Blood Passage (6 page)

Karen dropped it on her desk. Opened and maintained by each detective during the course of a homicide investigation, a murder book contained every document relevant to the case, from the autopsy report to lab reports, interrogation transcripts, notes, and even news clippings and media transcripts. This murder book, of course, had been maintained by Joe Kalzowski and was relatively thin, as they normally go. Nonetheless, it contained every piece of paper Kalzowski had been able to generate while the file was in his care.

Karen leaned back. “I still don’t get why the case wasn’t just transferred back to us.”

“
Politics,” Hank said. “Their budget depends in large part on how many cases they work and how many they close, but as soon as Waverman said he was too busy to work the case full time he gave us an opening you could drive a truck through. We do all the heavy lifting, Waverman’s name stays on the front of the jacket and CCU takes the lead with the media if we’re able to close it. But we’re spending CCU’s money instead of our own.”

“
Yes,” Martinez said, “remember to inform Detective Waverman when you’re going to incur expenses on this thing. An e-mail’s good enough.”

Karen unclipped her shield from her belt, rubbed it vigorously on the sleeve of her blouse, and clipped it back on again. “I tell you what; I think this Duncan kid’s a couple cards short of a full deck.”

“
The research might be genuine enough,” Hank said, “but somebody wants things to stay quiet. We need to talk to him more about it.”

“
Yeah, well, whatever.” Karen rubbed her forehead. “I just wish I was finished with this other thing.”

“
I thought your testimony wrapped up yesterday morning,” Martinez said.

Karen sighed, the weight of the world on her shoulders. “Yeah, I got through the cross yesterday, but in the afternoon there were a couple of motions they had to dick around with. I haveta show up again before noon in case there’s a redirect. I didn’t hear anything, so I have to go on over and check. Goddamned lawyers, in a world of their own. It’d break their neck to text a cop, for chrissakes.”

“
All right.” Martinez crossed her arms, looking at Hank. “You said you were going to move the kid downtown?”

“
Into the Ramada, yeah.”

“
So get that done. Captain Williams agreed to resubmit the drug packets and syringes from the crime scene to the lab for retesting, so stay on top of that. See what you can get out of the student about this research of his.”

Hank nodded. “We’ll start working the victimology. Talk to family, friends.”

Martinez spread her hands. “So go to it.”

Hank watched her walk back to her office, then grabbed the telephone book from the bottom drawer of his desk. “I’m going to get the kid moved now. I’ll call you later.”

Karen stood up and headed for the elevator. “Later, Lou.”

He picked up the phone and reserved a room at the Ramada down the street, then looked up the number of Josh’s PDA in his notebook and called it. Josh told him he had just received his replacement traveler’s checks. He had also cancelled his credit cards and new ones were being arranged for him. Hank told him to check out and take a taxi down to the Ramada.

“
I’ll meet you there.”

“
All right, Lieutenant.”

Hank spent some time chasing down names, addresses and telephone numbers from his notebook. Then he called Waverman.

“
I’m moving the student downtown into the Ramada,” Hank said. “I’ll put in an expense claim for it and send you an e-mail. All right?”

“
All right.”

“
I’m going over there shortly to ask a few more questions. Want to come along?”

“
I wish I could,” Waverman said. “We’re having a brainstorming session on another case. Everyone attends.”

“
No problem. You told Barkley you haven’t had a chance yet to redo the victimology, so Detective Stainer and I will get started on that today.”

“
Great. Take care of that, and I’ll check on you later.”

Hank smiled to himself as he cradled the receiver. Waverman had suddenly gone from driver to passenger in the Liu cold case and Hank knew he was finding the change a little disconcerting. Of course, Hank mused, if Waverman treated Hank and Karen like hired help he could rationalize the situation much more easily in his own mind. It wasn’t every day a detective could dump work onto the desk of a lieutenant.

Hank read through the documents in the binder, then went to the photocopier and copied a few selections, which he put in a manila file folder that would serve as his own show and tell file. The file folder went inside a manila envelope. Then he went back to his desk, sent an e-mail to Waverman about the hotel expense, locked the binder in his bottom drawer, got up, lifted his jacket from the back of his chair and, manila envelope in hand, took the elevator down to the main floor. The hotel was four blocks away and he was looking forward to the walk.

Hank looked out the second-floor window of Josh’s new hotel room downtown and saw nothing unusual in the parking lot below. Cooper Street was busy with lunch-hour traffic. He pulled the heavy curtains together and sat down across from Josh at the table in the corner of the room. Josh was powering up his laptop while finishing off the last of his late breakfast. Looking at the ugly bruise on the student’s cheek, Hank flexed his sore shoulder. His back was still a little stiff as well, but the walk had helped shake out a few of the kinks.

“
Okay,” Josh said, swallowing the last bite of his sandwich, “I talked to Dr. Walsh and she told me Dr. and Mrs. Chan signed a limited waiver that allows us to disclose information to the police in situations where a crime may have been committed. What do you need to know?”

“
Take me through this thing from the beginning,” Hank said, removing his notebook and pen, “starting with the child’s name.”

“
Taylor Chan.” Josh crumpled up the paper wrapping from his sandwich and fired a three-point shot into the trash basket next to the bed. “And the crowd goes wild.”

Hank smiled. “Played some basketball, did you?”

“
Yeah. Thomas Gaines was the only school to offer me a full athletic scholarship. Vanderbilt was my first choice, but they didn’t come through. Hey, I was starting point guard my last two years at TGU, and we were conference champions my senior year. Not bad, even if it was Division II.”

“
You didn’t want to walk on at Vanderbilt and take your chances?”

