She said, “Come here.”
The message this time readYou’re too slow. As she moved down the screen, another picture of a bridge and a pair of sparkly sneakers appeared.
“Ah, crap,” he said, “this guy again.”
“Not only this guy,” she said, “but this guy is getting even more active.”
“Yeah, buoyed by success,” he said. “I really hate this.”
Almost automatically, she reached for the phone and checked in with the desk sergeant to see if any reports of suicide had come in overnight. As soon as she heard the reply, she groaned and sat back. “I need the report,” she said.
“We haven’t gotten an official one in yet,” said the officer at the other end.
“Then can you tell me who the attending officers are?” She quickly wrote down the names, found the contacts, and called the first one on her list. “Did you get called out on a suicide this morning?” she asked, after identifying herself.
“Yes,” he said, “I just got the report in, so I can send you the details.”
“Oh, good,” she said. “So you saw the bulletin then?”
“Yes,” he said. “This is a young woman, twenty-three years old. Her name is Pasha, and the last name is something like Niletto.”
“Fine,” she said. “Do we know anything about her? Any history?”
“No,” he said. “I don’t know anything, but the divers do have her up though.”
“Okay, good enough,” she said. “Send me that report as soon as you log it in.” She ended the call, slowly looked over at the rest of the team, and, in a grim voice, said, “We have another jumper.”
Just then Andy walked back in. She looked up at him and asked, “Did you get anywhere on those chats?”
“Lots of talk,” he said. “I’ve been acting like I’m suicidal, not ready to switch that around to being positive about life yet.”
“Well, it was a twenty-three-year-old woman this morning,” she said. “And that photo I got—surely from the guy inciting these suicides—was most likely of her sneakers, although I don’t have anything to confirm that. They’re sending me the report as soon as it’s done.”
“Good enough,” he said. “This is sick.”
“Very sick. I’m not impressed at all.” She sat back, her fingers thrumming. “Of course Forensics has David’s laptop, and they’re going through the chats themselves, but I’m not sure they’ll find much.”
“No, we need this guy to get back online again,” Andy said. “I’ll check out what’s changed, what’s different on the chats, and see if I can find out who this asshole is.”
“Appreciate it,” she said, “and make sure you keep the Forensics guys in the loop.”
He laughed. “We already touched base because they were double-checking my ID. So I gave Stoop my ID and explained what I was doing. They laughed because they had it logged already but had forgotten about it.”
“Good enough,” she said. She looked over at Rodney. “Did you find anything new on our drive-by shooter?”
Rodney shook his head. “Yes…”
“Why do I hear abutcoming?” Kate asked.
“Well, I found some old trucks at the impound lot,” he said. “A couple are black. One has a shitty paint job, and one isaqua blue. I was wondering if you wanted to go have a look.”
She bounced to her feet. “Let’s go.”
He shook his head and said, “You have the energy of ten people this morning. I wish you’d give me some of it.”
“Hey, I had a good night,” she said blithely, as she sailed on by.
Lilliana whispered in a low voice, “Getting laid is good for you.”