First to Die

Chapter 91

CLAIRE SAID, "I've been expecting you, honey." She took my arm and led me back into the lab to a small room lined with chemicals. Two microscopes were set up side by side on a granite-block counter. "Charlie told me what he came up with," she said. "The champagne. Matching pantalones. You got him, Lindsay." "Match these"-- I held out the plastic bag-"we put him in the gas chamber." "Okay, let's see," she said, smiling. She opened a yellow envelope marked "Priority, Evidence," and took out a petri dish identical to the one I had seen after the second murders. It had Subject: Rebecca De George #62340 written on the front in bold marker. With a tweezer, she placed the single hair that had come from the second bride onto a clear slide. Then she inserted it under the scope. She leaned over it, adjusting the focus, then caugnt me oy surprise, asKing, 30 now re yuu leeimg, woman?" "You mean Negli's?" "What else would I mean?" she said, peering into the scope. In the rush of apprehending Jenks, it was the first time in the past few days that I had really thought about it, "I saw Medved late last week. My blood count's still down." Claire finally looked up, "I'm sorry, Lindsay." Trying to sound upbeat, I walked her through my regimen. The increased dosage. The higher frequency. I mentioned the possibility of a bone marrow transplant. She flashed me a big smile. "We're gonna have to find a way to get those red cells of yours shaken up." Even in the laboratory, I must've started to blush. "What?" asked Claire. "What're you hiding? Trying unsuccessfully to hide?" "Nothing." "Something's going on. Between you and Mr. Chris Raleigh, I bet. C'mon, this is me you're talking to. You can't pull that blue-wall-of-silence stuff." I told her. From the first kiss at the precinct to the slow, torturous ride home to the burst of heat right there on the hallway rug. Claire grasped me by my shoulders. Her eyes were as bright and excited as mine. "So?" "So?" I laughed. "So… it was awesome. It was… right." I felt a chill of doubt come over me. "I just don't know if I'm doing the right thing. Considering what's going on." I hesitated. "I could love him, Claire. Maybe I already do." We stared at each other. There wasn't much more to say. well. u-ia ires eyes returned 10 ncr microscope. "Lets see what we have here. Hairs from his chinnychin-chin." Three hairs from Jenks's razor were set on a cellular slide. She loaded it into a scope. The two scopes were side by side. Claire looked first, leaned over as she focused the new one in. Then she went back and forth. "Mm-hmm," she uttered. I held my breath. "What do you think?" I asked. "You tell me." I leaned in. Immediately, I recognized the first hair, the one from inside Rebecca De George vagina. Thick, reddish, a white filament twisted around its base like the coil of a snake. Then I looked at the hairs from Jenks's razor. There were three of them, shorter, clipped, but each had that same reddish hue, that same coil of filament around it. I was no expert. But there was no doubt in my mind. The hairs were a perfect match.