Chain of Evidence

CHAPTER 11

Colt Park occupied nearly twenty city blocks of open grounds, with copses of trees-maples, oaks, pines-a jungle gym and a parking lot. Like any of Hartford’s city parks, after sunset it was not a particularly safe place. Dart kept his eyes open for movement and his ears alert. He felt on edge.

The occasional ghost or goblin appeared on the sidewalk, far in the distance, for this was the night of tricks or treats, a night any cop dreaded, a night as unpredictable as New Year’s Eve or the Fourth of July. By midnight, the gangs would be out in full force. By one o’clock in the morning a teenager would be dead of a bullet wound; on Halloween, that was virtually guaranteed.

Dart waited for her in the early evening dusk that arrives in October like an unwanted cousin, waited beneath a yellow cone of an overhead street lamp, waited nervously for a woman he had loved too recently to forget but had loved too strongly to allow himself to fully remember, waited as a few early-fallen oak leaves tumbled across the grass sounding like spilled seashells, waited and felt hurt. The heat of Indian summer had surrendered to the insistent cool of autumn, the sky seemed a gloomier color, and the air had lost its fragrance. For the last two weeks, Dart had gone about his regular job of domestic assaults and gang-related homicides. But it was the string of suicides that occupied his mind. He had reviewed reports, studied photographs, and kept a keen eye on Roman Kowalski. He had not spoken to Abby Lang. Their night in the crib had not gone past kissing, and yet they passed each other in the halls with only a furtive glance, as if by sharing too much too soon, by breaking all kinds of rules together, personal and professional, they had erected a wall between them.

Ginny wore a dark overcoat that covered her to her ankles. A scarf curled loosely around her neck. She had parked out on the street and crossed the corner of the park at a brisk pace, properly concerned about her choice of location for the rendezvous.

Dart moved out from under the parking lot lamp, cloaked by the gray dusk, to where the two of them, observed from a distance, would appear as two indistinguishable forms in a quickly thickening mist.

“Hi,” she said softly, unbuttoning her coat and removing an envelope that she then handed him.

“What’s this?”

“Priscilla Cole, as you asked. Her med insurance records.”

He had lived with Ginny long enough to interpret her expressions. The eight months that they had been apart seemed only a matter of days at times like this. “What about them?”

“One of the very seamy sides of the insurance world is the attempt on the part of the insurers to-as they put it: protect themselves from unforeseen losses. Unexpected losses. If you live in Los Angeles or San Francisco they may deny or limit earthquake coverage. If you’re a known drunk they may refuse to insure your auto. The same practice carries over into medical coverage. Smokers may be restricted to certain qualified coverage, excluding or limiting what will be paid out for emphysema or asthma, lung cancer or other pulmonary disorders.”

“I follow you.”

“There is software in place in every major underwriter to flag possible ‘high-risk’ cases. It’s insidious, but there you are.”

“And you’re involved.”

“I police the software, right? I keep the code healthy and running. All kinds of software, including this screening variety. It locates and flags questionable accounts that are then reviewed in-house. If necessary, the coverage is reduced or even canceled. I’m part of it, Dart, just so you understand. Not proud of it, but part of it.”

Dart felt restless and nervous, both a product of their surroundings and Ginny’s blatant anxiety. He wanted to hurry her along, but knew better. She went at her own speed-in everything.

“David Stapleton’s claims were not flagged, but his girlfriend’s were-this Priscilla Cole.”

“Flagged for what?” He’d hoped that Teddy Bragg’s 3-D software was indeed glitched, but Bragg had gotten back to him complaining that the company claimed the software was error-free. For his own sake, he hoped that she might report that Priscilla Cole had been diagnosed with HIV, and that Stapleton had taken his own life to avoid its horrors.

“Battered-wife syndrome,” she replied, her eyes fixed onto him.

This was not what Dart had expected. He had trouble forming his thoughts, much less thinking of something pertinent to say. His thoughts were stuck on the Ice Man and Gerald Lawrence-on sex offense. He’d been relieved that Stapleton had not had any such charges filed against him-only a Narco record, and that did not connect well with either of the other suicides. And now this, he thought.

She explained, “Priscilla Cole was repeatedly admitted to emergency rooms with unexplained contusions and fractures, vaginal tearing, bite marks-you name it. The software is written to identify such injuries and flag the account. Victims of domestic violence are denied coverage by all major insurers but one. There are laws being proposed to change that, but at the moment that’s how it stands. She had two policies canceled, and was on the verge of losing all coverage because we’re in the process, right now, of linking all major health databases. Once that is complete, everyone will know everyone else’s secrets. There will be no switching companies in an effort to outrun your past.”

“Or present,” he said.

“Exactly.”

“Stapleton beat her,” he stated. He could hardly get the words out. Sex offense, he thought.

“We don’t know it was Stapleton, no. There’s no mention of him.”

“But the addresses! What about the addresses?”

She nodded. “The second policy to be canceled had the Battles Street address that you gave me.”

“Shit.” Of the three suicides, Stapleton, Lawrence, and the Ice Man, all were-in one way or another-guilty of violence against women. And if someone were targeting these violent men to become victims themselves, there were now two clear ways that Dart saw to spot them: men convicted of sex crimes and men involved with battered women. It was a connection that ran tension into his neck and made his fingers cold. Zeller? he wondered again. He asked Ginny, “Can you get me a list of other women?”

“Abused women?”

“Yes.”

“I can try.”

“I don’t want you getting yourself in trouble.”

“It’s not legal, if that’s what you’re saying.”

“I could subpoena it.”

“If you have a few years, you could, yes. My guess is that they’d deny the existence of any such list-it amounts to a form of discrimination, after all. Their claim is that the woman has the choice of leaving the man who is doing this to her-that to stay is a voluntary act. It’s the old ‘she wants it’ argument. They ignore the psychological factors, the existence of children and families-it’s barbaric, is what it is.”

“If you could get it for me, then at least I’d have it while I go through the subpoena process. But I don’t want you taking any chances, Gin. It’s important to me that you understand that.” He knew this was the type of challenge she lived for-to raid a computer system and lift information, but she’d been arrested and convicted once already-a second offense would be far more serious.

“I want to help, Dart. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know exactly. Maybe I feel guilty about the breakup. Maybe I’d like to see us back together. I don’t really want to think about all that. I just want to help.”

“It feels awkward to me, your helping.”

“You asked me to look into it for you.”

Did he want to be in debt to her? It felt as if that were where they were heading, and it didn’t feel good.

She said, “You’re worried about me. How sweet.”

He couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or straight with him, and he wondered when it was that he had lost track of such nuances. People get so close that they grow apart, he thought, wondering if every relationship was doomed before it began and feeling an ache deep within him.