    The two women who died in California were linked because a pathologist from San Fransisco happened to mention an unsolved homicide case to a colleague at a convention. A woman had been murdered by strangulation, then had both eyes removed and wooden stakes driven through the sockets. When the pathologist sectioned the brain, he found that the points of both stakes terminated in the third ventricle of the braina little too perfectly for him. Stranger still, he found that part of the pineal gland was missing, which the stakes would not account for. The colleague who heard thisa pathologist from Los Angeleshad an unsolved homicide that was completely different in almost every respect. A woman had been beaten to death with a claw hammer, probably by someone she knew. Her brain sustained horrific damage. But this did not explain why much of her pineal gland was gone. This chance conversation ultimately linked the crimes. Then the police promptly charged down the wrong track and decided they were dealing with cult murders.
    Lenzs tone of voice when he says police earns him few friends in this room. He points his index finger at me.
    You tied those two victims to four others, through EROS. All four of those women also died from severe head wounds, or sustained postmortem head trauma. Pistol shot, shotgun blast, lethal fall. One was decapitated, as was Karin Wheat. Were exhuming the first three and conducting repeat autopsies on the heads. If the condition of the brains permits it, I strongly suspect we will find that these women are missing all or part of their pineal glands.
    The psychiatrist is staring at me as though he expects me to start filling in gaps for him.
    What the hell does the pineal gland do? I ask.
    As Lenz and Baxter stare silently at me, my survival instinct tells me its time to test the bars on this cage. Look, I say, directing my words to Chief Tobin, I think you guys have definitely stepped out of my