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been a tough week for you, with the trial and all.” Jane paused. “It’s not looking too good for Graff right now.”
    “It shouldn’t look good. He killed a man.”
    “And that man killed a cop. A good cop, who had a wife and kids. I have to admit, I might’ve lost it, too.”
    “Please, Jane. Don’t tell me you’re defending Officer Graff.”
    “I worked with Graff, and you couldn’t ask for a better man to watch your back. You do know what happens to cops who end up in prison, don’t you?”
    “I shouldn’t have to defend myself on this. I’ve gotten enough hate mail about it. Don’t you join in the chorus.”
    “I’m just saying, it’s a sensitive time right now. We all respectGraff, and we can understand how he lost it that night. A cop killer’s dead, and maybe that’s a kind of justice all its own.”
    “It’s not my job to deliver justice. I just deliver the facts.”
    Jane’s laugh was biting. “Yeah, you’re all about the facts, aren’t you?”
    Maura turned and looked across the rooftop at the criminalists scouring the scene.
Let it roll off and focus on your job. You’re here to speak for this dead woman, and no one else
. “What was she doing on this roof?” she asked.
    Jane looked down at the body. “No idea.”
    “Do we know how she gained access?”
    “Could’ve been a fire escape or a stairwell. Once you’re on one roof, you can access all the roofs on this block, from Harrison Avenue to Knapp Street. She could have entered any of these buildings. Or been dropped from a helicopter, for that matter. No one we’ve spoken to remembers seeing her last night. And we know it happened last night. When we found her, rigor mortis was just starting to set in.”
    Maura focused on the victim again, and frowned at her clothes. “It’s strange, how she’s dressed all in black.”
    “Goes with everything, as they say.”
    “ID?”
    “No ID. All we found in her pockets was three hundred bucks and a Honda car key. We’re searching the area for the vehicle.” Jane shook her head. “Too bad she didn’t drive a Yugo. This is like looking for a needle in a whole damn haystack of Hondas.”
    Maura replaced the sheet, and the gaping wound vanished once more beneath plastic. “Where is the hand?”
    “It’s already bagged.”
    “Are you sure it belongs to this body?”
    Jane gave a startled laugh. “What are the odds it doesn’t?”
    “I never make assumptions. You know that.” She turned.
    “Maura?”
    Once again, she looked at Jane. They stood face-to-face in that blinding sunshine, where it felt as if all of Boston PD could see them, hear them.
    “About the trial. I do understand where you’re coming from,” said Jane. “You know that.”
    “And you don’t approve.”
    “But I understand. Just as I hope you understand that it’s guys like Graff who have to deal with the real world. They’re the ones on the front lines. Justice isn’t as clean as a science experiment. Sometimes it’s pretty damn messy and the facts just make things messier.”
    “So I should have lied instead?”
    “Just don’t forget who the real bad guys are.”
    “That’s not in my job description,” said Maura. She left the rooftop and retreated into the stairwell, relieved to escape the sharp glare of the sun and the eyes of Boston PD personnel. But when she emerged on the ground floor, she came face-to-face once again with Detective Tam.
    “It’s pretty bloody up there, isn’t it?” he said.
    “Bloodier than most.”
    “So when’s the autopsy?”
    “I’ll do it tomorrow morning.”
    “May I observe?”
    “You’re welcome to be there, if you have the stomach for it.”
    “I watched a few while I was at the academy. Managed not to keel over.”
    She paused to regard him for a moment. Saw humorless dark eyes and sharply handsome features, but no hostility. On a morning when all of Boston PD seemed to regard her as the enemy, Detective Johnny Tam was the only cop who didn’t