City of the Dead (Alex Delaware, #37)(37)

Milo said, “Not neurotic. Brilliant.”

“You’re too kind, Lieutenant.”

I said, “The male victim is a small guy but factoring in deadweight and distance, we’re talking about considerable effort to transport him a hundred or so feet. You’re moving quickly in the dark, it’s easy to brush up against something.”

Without consulting the file, Basia said, “He’s five-five, a hundred thirty-one pounds. Toting him would be about the same as carrying a medium-sized woman.”

Milo said, “Bride over the threshold. If they still do that.”

The three of us, unmarried. No one with a ready answer.

I said, “Adrenaline would help but so would superior strength.”

Milo said, “Hoffgarden.”

Basia said, “Who?”

He explained briefly.

She said, “A weight lifter? Piece of cake. He could toss it at the van like a used tissue.”

Milo said, “In terms of I.D., any way to get a facial reconstruction?”

“Sorry, no. The facial bones were pulverized by the collision and many were detached. Some actually fell out of the wounds when I was working—little splinters and chips. I sent radiographs to the three artists I use and all of them agreed there was too much damage to create anything useful. There are people out there who’d claim they could reconstruct but I wouldn’t trust them or what they produced.”

“Anything from the organs and the toxicology?”

“Ms. Gannett had what looks to be partially digested chicken salad in her stomach plus a small amount of pale alcoholic liquid, probably white wine. Her blood alcohol came in at .03, which is basically nothing. Your male victim had some sort of vegetable concoction in his gut and the same beverage but a lot more of it. His B.A. was .16. At his weight, I’d guess at least three glasses, though people differ in their ability to metabolize. No drugs in either of them.”

I said, “They drank together but had separate dinners?”

“Or,” said Basia, “they sent out for different take-out meals and ate together. Did you find any evidence of that?”

Milo said, “Not that I saw. Hold on.”

He phoned Reed, got a quick answer. “Nada.”

Basia said, “So you could be right, Alex. They ate before they got together, he came over, they drank. But that seems to be all they did. No recent sexual activity for either of them.”

I said, “Platonic sleepover.”

Milo said, “How long to get DNA on the two male samples?”

Basia said, “Last time I checked, ETA was twelve to twenty weeks.”

“I thought they’d gotten more efficient.”

“There’s a cold-case serial from Merced County taking up a lot of lab time.”

Milo said, “Yeah, I heard about it, bodies in the forest, no leads. They make any progress?”

“From what I hear, not yet,” she said.

“And here I am, just a piker with two fresh bodies.”

“I’ll put the request in today and ask for priority.”

“Deeply appreciated. What’s the print situation?”

“Still waiting on the lab for latents lifted at the house. We rolled your male victim here. I know he didn’t match because I cajoled someone I know at DOJ to do a quick AFIS.”

“Maybe that same Samaritan’s cajolable on the DNA.”

Basia laughed. “Push, push, push. You remind me of my father and my professors in Warsaw. If you weren’t Irish, I’d wonder if we were related. So, this is a curious one, no? Two victims, two weapons, three if you count improvising with the van. Any psychological insights, Alex?”

I said, “Nothing close to insight, just what-ifs.”

Both of them sat back.

I said, “Cordi Gannett was likely the primary target of a well-planned execution. The killer sneaked into the house after dark, took a knife from her kitchen, and advanced toward the bedroom where he expected to find her. On the way, he came upon John Doe, sleeping on the couch, dispatched him quickly with some sort of blunt weapon well aimed.”

Milo said, “He’s got the knife in hand, why not just cut the guy?”

“Maybe there was something symbolic about using a blade and he was saving it for Cordi. Or he figured a quick, hard blow to the head would be quieter and less likely to cause a struggle.”

Basia said, “Impatient because he’s lusting for the main kill.”

Milo said, “Talk about a way with words. But yeah, makes sense.”

I said, “He planned to kill Cordi in her bedroom but she surprised him by coming downstairs so he dispatched her in the hallway. The orderliness of the scene tells us he spent time in the house cleaning up and making sure he didn’t leave footprints or other evidence. That could’ve given him time to think about John Doe and deciding to use him as a distraction.”

“Staging it as a psycho murder-suicide,” said Milo. “John Doe being naked would’ve helped the crazed-killer image. He totes the poor guy outside. Along with John’s clothing and I.D, which he stashes somewhere we still haven’t found.”

Basia said, “I can see staging it as an unclad, mentally deranged person stalking the neighborhood and finally deciding to destroy himself. But with that single wound to the back of the head, suicide would be out of the question so he had to use the van.”