The Secret Friend

'Fletcher attacked the agents in eighty-four,' Darby said. 'Why did the Feds wait so long to place him on the list? Do you know?'

'The Bureau wanted to handle the matter quietly.'

'What a surprise.'

'Malcolm Fletcher was one of their best profilers,' Chadzynski said. 'His clearance rate is unprecedented. The problem was he crossed the line into vigilantism. The last dozen or so serial cases he worked on, each killer died. The last four cases he worked, the suspects disappeared. My friend didn't say how long this had been going on, but when the Bureau found out, they sent in three agents to apprehend Fletcher and you know what happened next.

'After the FBI placed him on their list, a task force was formed to apprehend him. The problem, from my understanding, is that nobody knows much about him. For a man on the run, he lives quite well. He stays in good hotels. He enjoys fine wine and cigars. He prefers driving luxury cars.'

'The security guard at Sinclair said Fletcher drove a Jaguar,' Darby said.

'He's also a clothing snob,' Chadzynski said. 'I remember my friend saying Fletcher was ordering hand-made suits and shirts from a well-known tailor in London's Mayfair district. Nobody knows anything about the man's family life or if his eye condition was caused by some genetic defect or disease. I was told the man isn't a psychopath. He kills for specific reasons. Are you familiar with The Shadow?'

'The movie with Alex Baldwin? It wasn't very good.'

'Actually, I was referring to an old pulp-magazine character. The Shadow was a vigilante. He skulked around in the dark, fighting for justice.'

'"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows,"' Bryson said. He saw Darby's expression, and with a slight grin, added, 'Before your time.'

'Malcolm Fletcher is the same way,' Chadzynski said. 'He only targets people whom he believes have committed some grievous offence. I heard speculation – and, at the moment, that's all it is, idle speculation – that Fletcher was working independently on some of his unsolved cases. Maybe these Saugus cases are connected to Hale and Chen in some way. I'll need to make some phone calls.'

'You're going to bring the Feds into this?' Darby asked.

'We need to consider the possibility. They have access to information about the man that we don't.'

'I think that's a mistake.'

'I agree with Darby,' Bryson added. 'The Feds will come in, take over the case and when things go wrong, they'll start pointing the fingers back at us, get their PR machine to cover their ass.'

'Let me call my friend and see if I can make some subtle inquiries,' Chadzynski said. 'I doubt the task force would come here based solely on a sighting. They'd want concrete evidence before they mobilize. In the interim, we need to take some proactive measures. Darby, since he seems to be focused on you, with your permission I'd like to place a trap-and-trace on all of your phones. I'd also like to place you under surveillance.'

Darby nodded.

'Tim, you have surveillance experience,' Chadzynski said. 'Can you head it up?'

'I'll take care of it.'

'Good. As for continuing to search through Sinclair, I'd like to suspend the operation until we have something more concrete. I want our focus on Judith Chen.'

'We may have another potential victim,' Bryson said. He told Chadzynski about Hannah Givens.

'Have either of you spoken to Dr Karim?' Chadzynski asked.

'I've left a message at his office over the weekend,' Darby said. 'I'm hoping he'll cooperate.'

'I'll take care of it,' Chadzynski said. 'Karim likes to push, and I like to push back. Keep me informed at every step.'

The commissioner stood. 'Good work on the necklace, Darby. Let's see what else we can find.'

39

When Darby arrived at the lab, she immediately went to Serology. Coop had set up in the back, near the grouping of windows with the strong light. Keith Woodbury was taking pictures.

The pink sweatshirt, nylon running pants, socks and sneakers were laid out on sheets of butcher paper. Like Emma Hale, Judith Chen's dirty clothing was ripped and snagged in several places from rocks, branches and other rough, sharp things she had bumped up against during her journey across the cold, dark bed of Boston Harbor. The clothes were dry but still carried the water's polluted, metallic odour.

Coop handed her a mask. 'Paperwork's all done, and Keith is almost finished the Polaroids,' he said.

'What about digital?' Darby always used digital pictures to augment her files.

'How long have we been working together?'

They each took an item of clothing and began the painstaking process of examining the fabric under the illuminated light magnifier.

Inside the running pants Coop found a long black hair. He examined it under a comparison microscope. The hair didn't contain a root bulb, which ruled out DNA analysis. Given the length, texture and colour, chances were the hair belonged to Judith Chen. He placed the hair inside a glassine envelope and went back to work.

The sweatshirt was stained with blood. The splatter pattern suggested that Judith Chen, like Emma Hale, was shot first and then transported to the destination where her body was dumped into the water. Darby wondered if their killer had used the same vehicle both times. She also wondered if Chen and Hale had known they were going to die. Given the advanced decomposition of the bodies, it was impossible to know if either woman had struggled or put up a fight.

'This is interesting,' Darby said. Using a pair of tweezers, she pointed to a tiny pale smudge on the right shoulder of the sweatshirt.

'What is it?' Coop asked.

'It looks like makeup.'

'What's that stuff you chicks put on your face and cheeks?'

'It's called foundation. Chicks use it to even out their skin tone.'

'Okay, so Chen smudged some of her makeup on her shoulder.'

'Look at the placement. It's too high on her shoulder. She couldn't have done that.'

'Maybe she wiped her hands on her sweatshirt.'

'Women don't wipe their hands on their clothes, Coop.'

'I think it's safe to assume she was being held under less than favourable circumstances.'

'If she wanted to wipe off her hands, she'd wipe them on her pants or the front of her sweatshirt. Why reach up and wipe it on her shoulder?'

'Good question.'

'This is probably oil based.'

'You've lost me.'

'The makeup is oil based as opposed to water based. If it was water based, we probably wouldn't be able to see it. All the time in the Harbor would have washed it away.'

Darby swung the illuminated magnifier over the stain. 'The colour is too pale,' she said. 'Chen's skin was darker. She wouldn't have used this shade. It's made for pale Irish chicks.'

'Emma Hale had pale skin. Maybe it belonged to her.'

'Then how did it get on Judith Chen's shoulder?'

'Maybe the guy who abducted Chen made them wear makeup.'

'Or maybe he wears makeup to cover a scar or a defect,' Darby said. 'Don't give me that look, Coop. I know plenty of men who use concealer to hide a pimple or a scar.'

'You mean guys like Tim Bryson?'

'I don't think Tim wears makeup.'

'He gets his hair cut at some fancy place on Newbury Street and he does yoga.'

'For the record, yoga is an amazing workout. You should try it sometime.'

'I'm strictly free weights, sister.'

'Which way would you go?'

'Sorry, but I don't swing that way.'

'Good for you. I was referring to the sample. Mass spectrometer or FTIR?'

Woodbury answered the question. 'FTIR has the better library.'

Darby nodded. While the mass spectrometer could isolate a sample's components, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy was a more sophisticated test. It would identify the organic and inorganic compounds found in a sample and compare them against its library in search of a 'molecular fingerprint'.

Darby took several close-up photographs of the smudge and then prepared the sample.