Dempsey got there just as the crime scene techs were arriving. He followed them into the building, ducking under the police tape that a patrolman held up, ignoring the questions yelled by the reporters and photographers jammed on the sidewalk. This was a hot story and everyone wanted a piece.
He went to get on the elevator, but another patrolman was there to stop him.
"Sorry, Lieutenant, but it's part of the crime scene."
"What do you mean?"
"They think the perp used it."
Dempsey glanced inside the car. "How? Weren't our people down here?"
The cop pointed. "There's blood on the floor, they think from his shoe. That's as much as I know." He cocked his thumb at a nearby door. "Everybody's using the stairs. But I'm supposed to tell you to watch where you step when you get to four, in case there's more traces."
Up in the studio, Simone's body was still on the floor in its pool of blood, a cluster of uniforms and detectives standing over by the door. They moved aside as the CSOs came in with their kits and cameras and went over to the body to go to work. One of the detectives, a sergeant named Cochran, saw Dempsey come in and went over to him.
"Hey, Loo, sorry about the stairs."
"What's the story?"
"It looks like your basic Sickblade. He took the tongue."
"Your man downstairs said he used the elevator. That's pretty ballsy. Why wasn't it covered?"
"We think he used it to go up," Cochran said.
Dempsey squinted. After a moment he nodded. "To the roof."
Cochran indicated the windows at the end of the room, the view of the buildings outside. "The SWAT guys are out doing the neighborhood."
"What makes you so sure he went that way?"
"Actually, it wasn't us."
"What do you mean?"
Cochran inclined his head toward a row of chairs at the opposite end of the room. Sitting in one, staring at the activity around Simone's body, was Lady Gaga.
"She said she saw him up there," Cochran said. "Whatever that means. But when we found the blood in the elevator, it sounded right. And coming from her, I mean, she was here."
Dempsey nodded and watched Gaga - then crossed the rehearsal floor and took a seat next to her. "Hello."
"Hello," she said.
"I'm sorry about your friend."
Gaga nodded.
"You OK?"
"I'm fine." Not sounding it.
He watched her for a moment sitting there stone-faced. "We'll find him."
"We'll meet again, he said."
"Excuse me?"
"That's what he told me."
"You spoke to him?"
"Just before I got my ass out of here."
Dempsey glanced over at the group by the door to make sure they were out of earshot. "You were in the car when you first called me. Is that right?"
"Yes."
"Like you knew this was happening."
"I could see it."
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Superstalker: A Lady G Thriller
फैनफिक्शनYoung hustler and art thief Toko Rausch forms an unlikely alliance with the innovative Lady Gaga, to track down the serial killer who murdered this street kid's prostitute sister.
