Dead Man's Song (Pine Deep 2)

Barney gave his own shrug and went into the cold room. While he wrestled with the body of Jimmy Castle, Weinstock glanced over at the tape recorder that he’d started running at the beginning of the autopsy. The counter was ticking along steadily, having recorded all of his remarks to Barney. Frowning, he did a few more tests to Cowan, piercing the lower back, upper back, calves, thighs: trying to find blood. His frown deepened as he examined the ragged wounds at the throat. Strange wounds, not like knife wounds, not like any kind of wounds he had ever seen outside of a textbook. He bent close, gingerly pressing the flaps of skin back into place like puzzle pieces, reconstructing the throat as accurately as possible. The loose strips of skin added up to most of the throat, though some small sections were missing. Probably lost in the mud or destroyed when Boyd did whatever it was he did to the corpse the night he broke into the morgue to steal Ruger’s body. Even so, there was enough to piece together most of the throat. Weinstock used his fingers to hold the patchwork in place, and stared at what the marks on the flesh told him.

“Oh my…God!” he breathed softly, and he could feel sweat popping on his forehead and spreading under his arms. He looked up quickly as the nurse came crashing through the double doors, pushing a gurney. The naked body of Jimmy Castle lay on the steel surface, his white face wiped clean of all its former easy smiles, his body robbed of animation, dignity, and humanity.

Barney barely glanced at the doctor, didn’t see the brightness of his eyes or the sweat that ran in trails down the sides of his face. “You okay, Doc?”

Weinstock grunted something and reached out to pull the second gurney closer. Together, Weinstock and the nurse hoisted him onto the second of the steel surgical tables. Weinstock said, “Help me get him on his side. Good. Hand me that scalpel. Thanks. ” Weinstock repeated the same cuts he made on Cowan’s body.

Barney looked at the incisions and then at Weinstock. “No blood. ”

“No blood,” Weinstock agreed slowly, his voice soft, thoughtful. He set the scalpel down and eased the body onto its back. He shifted position, standing near to Castle’s head, his body blocking the view from the nurse as he poked and probed at the dead officer’s throat.

“What’s it mean?”

Weinstock turned toward him, and now Barney could see that sweat was pouring down the doctor’s face. Weinstock folded his hairy arms and leaned a hip against Cowan’s table, looking slowly from one body to the other and back again. He was trying to look casual, but his face was hard and his eyes almost glassy. Then he reached over and punched the Off button on the tape recorder and looked up at the nurse, who was beginning to fidget. “Let me ask you something, Barney,” he said slowly, his voice as taut as violin strings. “How much do you like this job?”

“Huh?”

“Your job, being a nurse here at the hospital, how much do you like it?”

“Uh…well, I like it just fine, Doc. ”

“Means a lot to you, this job?”

“Yes sir. ”

“Got a wife? Kids?”

“Sure, Jenny and I have just the one. She’ll be ten months on Monday. ”

“Ten months? My oh my. Babies are expensive, aren’t they?”

“You said it. ”

“So, I guess it would be a safe assumption that you really need this job?”

“Sir?” Barney was frowning, beginning to feel really nervous.

“I mean, with a wife and a new baby, you need to keep this job, am I right?”

Carefully, afraid to commit himself, Barney said, “Ye-ees. ”

“Uh huh. ” Weinstock rubbed at the corner of his mouth with the back of his bent wrist, his eyes fixed piercingly on the nurse. “Well, let me just say this, then. Right now there are just two people who know about the condition of these two bodies. Correct?”

“Um…yeah, I guess so. ”

“Just the two of us. Now, I am going to write a very confidential report on the condition of these bodies. I will only be sharing that report with Mayor Wolfe, and perhaps with the chief—and no one else. I can reasonably expect those two gentlemen to keep this confidential, you understand?” He paused. “You know about it as well. ”

“Well sure, but I—”

“And you need to keep this job. ”

Barney said nothing.

“So I can also expect that you won’t tell anyone, either. ”

After a long pause, Barney said, “Yes, sir. ”

Weinstock nodded. “Understand me here, Barney—I like you and we’ve known each other for a long time, so I’m not threatening you. Don’t take it that way, please, but something is very, very wrong here and I need to know with absolute confidence that you are going to maintain the confidentiality of this at all costs. ”