his pen high and stabbed the notebook. A dot was left on the page. “Count,” Ronan ordered before he started stabbing the page in a frenzy.
“Twenty,” Ten said when Ronan stopped. “Twenty-one if you include the original stab.”
“Count the marks.” Ronan pushed the notebook toward Ten.
The page was a mess. Some marks were dots, while others showed the tip of the pen skidding on the page. Ten took a deep breath and did as Ronan asked. “I only count eighteen.”
Ronan circled a couple of the larger marks. “You can tell these marks look like they were made bigger by a second stab, right? This is what the coroner’s report means.”
Ten understood the point Ronan was trying to make. He could see how the stab wounds could get a little muddy if someone was in a rage. “I can’t imagine.” Ten shook his head.
“If you need to walk away…” Ronan began.
“I’m fine. We need to get through the preliminary evidence here so we can go speak to the family. Has Cisco called to let them know we were taking this case?” Ten had a feeling the answer was no.
“I texted to let him know we were reading the file this morning, but I haven’t heard back from him. Maybe he and Luca are still going at it.” Ronan laughed while Jude grimaced.
“The media was all over the place with this case. Some reports think Skye’s killer was a member of her family. Others think this is the work of a serial killer. Since there were no immediate suspects, the media ran with their own theories.” Jude did not seem impressed.
“Keep in mind this murder took place prior to DNA profiling. The best they could do at the time was look for fingerprints, boot prints, and to type any blood at the scene that didn’t belong to Skye.” Fitzgibbon held up a stapled evidence report.
“Has the DNA been tested as technology advanced?” Ten asked. He wondered what the protocol was for that. Did the city of Salem pay for it? The Commonwealth of Massachusetts? The family?
“According to what I’m reading, some of it has. What has been tested all came back to Skye.” Fitzgibbon’s brow furrowed. “They have a couple of samples that were too small, and they didn’t want to risk destroying the sample and not getting viable results.”
“Get with Cisco and see if we can get those samples tested now,” Fitzgibbon ordered, sounding like he did when Ten and Ronan worked for him.
Ronan smirked at his former boss, but picked up the phone. A knock at the door stopped him. “Who the hell could that be? We’re all here.”
“Not all of us.” Cisco walked into the room carrying two large evidence boxes. “I got these out of storage for you. I know Tennyson is sometimes able to connect with items…” The chief shot Tennyson a hopeful look.
“We need to talk about getting some of the DNA tested, the smaller samples that haven’t been tested yet, and we need to make an appointment to speak to the parents.” Ronan looked back down at his notes.
“I spoke to Butch and Muriel this morning. They’re expecting you at one. As for the DNA, I can submit it, but our budget is rather tight this year.” Cisco did not look hopeful.
“Truman is our social media guru. Get him to set up a GoFundMe page to pay for the DNA testing. Then we’ll call Channel 5 and get John Jameson down here to do a special interest piece. It will get people to contribute to the fund, and give us leads to follow. Sometimes killers do things like that out of guilt. Renewed interest in the case could also prod people who know something about this case to come forward.”
“Not to mention the fact that it will get names out there for future business…” Jude trailed off. His eyes were glued to Tennyson.
“Guys, I’m not stopping Ronan from being the third musketeer in your band of merry men. If he wants to go all in on this detective agency, I’ve got no problem with that.”
“Why do I feel a but coming on?” Jude asked.
“There’s no ‘but,’ Jude.” Ten sighed. The next word out of his mouth was going to be “but.” He needed to change his thought process. Ten moved his eyes back to Ronan. “I just don’t want you to end up working the same kind of hours we pulled at the BPD. There were a lot of nights we only got a few