He crossed the room while pulling on a new pair of gloves and opened the door to a small closet. Inside, he discovered a cardboard box. Snapping several pictures, he knelt closer. The top of the box formed a shelf, containing a crumpled paper sack. Carefully opening the sack, he found several plastic baggies, all empty except for one which contained bread crust. The paper sack had a large “PB” written in black marker on the outside. He placed each item into an evidence bag, labeling them.
“Whatcha got?”
Looking over his shoulder, he smiled at his partner, Rachel Seas, stepping into the kitchen, jerking her head to avoid a water drop falling from the ceiling. It was on the tip of his tongue to warn her to be careful on the slippery floor, but he hesitated. At over eight months pregnant, she would soon be out on maternity leave and his caution ratcheted upward with each passing week. The balance of not treating her like glass warred with his natural protectiveness.
Before he had a chance to answer her question, she added, “I never thought an empty room could be a mess, but hell, this is nasty.”
He chuckled as she walked closer, peering around him to see what he was bagging. “There was nothing in the room other than the deceased. The ME just left with the body but showed me a bag of pills that were tucked in his coat pocket. This is the only thing I’ve found in here so far.”
“Any ID?”
He shook his head. “I was just getting ready to go through the other rooms to see if I could find any other evidence that might tell us who he was or what he was doing here.”
“Could’ve just been looking for a place to sleep.”
Nodding, he silently agreed. Leaving Rachel to continue looking around the small first floor, he walked upstairs, finding it much like the downstairs. Shining his light around, he saw the space was completely empty. The bathroom cabinets and fixtures were ripped from the walls. The upstairs windows were broken and water on the floor kept him from seeing if the dust had been disturbed before the fire next door. He continued around each room but found no evidence that anyone had been there recently
After a thorough search, he walked back downstairs where he found Rachel as empty-handed as he. “Nothing?”
“Anything on the floor would have been washed away with the fire hoses. Upstairs?”
“Same. I found no evidence that he or anyone had been upstairs.” Carter stretched his back, feeling as well as hearing his neck crack. “I’ll take what I found in the pantry to the lab. I’ll get the rest from Natalie, and hopefully, we’ll be able to get an ID along with cause of death.”
She lifted an eyebrow and grinned. “Are we going to hit the homeless shelters again?”
“Yeah, even if we haven’t had much luck with the last two.”
Patting her stomach, she said, “Since I’ll be on maternity leave soon, I hate to leave it all to you. Hopefully, we’ll get a break soon.”
“Are you sure that little one doesn’t want to wait longer to arrive?” He pretended to grumble and watched her fight a grin.
The two stepped out of the back door and walked past the charred walls of the first unit. Its interior was well lit from the portable lamps, and he spied Sean and Jonas kneeling, scraping bits of evidence into jars. While they might have much more evidence to collect, he did not envy them. The serial arsonist plaguing Hope City was not going to be easily caught.
Walking to the perimeter, he offered a chin lift to the police officer standing watch. Ducking under the yellow tape, he bypassed the few reporters who had gathered for information about the arsonist.
Placing his evidence in the back of his SUV, the young face of the deceased stayed vividly in his mind. If he truly was homeless, Carter wondered who would mourn his passing. Certainly not the media, clambering for headlines. With the recent high-profile murder of one of Hope City’s richest men, Carter knew his unidentified body would receive little interest or fanfare. Slamming the door of his SUV, he also slammed the door on those thoughts. As far as he was concerned, the young man who’d died alone, possibly after doing nothing more than finding a warm place to sleep, deserved Carter’s full attention. And that’s what he’ll get—my full fuckin’ attention.
It was after midnight by the time Carter stepped out of the elevator onto the second floor of the police laboratory. Walking down the long, tiled hall, he bypassed a number of doors on either side that led to various labs. Coming to the door he needed, he moved through and looked into the large room. The laboratories were staffed 24 hours a day, but the midnight shift was skeletal. Glad to see a familiar face, he smiled as he approached one of the desks.
“Hey, Jerry, got something for you.”
“How you been, Carter? Haven’t seen you in a few weeks. Not here nor at the pub.”
He handed the evidence bags to Jerry, observing as the lab technician labeled them before handing him the release forms to be signed. Jerry had been working in the lab as long as Carter had been in Hope City, the two of them hitting it off right away, including shared beers at the Celtic Cock. “I’ve been around but haven’t been to the lab in over a week. Before that, I think you were on vacation the last time I came by.”
Jerry grinned. “Took our youngest to check out some colleges. My wife is having a hard time with him getting ready to leave the
