copy of the Bentley key Carrie had on her key chain.”
“This is all guesswork, Frank,” Robb said.
Santoro smiled. “Not completely. As soon as I made the connection between this case and Brodsky’s murder, I called Wilda Parks at the crime lab and asked her if there was any way to tell if the key on Horace Blair’s key chain—the one that wouldn’t open the front door—had been made in Ernest Brodsky’s store.
“There’s a whole branch of forensics that involves tool-mark identification. Wilda explained that keys are made from blanks that don’t have any ‘cuts.’ ‘Cuts’ are the ridges on the key that interface with the components of a lock. If they are positioned correctly they cause the lock to lock or unlock. These cuts are made in a grinding machine. Different grinding machines will leave different tool marks on a key shaped by that machine.
“I checked with Stuart Lang at the River View Mall. Brodsky’s grinding machines are still in his store. Wilda called this morning. The tool marks on the key on Horace’s key chain—the newer-looking key—were made by Brodsky’s machine.”
“But what about the fingerprints, Frank?” Robb asked. “Horace Blair’s prints were on the key we found in the grave. Blair didn’t have a key to his front door on his key chain, so the key in the grave is probably his front-door key. How did Benedict get Blair’s key?”
“I don’t know,” Santoro said. “But Blair called Benedict as soon as we arrested him. That means they knew each other. I’m sure Blair could tell us if Benedict had an opportunity to get the key. Unfortunately, we can’t ask him because Benedict won’t let us talk to his client. But let’s forget about the key for now. There’s one more connection between Brodsky and this case. Why was Barry Lester in isolation, Steph?”
“He had a fight with one of Nikolai Orlansky’s goons.”
“Gregor Karpinski is a beast. Lester’s not. He’s a wimp. So why would Lester provoke Karpinski? I think it was a setup to get Lester into isolation so he could snitch on Blair. If you remember, Benedict really worked us over to get us to put Blair in isolation. Well, Benedict also represented Karpinski in an assault case.
“Now, here is the clincher for me. If Blair didn’t confess to Lester, then someone fed Lester the location of the grave and the contents of the prenup. Only two people talked to Lester while he was in jail. Dana interviewed one of those people, Lester’s girlfriend, Tiffany Starr. The next day, Starr was stabbed to death. I read the autopsy reports in Starr’s and Brodsky’s cases, then I talked to Nick Winters. In both cases, the knife wounds were almost identical: one shot to the heart.”
“Fuck,” Robb said.
“Yeah, Steph, I agree.”
“There’s something else that links Karpinski and Tiffany Starr,” Dana said. “I talked to Starr on the day she was killed. That night, Karpinski lured me to an industrial park and threatened to rape me if I kept asking questions about the Blair case.”
“Are you okay?” Robb asked with real concern.
Dana nodded.
“Karpinski isn’t so hot, though,” Santoro said. “Dana put him in the hospital.”
“How could you possibly do that?” Robb asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” Santoro said.
“I’m certain the fight between Lester and Karpinski was a setup,” Dana said, anxious to change the subject. “I’d bet everything I own that Blair never confessed to Lester. And if he didn’t, then the odds are that Tiffany Starr told Lester where to find the grave and what was in the prenup. If you need more proof, check Tiffany’s bank account. You’ll find a recent two-thousand-dollar deposit.”
“How do you know that?” Robb asked.
“I’d rather not say,” Dana answered.
“Damn,” Robb said. “I was so sure Blair offed her. Now I don’t know what to think.”
“I’m sure that Benedict has been leading us around by the nose, but I don’t have any idea how we can prove it,” Santoro said.
“If we could talk to Blair, he could tell us if Benedict had an opportunity to get his house key,” Dana said, her frustration evident.
“That’s something that’s not going to happen as long as Benedict is Blair’s attorney,” Santoro said.
By the time Dana got home she was exhausted. Jake was watching a basketball game. Dana pecked him on the cheek, headed straight for the bedroom, and fell instantly into such a deep sleep that she never noticed when Jake climbed into bed an hour later.
Sometime during the night Dana started dreaming. In her dream she was in