Adam and I went over to the hospital and were escorted to the rehab floor. In the lobby near the nurses' station we were met by a large blond man who introduced himself as Kirk Berman, Kathy's supervisor. After viewing my ID, he said Kathy had scheduled a meet with them the night before, for 3 AM, and had failed to show up. They had found her unconscious on the ground near her car, not far from the meeting site, and had her airlifted to Chicago. He had waited until 5 to call Didier and let him know, but he said he'd have waited a little longer if he'd known how Didier was going to react.
We visited briefly with Kathy but she couldn't add to the story. She was pissed at Didier and antsy to get out of the hospital, which I could understand. Kathy's people had installed Jason in a lab in the hospital and he was working on his "antidote" for the Man-in-the-Lake's drug. We didn't mention, at that point, what Adam and Elizabeth had found in the cave. I wanted one of my "own" people to look at it first.
I took Adam home, then called my friend Janice Morraine in the crime lab and asked her to take a look at the leaves and fluid for me, off the record. She said sure, but that she was busy and probably wouldn't get to it until tomorrow. I dropped it off for her.
The next day, Tuesday (April 12), I got to work early and had Ace brief me on the triple homicide case. Suspect (husband) in custody. [see case file Vasilev#041105]
We spent the morning interviewing neighbors, but no one seemed to have been home at the time in question (ca. 3:30 Monday afternoon). In the afternoon I interviewed some people from the man's church, and had a chance to stop by Janice's lab and ask her what she'd found. The leaves, she said, were from a desert plant related to peyote. As for the other stuff-she had no idea. She said the cells changed shape, under the microscope as she watched. She even showed me-sure enough, the borders of the blood cells were changing shape. It reminded me of the way shapes change in a kaleidoscope or a lava lamp. I advised her to be careful with it-feeling a little like I was advising a doctor to wash her hands, but I was having real misgivings about this stuff.
Since I had missed the initial interview with the husband, I arranged to talk to him more that afternoon. He seemed genuinely distraught. If he was the killer, he was doing a damn good job of hiding it. His attorney wouldn't let him say much, though. I got the feeling he wanted to tell me something else.
When I left work I called Adam and let him know what Janice had found out, and we agreed Kathy needed to know about it. I called her to make sure she was awake, then went to talk to her in person. This wasn't the kind of information I wanted sharing over a phone.
Hazel was there when I arrived, and was pissed when I asked to speak to Kathy in private. If Kathy wanted to pass the information along to Hazel, that was her business. Kathy's mood actually seemed to improve when I gave her the news that we had found the distilling apparatus and drug-making ingredients, and advised me to share the stuff with Jason. I had someone show me where Jason's lab was, and briefed him on the shape-changing fluid. I had him come home with me to get it, where I had it in a sealed container in my fridge.
That evening I passed back by the jail to check on Mr. Vasilev. He told me his lawyer hadn't wanted him to share this information, but he thought it might be important, and revealed his suspicions that his wife had been a member of a cult. He had overheard her on the phone the previous Friday talking about some kind of a sacrifice and "calling the Dark One," which had upset him but he was too chicken-shit to call her on it. He put it off the whole weekend, and when he went home early Monday afternoon to confront her about it, he found her dead. That was his story, anyway. They still haven't found the murder weapon. I think the missing ornament from the mantlepiece is our link. Still have some things to follow up on.
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