“One of my questions is about that,” Frank said, opening one of the file folders he had with him and turning to a page he had marked. “There was some problem with cat hair?”
“Let me try to remember. May I see that?”
Haycroft read the notes and said, “Oh, yes, now I remember. A few stray hairs inside the shoes we recovered. Unknown source. We thought Vince or Dale might have brought them to the scene when they were searching Dane’s boat, but when we tested their cats’ fur against a sample, it didn’t seem to match in color.” He frowned. “I recall talking about this to Lefebvre, showing it to him under the microscope. It bothered me, because Dane is highly allergic to cats. And also, Vince was so touchy about the whole business — his lieutenant had to pressure him into letting us comb his cat. Then Vince told me not to talk about it to anyone.”
“But you have — and you wrote it up in the report.”
“Vince isn’t my supervisor.” He suddenly seemed embarrassed and said, “I’m not as brave as I’m making it sound. I added the information to the formal report after talking to Lefebvre about it. Then he disappeared, and no one seemed to care about what I’d written. The cat hairs were gone with all the other evidence, so what did it matter?”
“You examined the watch that was left in the evidence box?”
“I didn’t do more than take a look at it. Dale Britton did the real work on it.”
“And it was definitely worn? I mean, not a new watch?”
“Not new, no. As I recall, Dale got a wrist measurement from it. I don’t suppose your forensic anthropologist friend might be able to help us compare it with Lefebvre’s?”
“I’ll ask him,” Frank said, deciding not to let Haycroft know that Ben had already discussed it with him. “Do you remember anyone else around here who had a watch like that?”
“Well, yes. We all did.”
“What?”
“Everyone in the lab. One of the vendors gave Al a dozen of them when we bought some equipment. He gave one to me, one to Dale, one to each of the technicians, and then a few to detectives — Vince received one, I believe. Pete, too. Lefebvre must have been given one also.” He hesitated, then said, “They weren’t that expensive — not meant as a bribe or anything of that nature.”
“Not asking about it because of that — listen, are you sure Dr. Larson gave them all away?”
“Well… I hate to say that any were stolen, but I think some people may have believed that if the watches were a giveaway, they were free — so why not take one without asking? Al was looking for one of them a few years later and couldn’t find them in the place where he’d left them. Really became upset about it.”
“Remember when that happened?”
“Oh, about six or seven years ago.”
“What makes you think it was then?”
“Because that same vendor sold us the DNA equipment. I suppose that’s what made Al think of the watches. That’s seven years ago, I believe.”
“Maybe Dr. Larson just misplaced them,” Frank said, wishing the vendor had been less generous.
“Misplaced?” Haycroft said in disbelief, then laughed. “Have you ever been in Al Larson’s office?”
“Not more than once or twice,” Frank said. “Now that I think about it, I haven’t ever been inside yours. Usually, when I’ve come down here, you’ve both been in the lab itself.”
“Or we’ve come up to your desk in Homicide. If you’d like to take a look in my office, go right ahead. I’m in the middle of doing this comparison or I’d show it to you myself.”
“I’ll take a rain check.”
“Yes, I imagine you have better things to do than look at my desk. Anyway, my point was that Al doesn’t misplace things. When you pick up the note he left for you, take a look around his office and tell me if you think the man who occupies it ever had a disorganized moment in his life.”
“Any idea what he wanted to talk to me about? I’m a little uncomfortable about going into his office if he’s not in—”
“The door is never locked.”
“Still—”
“You aren’t going to tell me you’ve never been in an office without the owner’s knowledge?”
“Never a colleague’s office.”
“No need to take offense,” Haycroft said. “He left the note for you there, after all.”
“I wonder why he didn’t just send it up to my desk?”
“Well — he probably wasn’t thinking straight. Not to get into embarrassing detail, but from what he told me, he seemed to have a case of food poisoning — stomach cramps and so on. He was distracted, as you might imagine, and left in something of a hurry.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sure he’ll feel better by tomorrow. And I wouldn’t tell you to go into his office if I thought you’d be violating his privacy or compromising cases. He’s very security-conscious, Frank — his desk and file cabinets will be locked. You don’t need to touch anything — just pick up the note. You’ll see what I’m talking about.”
“Okay, but one other question — back to the cat hair business. Actually, not the hairs, but the shoes you found them in — the shoes that were discovered aboard the
