With that location it would seem logical that it came from a coat.
We also picked up some synthetic cloth fibers right next to the
left-side door. They matched the clothing found on the deceased male
sitting in that position.”
She turned back to the screen. “We didn’t need the laser to find these
next samples. They were plainly visible.” The screen changed and Liz
used the arrow to point out several single strands of hair.
“Let me guess,” Sawyer said. “Long and blond. Natural, not bleached.
Found very near the fiber.”
“Very good, Lee, we’ll make a scientist out of you yet.” Liz smiled
pleasantly. “Next we used leucocrystal violet to test for blood. Found
a ton of it, as you can imagine. Spray patterns are pretty evident and
actually very demonstrative in this case, again probably due to the
tight parameters of the crime scene.” They looked at the computer
screen, where the interior of the limo was now glowing brightly in
numerous places. For a moment it looked like they were deep in a mine
and bits of gold blazed out at them from every nook and cranny. Liz
marked several spots with the pointer. “My conclusion is that the
gentleman found on the floor of the backseat was either sitting facing
the rear or with his face partially toward the right-hand side window.
Gunshot wound was near the right temple. Blood, bone and tissue
throw-off was considerable. You can see the rear seat is covered with
the debris.”
“Yeah, but there’s an evident gap there.” Sawyer pointed to the left
side of the rear seat.
“Good eye, that’s absolutely right,” Liz said. She used her measuring
device again. “We found samples pretty uniformly distributed on the
rear seat. That’s what makes me think the victim”–she glanced at some
notes next to the computer–“Brophy, had turned away, toward his left.
That would leave the area of the gunshot, the right temple, facing
directly at the rear seat, which accounts for the considerable trace
coverage on the rear seat.”
“Sort of like a cannon firing,” Sawyer said dryly.
“Not exactly a technical term, but not bad for a layman, Lee.” Liz
arched her eyebrows and then continued. “However, the left half of the
rear seat is virtually absent of any trace, no blood, no tissue, no bone
fragments for approximately forty-five inches, almost four feet.
Why is that?” She looked at the two agents like a schoolmarm waiting for
her students to start waving their hands.
Sawyer answered. “We know one of the victims was sitting on the far
left side: Philip Goldman. He was found there. But he was an
average-size guy. There’s no way he could account for that width.
From the size of the gap, and the hair and fiber trace you already
picked up, another person was sitting right next to Goldman.”
“That’s how I read it,” Liz answered. “Goldman’s wound would have
thrown off quite a bit of residue as well. Again, nothing on the seat
next to him. That reinforces the conclusion that someone else was
seated there and took the full brunt of it. Not a pleasant business, to
say the least. I’d be soaking in a bath for a week if it had happened
to me, knock on wood.”
“Wool coat, long, blond hair–” Jackson began.
“And this,” Liz broke in, and pointed at the screen. They all stared as
the scene changed once more. It was the rear seat again.
The leather had been torn in several spots. Three parallel jagged lines
ran from front to back at a spot very near where Goldman had been found.
In the middle of the damage a solitary object rested.
The agents looked at Liz.
“That’s part of a fingernail. We haven’t had time to run a DNA
typing analysis, of course, but it’s definitely female.”
“How do you know that?” Jackson asked.
“It’s not always so complicated, Ray. Long nail, professionally
manicured, fingernail polish. Men rarely put themselves through that.”
“Oh.”
“The parallel lines on the leather–”
“Scratches,” Sawyer said. “She scratched the seat and broke a nail.”
“Right. She must’ve been really panicked,” Liz noted.
“Not surprising, is it?” Jackson added.
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