Gated Prey (Eve Ronin #3)(43)

His stomach growled. “Or in the bag of Doritos.”

It would be nice if it were, Eve thought. She was half tempted to search them out of desperation, and to keep herself busy, when Nan approached them.

“There’s blood and other bodily fluids on the couch,” she said, “but I can already say nobody bled out there or, as far as we can determine, anywhere else in the house, garage, or backyard.”

“What about in the bathrooms?” Eve asked. “Could the murder have taken place in a bathtub or shower?”

“She obviously did some cleaning in the master bathroom. We detected the presence of cleansers, but we’d still expect to find some traces of blood or flesh after the gutting the medical examiner described,” Nan said. “But we didn’t. And, it goes without saying, but we haven’t found a body anywhere, either.”

Eve, Duncan, and the CSU searched every closet, under every bed, and up in the rafters. The house was built on a flat foundation, so there was no place under the house to stash a body. The garage was full of stacked drywall, two-by-fours, toolboxes, tile-cutting equipment, and other materials for the kitchen renovation, including the new appliances, still in cardboard boxes. They opened every box in the garage and found nothing.

“I know the murder was committed here,” Eve said. “Maybe it was done on a rug, and then Anna rolled up the body in it and took it away.”

Duncan shook his head. “I checked with the guard. Anna McCaig’s car didn’t leave the property last night.”

“We also thoroughly examined her car,” Nan said. “There’s no sign of blood or other bodily fluids inside.”

“Maybe she got someone else in the community to help her dispose of the body.”

Duncan said, “We can talk to every resident and vendor who left the community after Anna returned from the hospital, but I doubt she talked the Amazon delivery guy or Sparkletts guy into helping her out.”

“Maybe a gardener or pool man, though. We should talk to other vendors, too,” Eve said, then turned to Nan. “Did you find anything in the backyard?”

Nan sighed. “Ninety percent of the backyard is hardscape and what dirt there is hasn’t been disturbed. So I can safely say nothing was buried. We also thoroughly checked the dumpster and found nothing bloody or suspicious. I even had Noomis check the contents of the porta-potty. All he found was human waste.”

Duncan looked at Eve. “You’re going to owe him a terrific Christmas gift.”

Nan waved off Duncan’s comment. “It’s not necessary. Noomis specializes in urine and feces. He was in his comfort zone.”

“No wonder he’s single,” Duncan said.

Eve was so frustrated, she could cry. She knew Anna McCaig was guilty. The evidence had to be here—they just weren’t seeing it.

“Do you have any potential leads at all?”

“Well, there were rags in the dryer and it’s possible she used them to clean the bathroom. We’ll take them back for analysis,” Nan said. “We’re also taking all the sharp objects that could have been used to remove the baby, like kitchen knives, scissors, drywall cutters, garden shears, and retractable blade utility knives, back for testing.”

“She didn’t find that baby in the dumpster,” Eve stated.

“I know how you feel, Eve. I want to see justice for that baby and his mother, too,” Nan said. “But we haven’t found any evidence consistent with a fetal abduction or murder occurring in this house.”

“I understand,” Eve said. “Thank you, Nan.”

Nan walked away and started gathering her crew. They were finished here.

Duncan opened the box of Ding Dongs, peered inside, and took one of the packages out. “No sharp objects hidden in here. It would have been remiss for me not to check.”

“You don’t want to be remiss.” Eve noticed a grocery store receipt flutter to the floor and figured that it must have been under the box of Ding Dongs. She picked it up.

The receipt was a scroll of junk food, sugary fruit juices, and soft drinks, with the exception of some bananas and a few miscellaneous things, like paper plates, air freshener, baking soda, paper towels, and laundry detergent. Eve put the receipt on the dining room table, the wood so polished she could almost see her reflection in the finish.

“But now that I’ve touched this Ding Dong,” Duncan said, “I can’t really put it back.”

“It might be contaminated.”

“Exactly, it’d be a health risk, so I will confiscate it out of an abundance of caution,” Duncan said and began to unwrap the Ding Dong. “Maybe we’ve approached this case from the wrong direction.”

“What other direction is there?”

He took a bite out of the chocolate-coated cake. “Let’s find the birth mother.”

“You mean her body.”

“I mean find out who she was and how her path crossed with Anna McCaig’s.” Duncan took another bite. “That might lead us to the scene of the crime.”

Eve saw the last CSU tech leave. “Okay, but I still think it’s right here.”

“Duly noted for the record.”

“I’d like to put a deputy on the house. I don’t want to release the scene, and invalidate the warrant, until the last possible moment.”