Seven Minutes to Noon

tears. Maggie, Mike, Simon, even Frannie, all of them. Tim’s green eyes were roiling oceans of sorrow.
    “You were her family,” Frannie continued. “We honor the love you feel for her.”
    Then Giometti carefully said, “We have some information to share with you. We’ve found that it can help the family to know the facts.”
    He waited a moment for the rest of them to still their emotion. Alice understood now that this was his role in the partnership: he was the left side of the brain, always sober and pragmatic, to Frannie’s intuitive, emotive right side. They were perfectly tuned to each other. Choreographed, almost.
    “The medical examiner finished the autopsy and I’m going to tell you what he found. Can you hear this now?” He looked at Tim.
    Tim nodded, stroking Austin’s heaving back.
    “You might want to take the boy into another room,” Giometti said.
    “Let me.” Maggie got up from the couch. Her eyes were swollen and Alice knew she just couldn’t take any more right now. She leaned over Tim and took Austin into her arms, carrying him out of the living room and down the hall, whispering, “Shh, baby, shh, shh.”
    Outside, a shadow passed over the sun. The room darkened and the chandelier’s glass pendants emptied of light. Frannie put an arm around Alice’s shoulder, bracing her.
    “It’s important for all of you to know the details in case any of it rings a bell. We’re going to find Lauren’s killer, and all of you could play an important part in helping us.” Giometti glanced carefully at each face, making sure they felt his regret at having to present them with the facts. “There are things a body tells, final messages you might say. Are you ready?”
    No one answered. How could they possibly be ready for this?
    “Lauren was shot in the cranium with a .22 round-nose bullet that went in right here.” He twisted around and pressed a finger into the hollow nook at the base of his head. “The bullet lodged itself in the front of her skull. This kind of injury tells us she died instantly. She felt no pain, none at all, other than—” He stopped himself.
    The moment of fear.
    “Following her death, the attacker removed her dress.”
    Tim cringed and sputtered, “Oh no.”
    “There was no evidence of sexual assault.”
    Giometti let that statement hang a moment in the air, meager balm, and then continued. Frannie tightened her grip on Alice’s shoulders.
    “A crude Caesarean section was performed. The placenta was left inside her body. An attempt was made to close the incisions with electrical tape. Her dress was put back on after the procedure, which we know due to the condition of the dress. At some point, probably right away, she was transferred to the canal.”
    Alice’s attention snagged on transferred. The word had a technical quality, removed from emotion; it wasn’t violent enough for what had happened to Lauren. Thrown. Pitched. Dumped.
    “The crystal of Lauren’s watch was smashed, probably after she was shot. This tells us two things: that she fell against a hard surface, and the exact time of the attack. Her watch stopped at eleven fifty-three. That’s the official time of death.”
    Eight minutes after the artist smiled at her. Seven minutes before she was to have arrived at Pilates. Lauren’s life ended at exactly seven minutes to noon. A shadow passed through Alice’s mind, and stopped, as on a sundial separating darkness from light. Before from after. Halting time at one precise moment. Halving her consciousness of reality — love, friendship, trust, honor, truth, and this — into two incompatible parts.
    “Our major liability now is that we haven’t found thecrime scene,” Giometti continued. “There should be a lot of blood somewhere but we haven’t found the spot, and if it’s outdoors, then time is against us. Time and weather. If we’re lucky, the crime scene will be somewhere indoors.”
    Lucky. Alice’s stomach lurched and she clamped her throat against it.
    “The medical examiner’s already signed off on his ruling. It’s murder, which is going to give a lot more magnitude to the investigation. The baby is now officially missing. Because a pregnant woman disappeared once before in the same area, the feds are deciding if they’re going to put the FBI behind us. It’s not an interstate crime but there’s a possibility the baby might have been moved, crossed jurisdictions, which is when the feds normally come in. Basically