“I believe so. The perp was after the doll all along. The woman I think was the intended target is named Juliet Price, one of my employees. The doll belongs to her. She lives just around the block from Cipriano in the same apartment complex and has a very similar address, 131 H. They are both blue-eyed blondes of similar age-their descriptors are close enough that they could be mistaken for each other. Plus, there’s the Impala present at both crime scenes. The one used today was dark blue, so it’s likely to have a blue interior. If we can match carpet fibers found at the Cipriano murder, we’ll have him connected to both crimes.”
“Napier said there was a doll involved. What’s that about?” asked Garnett.
“I’m not sure. I think it’s a hunt for lost treasure,” said Diane.
“Lost treasure? You’ve got to be kidding,” said Garnett.
“I’m not kidding, but I may be wrong,” she said. “It’s kind of a long story. I’ll give you the complete rundown later.”
“In your 911 call, you said there may have been two perps?” said Garnett.
“Two or more. He told me not to move for five minutes while ‘we get out of here.’ ”
“You may have found us the break we needed,” said Garnett.
“I wish I could take credit, but he came to me,” said Diane as she walked across the museum in the direction of the crime lab.
“That was a dangerous experience for you. Are you all right?” asked Garnett.
“I’m fine. He got what he was after,” she said. “I was more mad than scared.”
Diane walked past the lounge and across the dinosaur overlook and came face-to-face with Darth Vader. She stopped in her tracks.
“I have to go,” she said. “Something’s come up. Let me know if you find him.” Diane flipped the phone closed.
A life-sized cardboard cutout of Darth Vader stood holding a sign that read: STOP HERE MUSEUM PERSONNEL ONLY
He stood just behind one of the museum’s velvet covered chains used for roping off nonpublic areas. Kids sometimes break away from their group and decide to make their own tour of the museum. Some get lost in the huge building and require rescuing. So, the docents post Authorized Personnel signs in various places. Today was an especially busy day for tours of schoolchildren. One of the docents must have wanted to keep the kids out of the west wing and thought this particular sign was a funny inside joke. Diane stepped over the rope past Darth Vader and went to the dark side.
Jin and Neva, counting cigarette butts, were in one of the glassed-in rooms with their booty spread out on a long table.
“Hey, Boss,” said Jin. “You all in one piece? We saw the video image of the guy with the gun on you.”
“I’m fine. How are you doing here?” she asked.
Jin gestured to a table full of evidence bags. “We got a lot of butts.”
Also lying on the table was a large piece of white butcher paper with a map drawn on it showing the relative locations of the morgue tent, the coffee tent, the media tent, and where the onlookers stood. Jin and Neva wore gloves and were sorting through the butts looking for Dorals. Apparently they hadn’t found any yet, for there was nothing on their map.
David entered the room just as Diane donned a pair of gloves to help with the sorting. It looked like hundreds of them.
“I got the photos from museum Security,” said David. “That was a big gun he had trained on you. Must have been scary.”
“Made me more mad than scared. All he wanted was the doll. Were you able to clarify the photographs?”
“I got a partial plate. AXE and it looks like a Georgia plate.”
“AXE,” said Jin. “You think that was on purpose?”
“I doubt it. What criminal has vanity plates?” said Neva.
David shook his head. “I also got the interior. The seats look blue. I imagine the carpet is, too.”
“Garnett’s chasing down a lead to the car right now,” said Diane. “If he finds it and them, I’m going to need you guys to process the car and their clothes too, ASAP.”
“Sure thing, Boss,” said Jin.
“What about the face?” asked Diane. “Could you do anything with that?”
“Not really,” said David. “He had on sunglasses. My face recognition software needs to see the eyes. But I cleared it up as much as I could and sent it to the police department. They can use it to show around. Someone might recognize him.”
“OK, I’m going to finish the facial reconstruction. David, do you mind helping Jin and Neva sort the cigarette butts?”
“Not at all,” said David, putting on a pair of gloves. “By the way, why did the guy steal a doll? Was it valuable? And what did it have to do with Cipriano?”
“Because of what was inside the doll,” said Diane. “Cipriano, I think, was a mistake. I’ll tell you more later. Right now we’ve got evidence to process.”
Diane left them sorting cigarette butts and went to her lab where the bones were still waiting for her. She had already pieced together most of the face the last time she worked on them. There weren’t that many pieces left. She made quick work of it, and when she finished she had two complete skeletal faces.
She took them both to her vault, put each in turn on the pedestal, and scanned each with the laser scanner. She asked the software to reconstruct the unknown victim first, then do another construction of the first victim. Now that she had a more complete face, there would be fewer extrapolations and a more accurate rendition of the face. Even though the first reconstruction was already identified, a more accurate picture would be helpful to the police in tracing the guy’s steps before he got blown into tiny pieces.
As the software worked its magic-growing a face- she went back out to the bones and began the tedious task of trying to separate the two skeletons. She accomplished that through measurements and articulated surfaces. The task was made easier by the fact that the two individuals were of different heights. One had been athletic, as indicated by large muscle attachments on his arms and legs and pelvic bones. The other individual had been more sedentary.
The athletic individual was about ten years older than the other, as shown by the sternal end of his ribs, various epiphyses, and the condition of the pubic symphysis. He had a healed wound in his scapula-probably a gunshot wound. It would have reduced the range of motion in his arm and shoulder. From the size of the muscle attachments, he compensated by strengthening his arm and shoulder within the range of motion he had. Gradually she separated out the two skeletons until each lay on a separate table.
She went back to have a look at the faces. The image on the screen when she walked in was the re-scanned face of the identified victim from the basement. It was similar to the first version, but looked more realistic. Faces aren’t actually symmetrical. There are always slight variations from one side to the other. Duplicating one side and flipping it to substitute for missing bones creates a rather strange looking facsimile. This face no longer had that odd appearance.
She flipped it over and looked at the next face-and sat stunned. He could have been Marcus McNair’s brother, he was so similar.
Chapter 45
Diane stared at the reconstructed face on the computer screen. Was this what Marcus McNair didn’t want them to find? A relative? Why wasn’t he reported missing? Didn’t he have other family who missed him? Parents, wife, children, girlfriend, friends?
She reached for the phone and called Garnett.
“I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed,” said Garnett, answering her call. “We found the car down a ravine ten miles outside of town. It’s been burned out. No bodies.”