Thedead woman was Lina Laskaris.

    Herkiller was Eduardo Robles.

    Theaccomplice, the harmony in this horror show - the broken body sprawled beforethem in this crumbling graveyard - was Detective Dennis Stansfield.

Chapter 82

    Hestood in shadows, just a block from the Le Jardin hotel, the sounds of his cityall around him, the flashing police lights a few blocks away. He felt the handon his arm.

    'Kevin.'

    Christa-Marielooked fragile, sculpted from moonlight. She raised a hand to his cheek, a warmfinger tracing the lines in his face. She slipped her hand around the back ofhis head, leaned forward and kissed him, gently at first, then with a growingpassion.

    Amoment later she leaned back, looked into his eyes.

    'It'stime, isn't it?' she asked.

    'Yes,'Byrne said. 'Are you ready?'

    'Yes.'She took his hand in hers. 'Take me home.'

Chapter 83

    'Jess?'

    It wasRussell Diaz. The city block had been taken over by law enforcement. Residentshad begun to drift out of their houses. Endlessly, the helicopter flew back andforth, hovering overhead. Jessica looked around. David Albrecht was not to befound.

    'Youhave a minute?' Diaz asked.

    Shedid not. But she knew that this was coming, just as she knew what it was about.'Sure.'

    Diazlooked at his two men. 'Give us a second.'

    Thetwo officers walked a few feet away, leaned against Jessica's car. When Diazfelt they were out of earshot, he spoke.

    'Youknow what I have to ask, don't you?' he said, lowering his voice.

    Jessicaremained silent. It was a rhetorical question. Diaz plowed ahead. Niceties wereover.

    'I needto talk to Kevin,' Diaz said. 'Have you heard from him?'

    'Notsince earlier this evening.'

    'Aboutwhat time was that?'

    Jessicahad to think about this. She had to be accurate. This was all going on therecord. 'Maybe an hour ago.'

    'He calledyou?'

    'Yes.'

    'Didhe mention where he was going?'

    Nowshe had to be careful. Byrne had not said anything specific. 'No.'

    'Ishe still driving that van?'

    'Idon't know.'

    Diazlooked out over the gathering crowd, back.

    'I wantto show you something.'

    Theywalked over to the unmarked police van. Diaz opened the sliding side door.Inside was a rack of electronic equipment, surveillance monitors, three lockedgun racks. Diaz grabbed a laptop off the front seat, opened it, put it on thefloor of the van. The screen instantly displayed a flow chart. On it were sixdifferent squares. Diaz clicked the first one.

    Secondslater three separate documents cascaded across the screen. Jessica recognizedthem as PPD witness statements, presented in .pdf format.

    'Wehave statements from three people who live on West Tioga Street,' Diaz said.'Neighbors of Sharon and Kenneth Beckman. They all stated that they sawDetective Byrne at the Beckman house an hour before her son reported hermissing.'

    'Shewas next of kin, Russell. Both Kevin and I were there that morning. We madenotification.'

    'Asyou know, he returned a short time later. Did you accompany Detective Byrneback to the premises?'

    'No,'Jessica said. 'He returned to follow up. We had received additionalinformation.'

    'Whatwas the information?'

    Diazknew the answer to his question. He was testing her. 'That Kenneth Beckman wasquestioned in the murder of Antoinette Chan.'

    'Whendid Detective Byrne return to the Roundhouse?'

    'Ithad to be around three.'

    'Whatdid he say about the interview?'

    'Hesaid that Sharon Beckman didn't answer the door.'

    Diaztook a moment, then tapped another square on the chart. This was the ME'spreliminary report on Joseph Novak. 'The coroner puts the time of death forJoseph Novak at between eight p.m. and six a.m. Do you know where DetectiveByrne was during those hours?'

    Thiswas getting so bad, so fast. Was Diaz making an attempt to establish some sortof conspiracy here?

    'I donot.'

    'DidDetective Byrne mention anything about seeing Mr. Novak again that day?'

    'No.'

    Diazhit yet another button on the laptop. A grainy video began to play. It was the stationaryimage of a city street at night.

    'Thisis PPD surveillance footage near the corner of Frankford and York.'

    Atthe thirty-four-second mark on the video a man crosses the top of the frame,hesitates for a moment, walks off frame. A few seconds later, a second manwalks across the frame, right to left. He continues off. Diaz rewound therecording. He pointed to the lower right of the image, at a van parked on thestreet. 'This tag is registered to a man named Patrick Connolly. He is DetectiveByrne's cousin. Connolly stated that he lent this vehicle to Detective Byrnelast week.'

    Jessicalooked closely. It was clearly the Sedona minivan. She looked closely at thewhole image. 'I believe Kevin already acknowledged that he was there that night.This is not new information.'

    Diazhit play. The image scrolled by in slow motion this time. Hefreeze-framed it as the first man walked into the frame. 'This is EduardoRobles.' He hit play again. Robles disappears off frame, walking downthe alley, the alley in which his body was found. The second man enters theframe. Diaz froze the image again.

    'Doyou recognize this person, detective?' he asked.

    Jessicanoted that she had gone from Jess to detective. To another personit might have gone unnoticed. Not to anyone in law enforcement. 'No. Sorry. Itcould be anyone.'

    'Notexactly.' Diaz hit a few keys, zoomed in. It increased the size of the pixels,but some things were obvious. Like the man's left hand. 'It can only be a whitemale, so it can't be "just anyone".' He pointed to something next tothe figure. 'We took measurements on this stand- pipe. This person is over sixfeet tall. He is wearing a dark overcoat and a dark watch cap.' Diaz reachedonto a shelf. He produced a photograph of Kevin Byrne, a picture that Jessicarecognized instantly.

    Ithad been taken a year ago at a benefit in the Poconos. It was of Kevin and herstanding with a bunch of kids. Kevin wore a dark overcoat and navy blue watchcap.

    Jessicasaid nothing.

    Diazdirected her gaze to the body on the ground across the cemetery from where theystood. 'Everyone was well aware of the friction between Detective Byrne andDetective Stansfield. Add to that the incident between them at the Roundhouseand you can see what I'm faced with, right?' Diaz closed the laptop, squaredhimself in front of her. 'I now have a dead cop, and Kevin Byrne is missingagain.'

    Diazopened a second laptop. There on the screen were two microscope photographs ofhair shafts. Diaz pointed to the one on the left. 'This is a sample taken froma brush belonging to Sharon Beckman.' He pointed to the example on the right.Jessica was far from an expert, but to her eye the samples were identical.'This was found on the driver's seat of Kevin Byrne's van. They match.'

    Jessicarecalled the hair on Byrne's shoulder.

    'Didyou get a haircut?'

    'Yeah.I popped in and got a trim.'

    Jessicabegan to feel nauseated. She remained silent, which was just as well becauseshe had no idea what to say. Diaz closed the side door of the van, signaled tohis two men. They approached, stopped a few feet away.

    'Look,Jess. If you were looking at this from the outside, you would see why we needto talk to Detective Byrne.'