Detectives Springfield took charge.
"All right. Let's cease fire with the bullshit. If you read up this morning, you saw zero progress.
"House-to-house interviews will continue for a radius of four additional blocks around the scene. R & I has loaned us two clerks to help cross-matching airline reservations and car rentals inBirminghamandAtlanta.
"Airport and hotel details will make the rounds again today. Yes, again today. Catch every maid and attendant as well as the desk people. He had to clean up somewhere and he may have left a mess. If you find somebody who cleaned up a mess, roust out whoever's in the room, seal it, and get on the horn to the laundry double quick. This time we've got something for you to show around. Dr. Princi?"
Dr. Dominic Princi, chief medical examiner forFultonCounty, walked to the front and stood under the drawing of the teeth. He held up a dental cast.
"Gentlemen, this is what the subject's teeth look like. The Smithsonian in Washington reconstructed them from the impressions we took of bite marks on Mrs. Leeds and a clear bite mark in a piece of cheese from the Leedses' reffigerator," Princi said.
"As you can see, he has pegged lateral incisors - the teeth here and here." Princi pointed to the cast in his hand, then to the chart above him. "The teeth are crooked in alignment and a corner is missing from this central incisor. The other incisor is grooved, here. It looks like a 'tailor's notch,' the land of wear you get biting thread."
"Snaggletoothed son of a bitch," somebody mumbled.
"How do you know for sure it was the perpetrator that bit the cheese, Doc?" a tall detective in the front row asked.
Princi disliked being called "Doc," but he swallowed it. "Saliva washes from the cheese and ftom the bite wounds matched for blood type," he said. "The victims' teeth and blood type didn't match."
"Fine, Doctor,"Springfieldsaid. "We'll pass out pictures of the teeth to show around."
"What about giving it to the papers?" The public-relations officer, Simpkins, was speaking. "A 'have-you-seen-these-teeth' sort of thing."
"I see no objection to that,"Springfieldsaid. "What about it' Commissioner?"
Lewis nodded.
Simpkins was not through. "Dr. Princi, the press is going to ask why it took four days to get this dental representation you have here. And why it all had to be done inWashington."
Special Agent Crawford studied the button on his ball-point pen. Princi reddened but his voice was calm. "Bite marks on flesh are distorted when a body is moved, Mr. Simpson - "
"Simpkins."
"Simpkins, then. We couldn't make this using only the bite marks on the victims. That is the importance of the cheese. Cheese is relatively solid, but tricky to cast. You have to oil it first to keep the moisture out of the casting medium. Usually you get one shot at it. The Smithsonian has done it for the FBI crime lab before. They're better equipped to do a face bow registration and they have an anatomical articulator. They have a consulting forensic odontologist. We don't. Anything else?"
"Would it be fair to say that the delay was caused by the FBI lab and not here?"
Princi turned on him. "What it would be fair to say, Mr. Simpkins, is that a federal investigator, Special Agent Crawford, found the cheese in the refrigerator two days ago - after your people had been through the place. He expedited the lab work at my request. It would be fair to say I'm relieved that it wasn't one of you that bit the goddamned thing."
Commissioner Lewis broke in, his heavy voice booming in the squad room. "Nobody's questioning your judgment, Dr. Princi. Simpkins, the last thing we need is to start a pissing contest with the FBI. Let's get on with it."
"We're all after the same thing,"Springfieldsaid. "Jack, do you fellows want to add anything?"
Crawford took the floor. The faces he saw were not entirely friendly. He had to do something about that.
"I just want to clear the air, Chief. Years ago there was a lot of rivalry about who got the collar. Each side, federal and local, held out on the other. It made a gap that crooks slipped through. That's not Bureau policy now, and it's not my policy. I don't give a damn who gets the collar. Neither does Investigator Graham. That's him sitting back there, if some of you are wondering. If the man who did this is run over by a garbage truck, it would suit me just fine as long as it puts him off