“First of all, Stacy is freezing out there. Rotate a couple of people every two hours outside so no one gets frostbite. Second, let’s cordon off the area. If you don’t have crime tape, have someone get some traffic cones and we’ll tie string around them. We need to keep whatever we have left intact. Third, get everyone out of the apartment except a few of your select chosen. Put all the rest on canvass duty. Assign them to talk to every single neighbor within a couple of blocks. If this is mostly a student apartment, the kids aren’t going to feel loyal to Greenbury so we may hit a wall of silence. There’s a dead girl here and we need to push. I’m not saying we run roughshod over the kids, but we need them to know that we’re not going to go away. So if they know something, they’d better come forward now. No one wants to feel idiotic. Last . . .”

He sighed and shook his head.

“We’ve got to do a notification. It’s the proper thing to do, and maybe talking to her relatives will give us a direction.”

Mike nodded. “I’m sure the school has the name of her parents.”

“I know you didn’t find a cell phone. Did you find bills in her desk?”

Mike walked over to the desk drawer and pulled it open with a gloved hand. Inside was a massive pile of paperwork. “Be my guest.”

Decker gloved up and took out the stack. He found what he was looking for and held it up. “Her phone bill from last month . . .” Scanning down the list. “You know, let me go to the station house and I’ll start calling some of these numbers. I could use some help with that.” He looked around. “Uh, where’s McAdams?”

“He was looking green around the gills so I sent him home.”

“He went home?” Decker felt his fury rise. “What the hell is wrong with him?”

“Pete, he didn’t come to the department through usual channels. The mayor put him with us as a favor to his father. He didn’t sign up for this shit, and frankly I don’t want flak from the town biggies. I told him he could leave.”

“You are way too nice.”

“If you need him, I’ll call him back.”

“I don’t need him, but he needs to be here. I’ll make the call.” Decker pulled out his cell phone. “Because if I don’t see his sorry ass down at the station in fifteen minutes, he’ll have a lot more to worry about than losing his lunch.”

Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9