Free Tunnel Vision by Brenda Adcock Page B

Nicholls observed.
    “Probably right,” she agreed as Cardona reapproached them, pulling gloves from his hands.
    “Okay, ladies and gent, scribble this down. The remains are the second installment of your find yesterday morning. No question in my mind. He’s a mess, but the cuts are as precise as the first. No blood around anywhere. Still a Hispanic male. I’d say about five eight and one ninety. Hadn’t missed too many tacos. Fully clothed in some kind of uniform, also sans blood. Must have been dissected and then redressed. No I.D. on the body or the clothes. It’s been warmer than usual the last few days and the heat can really build up in these metal dumpsters. From the degree of decomposition, I’d guess that the time of death was three to five days ago. The maggots are pretty advanced so they’ve been at it for a while. That’s about what you’ll be getting in my report, Brodie, but I’ll put it in writing and send it over.”
    “Thanks, Frank. Go home and get lucky. Give my regards to Maria,” she said patting the man on the back.
    “You, my friend, will be the last topic of conversation tonight,” he laughed and then jogged away and jumped into the forensics van.
    “We’ll need to get some people into that
    dumpster,” Nicholls sighed. “A wallet could have fallen out of the vic’s pocket.”
    “We could always call Romero,” Brodie said with a chuckle.
    Nicholls snorted loudly. “Hell, you couldn’t get Romero in there unless you promised him Weston was in there buck naked and willing.” Realizing what he had said, Nicholls shot a looked at Maggie. “Jesus, I’m so sorry, Maggie. I shouldn’t have said that,” he apologized.
    “No need to apologize,” she said. “I have four brothers.”
    Brodie turned and looked at Maggie as Nicholls walked away shaking his head. “There’s never been another female detective in Cedar Springs except me,”
    she said. “They’re used to saying whatever they think, so if you have a problem with it you can report it to Captain Donaldson.”
    “I know how cops talk. You don’t have to explain things to me, Lieutenant,” Maggie said as they began walking toward the car. “By the way, I may have an ID on our victim.”
    Brodie stopped and looked sharply at her. “Were you planning to keep that your little secret?”
    “No. I planned to tell you when I got back to the station, but we got the call to come here. The supervisor of janitorial services reported that one of his men hasn’t come to work for the last few days.”
    She pulled her notebook from her jacket pocket and flipped a few pages before continuing. “The man’s name is Cruz Garcia. Very reliable worker. Never sick. He doesn’t have a telephone so the supervisor wasn’t able to check on him. I was going to run by the address he gave me, but we were interrupted.”
    “What’s the address?” Brodie asked as they resumed walking.
    “1229 Val Verde in Southeast Austin. It’s in the last area I worked on patrol. Not exactly the high rent district. Lots of gangs, lots of problems.”
    “I’ll go with you after we drop Nicholls back at the station. He’s checking on another suspicious death from last Thursday night anyway.”
    Brodie chose her Camaro over the department issued Crown Victoria and accelerated onto the highway ramp toward Austin, hoping the trip would go quickly. They drove along in silence for what seemed like an eternity, before Maggie broke the silence.
    “Is this the same Camaro you were working on while you were in Austin?”
    Brodie hesitated before answering. Why revisit old times? But it wasn’t going to be possible to work every day with Maggie and not speak to her. She supposed they had to talk about something and her car seemed like a harmless enough topic. “Yeah, finally finished it a couple of years ago. Didn’t have much else to do in my spare time.”
    “It looks great.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Nicholls seems like a good detective. How long has he