What Have You Done(25)
“I will. And I’ll have Jane send you Kerri’s social security number so you can check with the hospitals.”
They said their goodbyes, and Liam made his way out of the office. He walked down the hall slowly, thoughts cascading one after the other. Technically speaking, it was possible he could have killed Kerri and not remembered it, but there was no way he ever laid a finger on her in the past. He wasn’t a control freak. There were suddenly more questions than answers.
“Hey, Liam,” Gerri called as he was about to turn the corner for the elevators. Her voice was darker now, serious. “Find this guy. He’s dangerous, and if he did all that to this woman, he can do it to another. Find him.”
“We’re trying,” Liam said as the burden of his secrets consumed him. “We’re doing our best.”
Gerri disappeared back into her office, and Liam made his way toward the elevators. He had one more stop to make before leaving the hospital.
17
The nurse was quiet as she wrapped the rubber tourniquet around Liam’s bicep and tapped the inner part of his arm to get a good vein. The lab was only one floor down from Gerri’s office and around the corner from Radiology. His team had used it many times before in various investigations where speed was a priority, so he was familiar with the personnel manning the floor, and they were familiar with him. But this particular nurse was new. He’d never seen her before.
“And what are we sending this out for?” the nurse asked as she slid the needle into his arm and began attaching the vials that would hold his sample. She was short and middle-aged and worked quickly. There was no doubt she had years of experience behind her. He’d hardly felt the needle break the skin.
“General tox screen. Anything that might come up.”
“Am I sending the results to the department?”
“You can send it directly to my attention. Dr. Fleece has my contact information. I’m using my blood as a baseline test in a comparison we’re working on back at the office.”
“Couldn’t get this done there? Seems like a hassle to come all the way over for a baseline draw.”
“I needed it high priority, and I figured if we take a sample somewhere other than the precinct, no one can challenge its validity. Neutral playing field. Plus you guys can deliver faster than we can.”
The nurse was only half listening. No doubt she had other patients waiting. She leaned down to switch out one vial that was full with another empty one. “You can relax your grip,” she said. “And they’ll always challenge the validity of the test. If it’s between a conviction and a challenge, it won’t matter where you got this baseline drawn from. And, for the record, I don’t want to be called to no witness stand.”
“I’ll do my best to keep you out of it.”
“Please do.”
Liam let his fist go and looked up at the nurse. She concentrated on her task and said nothing more. There was a desire to try to explain further, but anything else that came to mind seemed like overkill. Instead, he sat in silence as the seconds ticked away in a prolonged awkwardness.
When everything was complete, the nurse capped the last vial, pulled the needle from his arm, and attached a piece of cotton with a Band-Aid. “All set.”
“Thanks.”
“We’ll send this out in a few. Should have something for you by tomorrow. Next day at the latest.”
Liam rolled his shirt sleeve down and buttoned the cuff as he walked out of the lab and back into the hall. When he got to the elevators, he grabbed his phone from his pocket and dialed his office.
“Forensics. Jane Campelli.”
“Jane, it’s Liam. I’m at Jefferson. Just finished up with Gerri, and she suggested we call in an off-line search through NCIC.”
“Okay.”
He stepped onto the elevator with two other people. “We need to search for homicides involving any combination of hanging, lacerations to the stomach, and head shaving.”
“Isn’t that something Heckle and Keenan would handle?”
“I just spoke to them before I called you,” he lied. “They were busy following up on interviews from the club, so I told them we’d do it.”
The other two elevator occupants took a step back when he began explaining the search criteria.
“Start with Philadelphia and build out from there. Gerri seems to think there might be a chance our perp has done this before. Maybe not to the extent we saw at the Tiger, but perhaps a variation of it. It’s worth looking into.”
“Okay,” Jane replied. “I’m on it. You heading back here?”
“Yeah, later. I need to check in on a few things across town first. Call me if you need anything.”
The elevator doors opened as Liam was hanging up his phone. The other two occupants rushed past him and scurried across the lobby out onto the street. He had missed the connection between his graphic description of the search criteria and their hurried escape. His mind was too preoccupied with other things.
The NCIC was the National Crime Information Center. It was a nationwide computerized information database that included millions of records, ranging from petty theft to murder. Through the NCIC, local, state, and federal law enforcement had instant access to all available records and could cross-reference past offenses, outstanding warrants, and crime trends. Most police departments had the NCIC system in their patrol cars to aid officers during traffic stops and other calls to determine if the suspect had warrants or past offenses. What he needed was an off-line search, which was a very specific cross-referencing of key terms that the regular database wouldn’t have built into the system police departments used. Jane would have to reach out to their local FBI office to conduct the kind of search he was asking for. Results would most likely be back in a few days.