flat.
She gave it a wide berth, flipped on the scanner.
And hit the mother lode.
“What the fuck is that—beg pardon.”
“It’s a hell of a lot of blood, Hinkey.” She ran the scanner over the floor, revealing a bright blue pattern along the floor, splattered on the wall. “One of your men cut off an appendage with that saw up here?”
“Jesus Christ, no. Lieutenant, I don’t see how that could be blood.”
But she could. Just as she could see the smear of it running down the hall. Where Tina Cobb had tried to crawl.
He’d walked through it, she noted, squatting down for a better look. He’d left some prints, and wasn’t that handy?
So had Cobb, she saw. Handprints, bloodied. Tried to pull herself up the wall, used it for support and pressed her hand there, there.
He’d taken his time with her, Eve was sure of it. He’d let her crawl, limp, stumble the entire length of the fourth-floor corridor before he delivered the death blow.
“Can’t be blood.” Hinkey stared at the blue, shaking his head slowly from side to side. “We’d’ve seen it. Jeezopetes, you couldn’ta missed it.”
“I need this area cleared. I’ve got to ask you to get your crew out of this building. This is a crime scene.” She took out her communicator. “Peabody? I’ve found her. Fourth floor.”
“I’ve gotta . . . I gotta call the boss.”
“You do that, Hinkey. Tell him to be available, at his home, in an hour.” Eve turned to him, felt a pang of sympathy as she saw the horror in his eyes. “Get your crew out of this building and call Whittier. I want to talk to him.”
In under an hour, the construction noise had been replaced by cop noise. Though she didn’t have much hope of picking up more evidential trace, she had a team of sweepers spread throughout the building. A crime-scene unit took images of the hand- and footprints, and with their tech magic extracted microscopic blood traces for DNA match.
She’d already matched the index fingerprint on the wall to the prints on file for Tina Cobb.
“I know you’re going to say it’s just cop work, Dallas, just step-by-step investigation, but it’s just short of miraculous we were able to nail this scene.”
Peabody studied the blood patterns, boldly blue under the scanners set on tripods.
“Another few weeks, maybe days, they’d have set the floor, covered the walls. He picked a good spot for this.”
“Nobody to see her, hear her,” Eve stated. “Easy enough to get her inside, dozens of reasons he could’ve used. There’s plenty of pipe for the murder weapon, tarps to wrap her body in to transport it. He’d get the gas first. Have that in the transfer vehicle. He got in here, he could access the gas. We’ll follow up there. There’ll be records of what’s stored or purchased through the Whittier account.”
“I’ll get on that.”
“Do it on the way. Let’s go see Whittier.”
She didn’t want him on scene, not yet. She wanted this first contact in his home, where a man felt most comfortable. And where a man, guilty or innocent, tended to feel most uneasy when confronted with a badge.
She didn’t want him surrounded by his employees and friends.
He opened the door himself, and she saw a sleepless night on his face that was layered over now with what might have been shock and worry.
He extended a hand to her in what she took as the automatic manners of a man raised to be polite. “Lieutenant Dallas? Steve Whittier. I don’t know what to think, what to say. I’m not taking this in. Hinkey thinks there’s been some mistake, and I’m inclined to agree. I’d like to get down to the site and—”
“I can’t allow that, at this time. Can we come in?”
“What? Oh, yes. Sorry. Excuse me. Ah . . . ” He gestured, stepped back. “We should sit down.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Somewhere. In here, I think. My wife’s out, but I expect her back soon. I don’t want her to walk in on this. I’d rather try to tell her . . . Well.”
He walked them into his den, held out his hands to chairs. “Would you like something? Something to drink?”
“No. Mr. Whittier, I’m going to record this interview. And I’m going to give you your rights.”
“My . . . ” He sank into a chair. “Give me a minute, will you? Am I a suspect in something? Should I . . . Do I need a