Part 7 (1/2)
The finger extended only halfway before the woman caught herself, tucking her hand chastely back at her side. ”Since my first response is both unprofessional and unladylike, I'm going to forget you said that.”
Cait gaped. She couldn't help it. If the ME was helping Kristy break a bad habit where-let's face it-she herself had failed, more power to him. But the fact that he'd managed to do so only because he possessed a Y chromosome and her a.s.sistant had the hots for him was a bit hard to swallow.
Shaking off the reaction, she indicated the saw and towel on the counter Barnes had brought with him. ”Deputy Barnes needs the blood tested for species identification.”
”Sure.” She strolled into the room to survey the instrument before looking up at Cait. ”Do you want me to run the Ouchterlony or crossover electroph.o.r.esis?”
”Run the Ouchterlony test. If I'm not here in the morning, call me first thing to let me know whether you have results yet.”
”You got it.” The tech picked up the materials with her gloved hands and headed back into the adjoining room.
Barnes's gaze followed the woman until she disappeared. Cait didn't blame him. Few people knew what to make of Kristy.
”So what else do you have so far?” Mentally she was calculating how long it would take her to examine the saw marks on each set of remains. All day, she realized with a sense of resignation. Which would push her latent exam back until at least tomorrow or later. But this was probably a better use of her time. Whatever tool had been used to decapitate the victims would have left certain evidence. The same couldn't be said about whoever had handled the bones prior to their being found in those bags. Finding a latent on the skeletal remains was going to be a long shot.
The deputy's attention returned to her. ”It's been slow going with the ranger stations. Most of their help is on the other side of the state, fighting that forest fire.”
She nodded grimly. Whenever the TV was on, local news was providing updates. ”So the stations are short-staffed.”
”I've got officers at various stations helping with the file review. And I've been following up on the offenders myself.” He itched his upper lip as if the newly grown mustache was bothering him. ”Been concentrating on locals or those who live in the state for now.”
”It's a starting point. Let me know if you want help.”
”Will do.” He pushed away from the counter.
As the deputy headed toward the door, she stashed her purse, then dug out her cell phone and put it on the desk in the corner of the room. If the detectives she'd contacted today started to return her messages, she didn't want to miss their calls.
Then she took her pack into the next room and started to withdraw the soil samples. ”I have a present for you.”
Kristy glanced up from her work. And immediately groaned theatrically. ”No f.u.c.king way. I just got caught up on the other ones!”
”These are special.” She s.h.i.+ed away from the memory of the scene earlier that day with Sharper. ”But they can wait until you finish the plates and treat the long bones in each set of remains with Acryloid B-72.” The preservative would give the bones an artificially glossy nonporous surface suitable for dusting for latents.
Cait looked through the contents of the shelves on the other side of the room until she found a pair of magnifying goggles, which she set on the nearby cart holding the stereomicroscope and scanning digital camera. ”You owe me a buck, by the way. Two if you don't want me to tell Michaels Steve about your lapse.” Carefully she began pulling the cart across the room. That was the pain of temporary lab quarters. Nothing was ever where she needed it.
Though her back was to the other woman, she heard the smirk in her voice. ”Turns out he has a love-hate relations.h.i.+p with my language. When it's dirty talk, accompanied by a little soft bondage . . .”
Cait hurried her pace a bit. ”I'm not listening.”
”. . . he has a surprisingly high tolerance for it. As a matter of fact, he asked me to say . . .”
”La-la-la-la-la . . . can't hear you.” She escaped with the cart into the other room while Kristy was still laughing.
She manipulated the cart over to the first gurney, which held the remains of female A. Adjusting the goggles over her eyes, she switched on the lights on either side of them and then picked up the camera to scan in digital pictures. When she was finished, she'd hook the camera to the stereomicroscope and use it to display the pictures with maximum resolution on the monitor.
At least her time spent with the victim would elicit nothing more risque than the secrets behind the saw marks on the severed vertebrae.
That was infinitely preferable to hearing the details of Kristy's love life.
At five minutes to eight, Cait followed the hostess through the restaurant to the table for two in the corner. Marin Andrews lowered her menu as Cait approached. ”I'm glad you could make it. Hope you like Thai food.” She paused, did a quick once-over of Cait's figure. ”And that you eat.”
Stifling the quick flare of irritation, Cait picked up a menu. ”My starving-model days have been behind me for a decade.”
