place. How about her husband? The maid?
There’s gotta be usables everywhere.”
“Not that I’m finding.”
“You’re shitting me.”
Simon, who took her work very seriously and was the best print lifter
Frank had ever worked with, including at NYPD, looked almost apologetic.
Carbon dusting powder was everywhere, and there was nothing? Contrary
to popular belief, a lot of criminals left their prints at the scene of
the crime. You just had to know where to look. Laura Simon knew where to
look and she was getting zip. Hopefully they would get something after
analysis back at the lab. Many latents just weren’t visible no matter
how many angles you hit them with the light. That’s why they called them
latents.
You just powdered and taped everything you thought the perps might have
touched. And you might get lucky.
“I’ve got a few things packaged to take back to the lab.
After I use the ninhydrin and hit the rest with the Super Glue I might
have something for you.” Simon dutifully returned to her work.
Frank shook his head. Super Glue, a cyanoacrylate, was probably the best
method of fuming and could pull prints off things you couldn’t believe.
The problem was the damn process took time to work its magic. Time they
didn’t have.
“Come on, Laura, from the looks of the body the bad guys have had enough
of a head start.”
She looked at him. “I’ve got another cyanoacrylate ester I’ve been
wanting to use. That’s faster. Or I can always speed-bum the Super
Glue.” She smiled.
The detective grimaced. “Right. The last time you tried that we had to
evacuate the building.”
“I didn’t say it was a perfect world, Seth.”
Magruder cleared his throat. “Looks like we’re dealing with some real
professionals.”
Seth looked at the OIC sternly. “They re not professionals, Sam, they’re
criminals, they’re killers. It’s not like they went to goddamned college
to learn how to do this.”
“No, sir.”
“We sure it’s the lady of the house?” Frank inquired.
Magruder pointed to the photo on the nightstand. “Christine Sullivan. Of
course, we’ll get a positive ID.”
“Any witnesses?”
“No obvious ones. Haven’t canvassed the neighbors yet.
Gonna do that this morning.”
Frank Proceeded to make copious notes of the room and its occupant’s
condition and then made a detailed sketch of the room and its contents.
A good defense attorney could make any Unprepared prosecution witness
look like a candidate for the Silly Putty factory. Being unprepared
meant guilty people went free.
Frank had learned the only lesson he would ever need on the subject as a
rookie cop and the first on the scene of a breaking and entering. He had
never been more embarrassed or depressed in his life as he had when he
had gotten off the witness stand, his testimony torn to shreds and
actually used as the basis to get the defendant off. If he had been able
to wear his .38 in court, the world would have had one fewer lawyer that
day.
Frank crossed the room to where the Deputy Medical Examiner, a beefy,
white-haired man who was perspiring heavily despite the morning chill
outside, was lowering the skirt on the corpse. Frank knelt down and
examined one of the small Baggier-clad hands, then glanced at the woman’s
face. It looked like it had been beaten black and blue. The clothing was
soaked through with her body fluids. With death comes an almost
immediate relaxing of the sphincters. The resulting smell combination
was not pleasant.
Luckily the insect infestation was minimal, despite the open window.
Even though a forensic entomologist could usually ascertain time of
death more accurately than could a pathologist, no detective, despite
the increased accuracy, ever relished the thought of examining a human
body that had become an insect buffet.
“Got an approximate yet?” Frank asked the Medical Examiner.
“My rectal thermometer isn’t going to be much use to me, not when body
temperature drops one and a half degrees an hour. Seventy-two to
eighty-four hours. I’ll have a better number for you after I open her
up.” The MIE straightened up. “Gunshot wounds to the head,” he added,
although there was no doubt about the woman’s cause of death to anyone