“The report said the stabs were more precise than aggressive or violent.”
“That is correct. There were no hesitation marks, and the killer only stabbed far enough to hit what she, or he, was aiming at. No bruising from the hand or pommel impact, no twisting or wrenching. Just smooth in, smooth out.”
“A professional?”
“Possibly. She was very old and, according to her neighbors, had trouble walking and moving, meaning she almost certainly wouldn’t have been able to avoid the attack. The lack of defensive wounds on the hands suggests surprise, however.”
“The report said there was no forced entry.”
“Correct. The frame and lock are intact. There is an additional deadbolt, but my understanding is she found it difficult to lock and usually ignored it. The primary lock is old and well scuffed, making it difficult to tell if there was any attempt to pick the lock. I can say with fair certainty that brute force lock picking tools like a lock pick gun weren’t used, but that’s about it. Considering the higher profile nature of the case, I considered having the lock removed and examined at the lab, but my guess is the internal mechanism has decades of internal wear as well, again hiding anything of note. My best guess is the killer was someone who already had access to the apartment, but there remains a chance it was someone without access but with the requisite skill.”
“You said nothing was taken from the apartment. How could you possibly tell?”
Taylor waved his hand around the room and the piles of clutter. He had not walked the rest of the apartment yet, but he would bet the entire thing looked similar.
“I should have said nothing major was missing. The Wisslers’ had all of their notable valuables insured, and we have been able to locate all of those items here inside the apartment. Again, I cannot rule out someone taking an item we have not been able to say was in the apartment at the time of her death, for obvious reasons.”
“The notes all around the apartment, what do they say?”
Taylor had seen more notes in the sitting room, similar to those by the front door. They were by lamps, by doorways, and by the fireplace, as well as all over the small table that sat next to the sitting chair.
“They are reminders. Lock the door, turn off the light, don’t forget your keys ... things like that. Herr Wissler had a rapidly deteriorating form of Alzheimer’s. His recent death was due to complications from that illness. The notes are a common tactic for those living with degenerative illnesses to help in completing mundane but important tasks, or so I’m told.”
“His autopsy confirmed the illness?”
“I don’t believe he had an autopsy. I’ve only glanced over his records to confirm similar questions I’ve had, but the investigating medical examiner did a cursory exam and looked over Herr Wissler’s medical records and decided an autopsy was not necessary. From his notes, there were enough tests in his medical records to not doubt the diagnosis, and of course, what we see here also supports it.”
“His wife didn’t seem to agree. She asked Whitaker to come look into it for her.”
“Yes, as I said, she was very persistent to us as well. My understanding is she didn’t doubt her husband’s diagnosis, just his manner of death.”
“Which means there’s a chance her death was connected, right?”
“Was there a chance that a retired man with no known enemies and a fatal disease, was murdered in such a way as to go unnoticed for reasons we cannot ascertain, and his wife murdered by an intruder capable of picking the lock to her apartment, killing her confidently without hesitation or overkill, and leaving without being seen on video or by neighbors? I suppose there is a chance, but it would not be my primary area of focus.”
“Your primary focus is on her house guest, who’s gone missing,” Taylor said, bringing his concerns out into the open.
“As I told you and your Director Solomon, my interest in Agent Whitaker is only as a witness. While I do find it concerning she has disappeared so thoroughly, and that she visited the site around the time of Frau Wissler’s death, I am inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt. The longer she remains unaccounted for, however, the less I am inclined to offer it.”
Taylor did not believe him for a second. Had he not known Whitaker, she would have been Taylor’s prime suspect, too. He did know her, though, and he was sure there was something he was missing that would explain her disappearance.
Taylor bent down and picked up several pieces of paper near the side of the chair with the most dried blood on it. While the tops of the paper were covered in shoe prints, the thing Taylor found notable, was the dried blood on the side opposite the shoe print, the side that faced the floor.
This was not a pool of blood - since most of that drained into the chair, absorbed by its cushions - but underneath the paper, Taylor could see a few dried bloodstains on the wooden floor.
“We noticed that, too,” Graf said. “She was killed before everything was scattered around, which probably means her assailant was looking for something.”
Taylor let out a grunt of acknowledgment but did not say anything else. Graf followed him as he walked the rest of the apartment. The place was surprisingly large with more bedrooms and bathrooms than the small house where he'd grown up. From his brief tour and a rough thought to the outside of the building, Taylor
