“And Gault?”
Wesley did not answer.
I looked up at him, for I had learned to feel his silence. I could follow it like the cool walls of a cave.
“You’re not telling me something,” I said.
“We’ve just gotten a call from London. We think he’s killed again, this time there.”
I shut my eyes.
“Dear God, no.”
“This time a boy. Fourteen. Killed within the past few days.”
“Same MO as Eddie Heath?”
“Eradicated bite marks. Gunshot to the head, body displayed. Close enough.”
“That doesn’t mean Gault wasn’t in Black Mountain,” I said as my doubts grew.
“At this moment we can’t say it doesn’t mean that. Gault could be anywhere. But I don’t know about him anymore. There are many similarities between the Eddie Heath and Emily Steiner cases. But there are many differences.”
“There are differences because this case is different,” I said.
“And I don’t think Creed Lindsey put the skin in Ferguson’s freezer.”
“Listen, we don’t know why that was there. We don’t know that someone didn’t leave it on his doorstep and Ferguson found it the minute he got home from the airport. He put it in the freezer like any good investigator would, and didn’t live long enough to tell anyone.”
“You’re suggesting Creed waited until Ferguson got home and then delivered it?”
“I’m suggesting the police are going to consider Creed left it.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Remorse.”
“Whereas Gault would do it to jerk us around.”
“Absolutely.”
I was silent for a moment. Then I said, “If Creed did all this, then how do you explain Denesa Steiner’s print on the panties Ferguson was wearing?”
“If he had a fetish about wearing women’s clothing when he did his auto erotic thing, he could have stolen them. He was in and out of her house while he was working Emily’s case. He could have taken lingerie from her very easily. And wearing something of hers while he masturbated added to the fantasy.”
“Is that really what you think?”
“I really don’t know what I think. I’m throwing these things out at you because I know what’s going to happen. I know what Marino will think. Creed Lindsey is a suspect. In fact, what he told you about following Emily Steiner gives us probable cause to search his house and truck. If we find anything, and if Mrs. Steiner thinks he looks or sounds like the man who broke into her house that night. Creed’s going to be charged with capital murder.”
“What about the forensic evidence?” I said.
“Have the labs come back with anything more?” Wesley got up and tucked his shirttail in as he talked.
“We’ve traced the blaze orange duct tape to Attica Correctional Facility in New York. Apparently, some prison administrator got tired of duct tape walking off and decided to have some specially made that would be less convenient to steal.
“So he picked blaze orange, which was also the color of the clothes the inmates wore. Since the tape was used inside the penitentiary to repair things like mattresses, for example, it was essential that it be flame-retardant. Shuford Mills made one run of the stuff–I think around eight hundred cases–back in 1986. ”
“That’s very weird.”
“As for the trace evidence on the adhesive of the strips used to bind Denesa Steiner, the residue is a varnish that’s consistent with the varnish on the dresser in her bedroom. And that’s pretty much what you would expect, since he bound her in her bedroom. So that information is relatively useless.”
“Gault was never incarcerated at Attica, was he?” I asked. Wesley was putting on his tie in front of the mirror.
“No. But that wouldn’t preclude his getting hold of the tape in another way. Someone could have given it to him. He did have a close friendship with the warden when the state pen was in Richmond–the warden he later murdered. I suppose it’s worth checking that out, in the event some of the tape somehow ended up there.”
“Are we going somewhere?” I asked as he slipped a fresh handkerchief into his back pocket and his pistol into a holster on his belt.