‘Do we know anything about the baby’s biological father?’ Maria asked.
‘We do not. Ms Rollins is currently in the pysch ward at Temple. We’re awaiting word on whether or not she is well enough to be questioned. We checked the birth record, and the father is listed as unknown.’
Byrne turned his attention back to the photos on the board.
‘Once again a mark was left on the lamppost in front of the church. As before, the premises yielded hundreds of partial fingerprints, which are still being processed. A search of the scene also yielded a candleholder, the only candle-holder still in the church that could not be matched to St Damian’s.’
‘And we think this was deliberately placed, too?’ Bobby Tate asked.
‘We do. There was an inscription on the bottom of the glass that revealed it was property of St Regina’s, which turned out to be a closed church in Rhawnhurst. When we visited St Regina’s, we discovered the body of Martin Allsop.’ Byrne deferred to Maria Caruso. The Allsop case was hers.
‘Allsop was sixty-nine, a resident of Torresdale,’ Maria said. ‘We ran his prints and found he had a rather lengthy record. He was a twice-convicted sex offender, and was on the city’s watch list.’
‘Any connection to the clinic?’ Westbrook asked.
‘None yet,’ Maria said. ‘At least, not according to the clinic. We haven’t had the chance to question friends and family. If he had any friends.’
Byrne took the floor again. ‘As to MO, Cecilia Rollins died as a result of drowning,’ he said. ‘Daniel Palumbo bled out, Martin Allsop died as a result of suffocation. Although he has not yet been autopsied, an X-ray revealed there are many more stones in his esophagus and stomach. One stone removed from his mouth at the scene had markings on it. The markings appear to be in a foreign language, one as yet unidentified. The lab has it now.’
While Maria Caruso took a call on her cell and stepped out of the duty room, Byrne flipped a few more pages on his pad, continued speaking.
‘Our best guess is that the main suspect is male, white, somewhere around six feet tall, anywhere from twenty to fifty.’
‘Great,’ someone said.
‘What about the marks on the lampposts?’ Dre Curtis asked. ‘Were they made in blood?’
‘No. They are definitely not blood,’ Jessica said. ‘Preliminary reports reveal that the substance is a combination of a starchy compound, soil, with trace amounts of tannin.’
‘Tannin,’ Bontrager said. ‘Are we talking tannin as in red wine?’
‘We are,’ Jessica said. ‘But that’s all we have so far. Some of the material is so old it has begun to break down. The lab is conducting more tests as we speak. They’ll have more soon.’
Byrne continued. ‘We ran this through ViCAP and, as you might imagine, the results were off the charts. Murder committed in the name of religion probably accounts for a third of the database.’
‘What about trauma on the baby?’ Dre Curtis asked.
Byrne shook his head. ‘None. The ME ruled the baby drowned. There were marks on the baby’s legs, but these were unrelated to the cause of death. There were no cuts or lacerations.
‘CSU collected hair from all three scenes that shows promise. If the hair matches, and the owner is in CODIS, we’ll have something.’
‘Where are we on the DNA results?’ Bontrager asked.
Everyone knew there was a backlog on DNA testing. The forensic lab had to process cases closest to the statute of limitations. Once in a while pressure was brought to bear to speed up the process. Jessica hoped this string of murders qualified.
All eyes turned to Dana Westbrook.
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ Westbrook said. She stood up, took the floor. ‘Something connects these victims. I want questions and answers.’
All five detectives looked at each other. Nobody wanted to raise their hand.
Westbrook continued. ‘The victims lived in different neighborhoods, moved in different circles. As far as we know they never attended the churches in which their bodies were found.’
‘Both Palumbo and Allsop did time,’ Bobby Tate offered.
‘At two different correctional facilities,’ Westbrook replied.
‘Jailhouse jaw,’ Tate countered. ‘It travels.’
‘Possible,’ Westbrook said. ‘But that does not account for Cecilia Rollins. And why the baby? Why not the mother?’
‘Revenge?’ Bontrager asked.
‘Not against the mother,’ Jessica said. ‘Adria is not functional. I can’t imagine she had done something to someone so horrible that it would warrant the kidnapping and murder of her child.’
‘What about the great-grandfather?’
‘It’s hard to make too many enemies at his age. And if he did, they would be too old to do any of this. I’m not seeing it.’
‘Where was the baby born?’ Westbrook asked.
Jessica checked her notes. ‘Jefferson.’
‘Maybe somebody put their eyes on the baby there,’ Westbrook said. ‘Any connection between Jefferson and the other two victims?’
Nobody knew. The appropriate detectives made the note.
‘How is the killer picking the churches?’ Westbrook asked. ‘Why closed churches? I’m thinking this is significant.’
‘The archdiocese has a website of all active parishes,’ Byrne said. ‘If you have a list from ten or twenty years ago, simple math would do it, a simple side by side comparison. Or maybe it’s just by observation.’
‘Might this be a vendetta against the Church?’ Westbrook asked. It was almost rhetorical. It was on everyone’s mind. Of course, if that were the case, there would be no predicting any pattern. There were churches all over the four counties. And there was no shortage of scandals involving the Catholic Church, some legitimate, some not. ‘Or someone inside the Church,’ she added.
This too was something no one wanted to think about, but neither could they rule it out.
‘We find the motive on this one, we find our boy,’ Westbrook said.
There was general agreement on this. It was not a case of finding a single gun to match ballistics. All three methods of murder — one victim bleeding out, one drowning, one suffocating — meant that it wasn’t the means that tied the killings together, but the motive.
If they could find a connection between these three victims, they might find a common denominator, and their killer. Friends, families, lovers, co-workers, doctors, dentists, lawyers. Something tied these people together. They were being killed for who they were, and carefully deposited in Catholic churches.
Closed Catholic churches.
Westbrook continued. ‘So this is where we are, folks. I want status reports from all of you every two hours. There’ve been three murders on our patch, and our psycho caller said “seven churches.” I think we all know what that means. Like Kevin said, according to the archdiocese there are thirty empty churches scattered around four counties. Sixteen of them are in our jurisdiction, which makes them all our responsibility. State police and county sheriff’s offices are coordinating surveillance in Montgomery, Chester, and Bucks. As for us, well, expect to do a lot of sitting, watching, and waiting.’ She tapped the picture on the whiteboard, the photograph taken from the surveillance camera of the figure in the dark hood. ‘Let’s bring this fucker into our house for a nice long visit, shall we?’
The team stood up, gathered their materials. Before they could get their coats on, and get out the door, Maria Caruso came rushing in.
‘We have prints,’ she said.
At this, everyone in the room stopped doing whatever they were doing. They all looked at Maria.
‘The prints were found on the inside back cover of the missal found at the Allsop scene,’ she said. ‘We got a hit from IAFIS.’