Josh shook his head. “I wouldn’t have made it. Too much talent ahead of me. And I needed the scholarship. My dad’s a dentist and my mother’s his dental hygienist, so we were okay for money, but Dad has a thing about me paying my own way. So I took the full scholarship. It was the right thing to do.”

“
Apparently it led you into research you find very interesting,” Hank said. “Tell me about Taylor Chan.”

“
As I said, his father’s Dr. Michael Chan, an economics professor at State University.” Josh moved his cursor around, looking at his laptop screen. “I’m just opening the file with my notes in it.” He tapped the touchpad. “His mother’s name is Grace Wong. Grace’s father’s name was Warren Wong and her mother is Anna Liu. Anna Liu is the sister of Stephen Liu, who was the father of Martin Liu.”

Hank wrote down the names. “So the boy’s mother was related to Martin Liu, is that what you’re telling me?”

“
That’s correct. They were cousins.”

“
So you’re saying that Martin Liu was supposedly reincarnated after his murder as the son of his cousin Grace Chan.”

Josh sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. “As many as 25 per cent of documented cases involve alleged reincarnation into the same family. Often while carrying her child the mother has a dream in which a deceased family member announces to her that he or she will be reincarnated as their child. These are called announcing dreams. More than 75 per cent of all documented cases involve an announcing dream of some kind. Grace Chan had an announcing dream in which her cousin Martin told her he was returning to life as her son.”

“
A dream,” Hank said.

“
That’s right.”

“
Did she tell anybody about this dream?”

“
Her husband.”

“
Did her husband tell anyone about the dream?”

“
No, according to him he forgot about it. Apparently it happened in her fifth month and stayed in the back of her mind until Taylor was born, but Dr. Chan completely forgot about it until Mrs. Chan reminded him last fall when Taylor started talking about being Martin Liu.”

“
How’d she feel about this dream at the time? Did she say?”

Josh looked at him. “What you’re actually asking is whether or not Mrs. Chan
wanted
her child to be the reincarnation of her cousin. Was her state of mind positive or negative when it came to the possibility that it might be true?”

Hank smiled faintly. “Yeah, that’s what I’m asking.”

“
Dr. Walsh questioned both parents in this regard tangentially,” Josh said. “It’s part of the interview process. It’s important to see whether the parents are pre-disposed to
wishing
that the reincarnation of a family member might happen. Dr. Walsh’s technique involves indirection. Her conclusion was that Mrs. Chan was distinctly uncomfortable that her child might be the reincarnation of her cousin.”

“
It’s not something she particularly wanted,” Hank said.

“
That’s right. It was creeping her out.”

“
What about the father?”

“
Dr. Chan told us he didn’t believe in reincarnation. He was concerned there might be some clinical reason his son was making these statements. He talked to a colleague in the Psychology Department at State, a professor named Dr. Isaacs. Dr. Isaacs spent some time with Taylor and felt there was nothing clinically wrong with him and recommended to Dr. Chan that he contact Dr. Walsh at Thomas Gaines. Which is how we got involved.”

“
Okay.” Hank leaned back. “So you said the boy’s three and a half years old, correct?”

“
That’s right.”

“
And how old was he when he started talking about being Martin Liu?”

“
Mrs. Chan shot some video last November 15 on the day of Taylor’s third birthday when he made a number of statements about being Martin,” Josh said. “She told us there were a few other things before that, but she didn’t really pay much attention to them at the time. It was only when she thought back that she realized the significance of those earlier statements.”

“
So this birthday video is the earliest evidence of the kid making these statements?”

“
Yeah, that’s right.”

“
I wouldn’t mind seeing it some time.”

“
How about right now?” Josh gestured at his laptop.

“
Now?” Hank got up and moved around behind Josh’s chair.

“
Yeah, I’ve got all the relevant video documentation here.”

Hank raised his eyebrows. “Must be some hard drive in this thing.”

“
This is my working laptop. There aren’t any games on it.”

“
Not even Solitaire?”

Josh made a face. “It’s a Mac. Here, take a look.” He used the touchpad to move his cursor and tapped on an icon on the desktop. A window opened on the screen and the video began to play.

The picture bounced around a little and then steadied. A small Asian boy sat at a kitchen table eating cereal from a bowl.

“
Looks like the battery’s okay, Taylor,” a female voice said.

“
Okay, mama,” Taylor said, spooning in another mouthful.

“
It’s your birthday today, Taylor. You’re three years old. Do you feel all grown up now?”

“
Not all growed up yet,” the boy said.

“
Uncle Lee and Aunt Mia are coming over today to see you,”
Grace
Chan said, zooming in on her son’s face. “You’ve never met them.”

“
That’s Dr. Chan’s brother and sister-in-law,” Josh explained.

The boy said nothing, eating. The camera zoomed out again.

“
Aunt Mia says she has a really nice birthday present for you.”

“
Is Aunt Mia Chinese?” Taylor asked, chewing slowly.

“
Yes, of course she is,”
Grace
Chan said.

“
When you were a little girl,” Taylor said, carefully dipping his spoon into his bowl, “you came over to my house one time and you said you didn’t like my mama because she wasn’t Chinese.”

There was a moment of silence. The camera dipped and steadied.

“
What do you mean, Taylor?”
Grace
Chan asked, her voice a little high.

“
When I was Martin,” the boy said firmly, playing with the cereal in his bowl, “you didn’t like my mama because she wasn’t Chinese.”

“
When you were Martin?”
Grace
Chan repeated, sounding upset. “You’re Taylor, not Martin. You’re Taylor, sweetheart.”