"Did she hear any voices? See anyone enter or leave?"
He stopped and looked a little closer at the writing. It smelled like dried blood to his hawk-sharpened senses, and given the almost "scraped" effect of each letter, it appeared something other than fingers had been used as a writing tool. He'd guess rolled-up paper, or something like that. It certainly wasn't the type of effect achieved with cloth, though there'd obviously been plenty of blood soaked material lying about.
"The neighbor didn't hear the elevator or other voices, but these apartments have good soundproofing," Marsden said.
"The screams would have to have been extremely loud for the woman to have heard them."
"How many minutes passed between the report and a squad car arriving?" He stepped back to take another overall look at the writing. The letters sloped to the left more than the right, which was usually a good indication that the murderer was left-handed. Not that that meant anything in itself. A good percentage of the population was left-handed these days.
"The report came in at three-fifteen. The squad car was here by three-twenty one."
Gabriel looked around. "That's fast work by your men, Captain."
"There was a car in the area." He shrugged. "They saw no one coming out of the building, and after gaining access to the apartment via the building's super and finding the woman's na**d pieces, they immediately secured the main door."
Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Naked?"
Marsden nodded. "The bedding was rumpled. We've sent it to the lab to test for body fluids and DNA."
Meaning Douglass might have known her attacker extremely well. "Is there a fire exit?"
"Yes, but it's alarmed. No one has come in or out of it."
"No broken windows or anything like that to indicate entry from the rooftop?"
"No, sir."
Then how had the murderer gotten in or out? There had to be something here. Some access point Marsden and his men had missed. "What about air conditioning ducts or vents? Does the building share the one system, or does each apartment have separate air conditioning units to look after its own needs?"
"The second option, I'm afraid." Marsden paused. "So far, the only prints we've picked up are the victims."
"Not surprising. Whoever did this obviously had it well planned." He looked past Marsden as Illie came to the door.
"Yes?"
"Found something you might want to look at."
"What, exactly?" Gabriel asked, as he and Marsden followed Illie through the living room.
"This apartment has a guest bathroom as well as a regular bathroom. It's little more than a toilet and washbasin, but it's situated on an outside wall and has a small, wind out window which I presume is meant to give ventilation." Illie glanced over his shoulder. "The window was open."
"Big enough for someone to get in?"
"Someone? No. Something? Yes."
Illie stopped in the doorway. Gabriel stepped past him. As his partner had stated, the room had nothing more than a toilet and a basin. The soap sitting on the edge of the small metal basin was old and cracked, suggesting this room hadn't been used in quite a while, though the toilet itself was spotless. The window above it was roughly two foot in diameter, which was certainly big enough for someone to crawl through if they weren't so high up. With the winder in place, though, the amount the window could open was severely restricted. Windows and winders could be broken, of course, but this one was still intact.
And right now, it was only open a couple of inches.
"Seems your people missed this," he commented, without glancing at Marsden.
"The open window was noted, but we are duty bound to assume human intervention first. Our searches are for more conventional clues and entry points." He hesitated, expression annoyed. "You were called as soon as other options were eliminated."
Gabriel squatted and looked behind the bowl. "I would have thought the fact that she was torn apart precluded human involvement."
"She was ripped apart?" Illie said, surprise evident in his voice.
"Yeah. Poor bitch."