Free The Associate by Phillip Margolin Page A

firm I work for. One of our clients, Geller Pharmaceuticals, is in the middle of a lawsuit over one of its products. Up until last week all of the tests of the product came out favorable to Geller, but a scientist named Sergey Kaidanov reported negative results in a study of rhesus monkeys.”
    “The same type of monkeys we’ve got in there?” Billie asked with a nod toward the lab.
    “Exactly. Everyone wants to talk to Kaidanov because the study could have a huge impact on the lawsuit, but he disappeared about a week ago.”
    “Anyone fixed the time of this fire?” Billie asked the uniform.
    “Not yet, but it’s not recent.”
    “Go on,” Billie told Kate.
    “Dan and I went to Kaidanov’s house to interview him. He wasn’t there, but someone had taken the house apart.”
    “What’s that mean?” Forbus asked.
    “Someone searched it and left a mess. We did a little investigating and found an address for the lab. We came out here hoping that we’d find Kaidanov and it looks like we have.”
    “You think the dead guy is your scientist?”
    “I think there’s a good chance he is.”
    “Let’s take a look,” Billie said to Forbus as she started inside. Kate took a step toward the door, but Forbus held out an arm and barred her way.
    “No civilians allowed in the crime scene.”
    “Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Billie responded, glaring at her partner.
    “Forget it. He’s right. I’m not a cop anymore,” Kate said, trying to sound unconcerned, but Daniel saw her shoulders slump.
    “What was all that about?” Daniel asked as soon as the detectives were out of earshot.
    “Old business.”
    “Thanks for covering for me.”
    Kate looked puzzled.
    “You know, about my breaking into Kaidanov’s house.”
    Kate shrugged. “You didn’t think I’d burn you, did you?”
    A deputy medical examiner was videotaping the office while a tech from the crime lab snapped 35mm photographs, then digital shots that could be fed into a computer and E-mailed if necessary. Billie took in the scene from the doorway. A corpse lay on its stomach near the center of the room. The flesh on its side and back had been burned off and the heat from the fire had turned the bones grayish blue in color.
    “Any ID?” Billie asked the medical examiner.
    “Can’t even tell the sex,” he answered.
    “Is it a murder?”
    “Best guess, yes. Deutsch says it’s definitely arson,” he replied, referring to the arson investigator. “And look at the skull.”
    The detective took a few steps into the room so she could get a better look at the corpse. The back of the skull had shattered. An exiting bullet or a blunt instrument could have caused the damage. She would leave that determination to the ME.
    Billie moved nearer to the corpse and squatted. The floor was concrete, so they might get lucky. From other arson murders she had investigated, Billie knew that fragments of clothing and flesh on the front of the body might have escaped the blaze. Where the body pressed against the floor there would be less oxygen for the fire to feed on and some protection for flesh and fibers.
    Billie turned her attention to a tiny corpse a few feet from the human. All of its hair and flesh was gone. Its skull had also been shattered. She stared dispassionately at the monkey for a few minutes then stood up.
    “If you want to see more monkeys, there are two rooms filled with them down the hall,” the medical examiner said.
    “I’ll pass,” Forbus said, stifling a yawn.
    Billie wasn’t surprised that the bizarre crime scene bored her partner. He was a good old boy hanging on long enough to collect his pension so he could fish 365 days a year. The only time she’d seen him show any interest in a case was last week when they’d investigated a murder at a strip joint. Billie, on the other hand, was fascinated by anything out of the ordinary, and this crime scene was the most unusual she’d encountered in some time.
    Billie wandered down the hall.