Read Online Shadows by Edna Buchanan - Free Book Online Page B

event that occurred in April 1961. Isn’t that the year Pierce Nolan was killed? The plot thickens.”
    â€œWere these infants born alive?”
    â€œHard to say. We should be able to determine their maturation by the contents, if any, of their stomachs and the condition of their umbilical cords. We’ll take tissue from around the navels, place it in a softening compound, then process it to make microscopic slides of the umbilical cord attachments.”
    â€œWill it work with remains this old?”
    â€œThey do it with two-thousand-year-old mummies. No sign of trauma so far. The X-rays revealed no fractures.”
    The cloth used to wrap the remains would be sent to the crime lab for possible identification.
    Â 
    â€œDon’t close that door!” Kiki yelped from inside a small interview room.
    Corso swung it shut behind him.
    â€œHow’s she doing?” Burch asked.
    â€œPretty pissed,” Corso said. “Freaks out when you close the door. Wants to go home.”
    â€œDon’t we all?” Burch said grimly.
    â€œBingo!” Stone sat at his computer terminal. “Kiki’s got a rap sheet.”
    â€œI knew she was guilty of something the minute I laid eyes on her,” Burch said, irritated. “I knew it!”
    â€œHad me fooled,” Corso said. “She seemed normal.”
    â€œEverybody seems normal, till you get to know them,” Burch said.
    â€œNo major felonies,” Stone said. “Trespassing, failure to follow a police order, disorderly conduct, demonstrating without a permit, and resisting arrest without violence. Kiki also has an alias, Lisa Court.”
    â€œHow ’bout that.” Burch stepped into the small interrogation room.
    â€œOkay, Kiki. You’ve got some ’splaining to do.”
    She hugged herself as though cold, as he sat down opposite her.
    â€œWould you leave that door open please, Sergeant?”
    Her eyes and body language looked odd.
    â€œWhat’s your problem?”
    â€œOpen the door.”
    She wore the expression of a trapped animal. Burch leaned back in his chair, unlatched the door, and left it ajar.
    â€œHappy? Now talk to me.”
    â€œWhy am I here? I have to leave. Where’s Lieutenant Riley? Who had that officer stop my taxicab? What right—”
    â€œI ask the questions.” He sighed. “But for your information, when the officer radioed me that you were uncooperative, unwilling to return to the Shadows, I instructed him to bring you here.”
    â€œBut why? Did Edelman—”
    â€œEdelman had nothing to do with it, Kiki. Tell me everything you know about what we found in the basement.”
    Her stare was wide-eyed and innocent. “What did you find?”
    â€œKiki. It’s been a long day. Level with me. You knew what we were going to find down there, didn’t you?”
    She blinked as though puzzled. “No.”
    â€œGimme a break. You insisted we go out there. Why?”
    â€œYou know why. To save the Shadows.”
    â€œOh. And you just happened to have information about a secret cellar, and knew where the door to it was located, and then you just happened to decide not to go down there with us because you knew we were about to find a goddamn dead body!”
    â€œA body!” Her mouth dropped, her eyes widened. “Was it a homeless person?”
    â€œNo, Kiki. A body that appears to have been there for a hell of a lotta years.”
    â€œCaptain Cliff Nolan?” Her posture changed and her eyes lit up. “You solved his disappearance? After nearly eighty years! Was he there all along?”
    â€œKiki, I’m not gonna play games with you,” he warned.
    â€œI’m not playing games.” She checked her Swatch watch. “For Pete’s sake, I have to go home!”
    Burch’s walkie crackled to life.
    â€œThree thirty-two to four forty-one.”
    â€œFour forty-one, stand by.” Burch