The sheriff grunted. ”You won't be sorry. The chef here is excellent.”
Several minutes pa.s.sed before Andrews put down her menu, signaled the waiter. Cait held off until after he'd scribbled down their orders and hurried away before asking the question that had been plaguing her since Andrews's call a couple hours ago. ”Your call sounded urgent.”
The sheriff raised her brows over the rim of her water gla.s.s as she drank. ”Didn't mean for it to. I wanted to talk to you before tomorrow morning and thought dinner would give us the time and privacy we need.” It was obvious she'd come from the office herself. She was still in uniform.
”What's going on tomorrow morning?”
”Press conference.”
Of course. Cait sat back in her chair, a measure of cynicism rising. Sharper had said something a couple days ago about how little information had been released to the media. She'd been surprised at the time that Andrews had restrained from regular press updates.
It was another reminder that the woman was no fool. And that she had a plan that reached far beyond this case.
Whatever her reasons, the sheriff's restraint so far pleased Cait. There was nothing worse than a press-hungry law enforcement officer spilling details that she'd prefer not being made public.
When Andrews began speaking, her words mirrored Cait's thoughts closely. ”I've been talking to the press regularly, but putting them off with any real details until we could be certain what we were dealing with.” The expression in her eyes was shrewd. ”I don't want to make something public that will later be proven untrue. But media speculation can be just as damaging, so I want to be careful. I'll share some of the facts, and your expert opinion. So we need to separate out the information we have so I can decide what's safe to go public with.”
Cait leaned back as the waiter returned with their soft drinks. When he'd moved away, she said, ”I a.s.sume Deputy Barnes updated you about the discovery he delivered to the lab today.” At the woman's nod, she went on. ”The species identification results won't be available until tomorrow, but I can tell you unequivocally that the saw your officer found isn't the instrument used to decapitate these victims, although the instrument used was a bone saw.”
If the sheriff was disappointed at the news, it didn't show. ”You're sure of that?”
”Absolutely. I conducted saw mark a.n.a.lysis on the serrated areas of the bones. When I examine the characteristics of the kerf walls and floors in the bones, I'm able to get a fairly accurate estimation of the size, shape, set, power, and direction of a saw.” The sheriff was leaning forward, listening intently. ”The tool used is hand powered. Ten TPI-teeth per inch. A rectangular blade. The perp is right-handed. And here's the good news.” Cait paused, reliving the satisfaction she'd experienced when she'd made the discovery. ”The same blade was used on all of the victims. There's a slight imperfection on one of the teeth.”
”So if the UNSUB has the saw in his possession, it links him to the murders.”
She nodded. ”But that isn't information you want to release to the public.”
”Of course not.” The sheriff broke off as their food was delivered. Then she picked up her fork and started in on her seafood curry. ”Neither are the beetles. So let's talk about what we can safely release.”
”The cave's a secondary scene.” Cait tried her stir fry, found it delicious. ”The newest set of remains was probably put there sometime in the last several months. The manner of disposal has your department treating the deaths as suspicious.” She'd had plenty of experience over the years putting together case information for press releases. Unfortunately, her advice was often ignored. Law enforcement officials had to deal with local politics, which sometimes edged out caution when it came to releasing facts to the public. ”The deaths are connected, and you're following up on that link as vigorously as possible. You don't feel the residents are in immediate danger, but they should remain cautious and report any suspicious activity to your office, yada yada yada.”
Andrews chewed thoughtfully. ”That isn't going to be enough to satisfy them.”
She was right. But then, nothing would be enough to satisfy a press corps hungry for details about the most sensational case to hit the area in decades. The trick was to keep them from realizing just how sensational it was before the investigators knew themselves. ”If pushed, I suppose you could tell them we're matching the remains with persons reported missing, and every attempt is being made to identify the individuals so they can eventually be returned to their families.”
Reaching for her gla.s.s, the sheriff nodded. ”That should do it. Now why don't you tell me about your progress along those lines.”
Cait filled her in on the phone calls she'd made that day, adding, ”I've talked to three detectives so far. All have promised to get me identifier information that might help me match the missing person to one of our remains. When I get to the point where I think we're close to doing so, I'll ask for DNA samples to compare with the ones I took.”
The other woman paused in the act of bringing her fork to her mouth. ”You can get DNA from bones?”
”If they aren't too degraded.” One corner of her mouth pulled up wryly. ”One thing we have to thank our offender for. He left us specimens in excellent condition.”