narrows it to what, fifty percent of the population?”
“Close,” Metcalf said. “Forty-four point five percent.”
“Tell me you didn’t know that off the top of your head.”
“Would it impress you if I did?”
“Not sure. I’d have to decide if you were a genius or some kind of freak.”
“Now you know how we feel about you when you help out on our cases.”
“Point taken.”
Metcalf smiled. “I looked up the stat after the Evidence Response Team gave me the shoe size range. Guess I’m not such a freak after all.”
“I wouldn’t say that.” Kendra stood up. “I saw the crime scene pics of Elaine’s body…Her hands had wounds, didn’t they?”
“Yes,” Griffin said. “They appeared to be defensive wounds, but the M.E. isn’t sure about that. The wounds weren’t from the same blade that killed her. And if they were truly defensive wounds, they most likely would also be on her lower arms, but those were untouched.”
She turned to Metcalf. “Mind if I use your flashlight? My phone battery is almost dead.”
“Sure.”
She took his high-wattage xenon-bulb flashlight and walked around the area just as she had at Ronald Kim’s murder scene. The close-cropped grass yielded nothing, and the nearby boulders seemed undisturbed. She studied the railing that bordered the path down the hill. It consisted of a series of wooden posts connected by six-foot lengths of nylon mesh.
Kendra turned back to the others. “Was this railing moved or in any way disturbed by investigators on the scene?”
“I don’t believe so,” Metcalf said. “Why?”
Kendra stepped back and looked at it from another angle. “So this is how it looked when Elaine’s body was found?”
Allison moved closer to her. “This is how it’s always looked. At least since it was put up about ten years ago.”
“I’m not so sure about that.”
Griffin stared at the railing. “What are you seeing that we aren’t? Or is it smelling?”
“Seeing.” Kendra moved the flashlight around the surrounding area. “The position of every garden stake, fence, and gatepost matches the others perfectly.”
“Our grounds staff possesses an impressive attention to detail,” Allison said. “Nothing unusual there.”
Kendra ran the beam of her flashlight across the railing posts. “Look at these. Each post is stuck into the ground up to a small globe at the bottom.” She used her flashlight to point out each one. “Globe, globe, globe, globe…”
“No globe,” Griffin said as her flashlight came to rest at the base of a post just a few feet away from them.
Kendra moved closer to it. “This post is slightly shorter than the others. Because it’s been jammed farther into the ground. If you look, you’ll see that the ground has been freshly disturbed around the base. It looks as if it was pulled from the ground, then thrust back in without the time or care of the other posts. See?” She moved the flashlight up the post. “And higher up, look at the rough patterned cuts in the wood. If you look closer, you’ll see they’re not completely clean. That could be dirt in the ridges, but I’m thinking it might be…”
“Blood,” Metcalf finished for her. “That would explain the cuts we saw on the victim’s hands. You think she tried to use this as a weapon?”
“Maybe. Give me a pair of evidence gloves. I want to see how hard it is for a person my size to pull this out of the ground.”
Metcalf pulled a pair of nitrile evidence gloves from his jacket pocket and handed them to her. Kendra smiled as she handed him his flashlight and pulled the gloves on. “You brought them in my size. Thanks, Metcalf.”
“Figured it was time. You’ve earned it.”
“You’re spoiling me,” she said mockingly.
Kendra gripped the post midway up and pulled. It rose easily from the soft ground, and with a slight twist it was free from the mesh that still joined the other posts. She held it in front of her, as if fending off an attacker. “It’s awkward, but this might have been the closest thing to a weapon Elaine could get her hands on.”
Griffin looked doubtful. “But why would the perp bother planting it back into the ground after he killed her?”
“We’ve all seen serial killers who tidy up their scenes.” Kendra lowered the post. “It could be that he…”
She stopped and squinted, then slowly raised the post again. Could that be…?
“Guys, aim your flashlights at the very bottom of this thing.”
Griffin was the first to react, but after a moment both agents had trained their beams on the post’s pointed end.
It was