What Have You Done(22)
“Because she was pregnant. Maybe that’s why.”
“What?”
“Two months pregnant. They found it in the autopsy. I called Jane on my way over to check on the ballistics test from Cutter and innocently inquired about the Tiger Hotel homicide. I got her talking, and she told me about the pregnancy and that they also figure the killer used an extremely sharp instrument to cut her stomach. The medical examiner thought it might have been something like a scalpel. Vanessa keeps medical instruments like that in her workbag, right? Something Liam would have easy access to?”
Sean covered his face with his hands.
“And Liam saw Kerri two weeks ago. It hasn’t been months.” Don reached into his coat pocket and came away with his notepad. He flipped through several pages and pushed it across the table. “After I left Kerri’s apartment, I got home and spent some time taking down all the dates on the letters and photos I found and put them in chronological order. Their last picture together was two weeks ago. Heckle and Keenan are going to get her phone records today or tomorrow. Could’ve been even sooner than two weeks ago. I’m just going by the photos. Your brother lied to you. Why would he do that?”
Sean crossed the room and took the notepad from his partner. He read through the list. There had been three dates after the time Liam had told him he’d last seen Kerri. “She called him the night she was killed,” he said. “Left him a voice mail.”
“That’s going to be on the phone records, Sean.”
“Why was she calling him?”
“I don’t know.”
The rotating fan hanging from the kitchen ceiling spun lazily above the men. Sean watched it turn in circles. “Maybe buying time was the wrong idea,” he said. “We might have to make this go away.”
“You sure about that?”
“He’s my brother. He’s family. The only family I have.”
“And you’re okay turning your back on murder?”
“I’m not turning my back on murder. I’m protecting Liam. It’s what I’ve always done.” He looked at his partner. “You with me?”
Don nodded. “Always. You know that.”
Sean walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. “Where are the items you took from Kerri’s place?”
“In my trunk.”
“Let’s check them out.”
The two men walked to the front door, and Sean stopped, his hand on the knob. He didn’t turn around. “We’re going to let Heckle and Keenan investigate. Hopefully they’ll find who really did this. It wasn’t Liam. Couldn’t be. But at the same time, we’ll look into things on our end quietly. That work for you?”
“Yup.”
“You sure? I don’t know where this is gonna lead, and I can’t have you second-guessing what we’re doing here if things go sideways.”
“Not gonna happen.”
“I’m sorry I got you involved.”
“Don’t be. It’s cool.”
Sean opened the door and walked out into the morning air. There was nothing left to say.
15
“It’s Jane again. I got some additional results back from the lab.”
Liam felt his stomach turn as he bounced down the steps from the station house. His mind was racing. What had she found? He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Yeah, I’m here. Go ahead.”
“DNA came back way quicker than I thought it would. It’s a match between the fetus and the traces of AB negative we found under the victim’s nails. Looks like the father was the killer. We figured that.”
“Okay.”
“They also found ketamine hydrochloride in her system. It’s a heavy sedative sometimes used on horses. Normally it wouldn’t be traceable, as the body absorbs it quickly and flushes it through the liver, but when she died, her body stopped functioning, so they found it. The ketamine hydrochloride would explain how whoever did this was able to get her out of the club and into the hotel without her kicking and screaming. She’d be doped up, but nothing too out of the ordinary for a place like the Tiger. A second dose inside the hotel room, however, would have knocked her out and allowed the killer to string her up without much of a fight. It’s hard to tell just how much she had in her system prior to death.”
“Interesting.” He didn’t know what else to say.
“We also found microscopic grains of something under her nails when we scraped the blood. Same stuff was on her skin. Sent it out to be analyzed and turns out it’s padding from a seat cushion. We checked the hotel, and no seats were torn. The mattress was okay too. Rob’s going to go back to the club and see about ripped seats there. Not sure if this could lead us anywhere. The FBI lab is running further tests to see if they can narrow the materials that made up the cushion to help us pinpoint what we’re looking for.”
Liam got into his car and started the engine. “Good finds. I’m heading over to Jefferson Hospital to talk to Gerri. Get her perspective on this. I’ll see you when I get back. We’ll talk more then.”
“Okay.”
He hung up and closed his eyes. The DNA from the blood matched the fetus, which meant if that was, in fact, his blood they found under Kerri’s nails, then the baby was his. She’d never said anything to him about being pregnant. He wondered if she’d known and had been protecting him.