Four Walls

'That why you chased Lindsay to Montana?' Sheldon was grinning as he said that. 'What's happening with you two anyhow?'

'We're friends and colleagues,' was all Danny would say, not wanting to give Sheldon the satisfaction of sharing gossip, especially when the gossip was about him. After a rocky start, Danny and Lindsay Monroe's relationship had taken a turn for the better ever since he took personal time and flew out to Bozeman to lend moral support when Lindsay testified against Kadems.

But Danny was still pissed that he was the last to know about Mac and Dr. Driscoll, so he intended to keep everyone in the dark as long as he could get away with it.

'Okay,' he said, dragging them back to the subject at hand, 'eight miles an hour. Let's see what we got.'

This time the second figure collided with Washburne hard enough to knock the body off the bench. He hit his head on the edge of the barbell and fell to the ground, but not in a position that matched that of the second Washburne.

Sheldon was shaking his head. 'That doesn't work. The body's in the wrong place-and even if you figure it's been moved, or we got a variable wrong, there's also the fact that there's no blood on the barbell, and the barbell couldn't have caused that wound in the first place.'

'Yeah, but look at the placement.' Danny pointed at the spot on the barbell where Washburne's head had hit in the second simulation. 'Let's try putting the weight where it's supposed to be, on the end of the barbell.' Using the mouse, Danny moved it from the ground to that spot.

He ran the sim again, at the same speed. Again the second figure hit Washburne. Again Washburne hit his head on the barbell and fell in the wrong spot.

'Move the weight,' Sheldon said. 'Maybe they weren't on evenly.'

Nodding, Danny shifted the weight so it would be right where Washburne's head hit. Again he ran it at eight miles per hour.

Washburne hit this time, but in the wrong place on his head, and he didn't fall to the ground anywhere near the second Washburne.

'I'll make him go faster. Guy just got shivved, I bet he's runnin'. 'Sides, the faster he goes, the more likely there is to be that thread transfer.'

Sheldon shrugged. 'Fair enough. Worth a shot, anyhow.'

Upping it to eleven miles an hour, Danny ran it again. This time Washburne's head hit the spot between two of the weights, so he moved the weight back to its first position and ran it again.

This time, not only did Washburne's head hit the weight in the right spot, but the weight fell off in the right spot and Washburne's body fell in the same location as the second body. It wasn't a one hundred percent matchup, but it was close enough to establish that that was likely what had happened.

'So that's it,' Sheldon said. 'Washburne's throat closes up. He can't call for help, and he dies on the bench. Mulroney stabs Barker. Everyone in the yard comes running to see what's going on, and one of them bumps Washburne, transferring a fiber to his shoulder and knocking him into the weight, which causes the wound and also knocks the weight to the ground.'

Danny nodded. 'Only one problem-how'd Melendez's print get on the weight?'

'He probably used the weight. Hell, so many people touched that thing, the print hit was always going to be circumstantial just by virtue of Melendez being one of the people in the yard. He had every reason to touch it.'

'Yeah.' Danny saved the latest simulation to the folder for the report on the Washburne-Barker double homicide. Another advantage of the CAD program was that it recorded all the information that had been entered, so it could be used in court. Danny wasn't sure how useful this would be, or even if the case would go to trial-with anaphylactic shock as the COD, it was more than likely there was no murderer to try-but the file still needed to be complete.

Stretching his back so a couple of vertebrae cracked, he got up and said, 'Pleasure workin' with you, Doc. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta see a man about a dog.'

In fact, he had a date with Lindsay, assuming she was done with whatever she and Stella were doing for the Campagna case.

If she wasn't, he'd wait. She was worth it.

18

LINDSAY MONROE OPENED THE evidence envelope and plucked out the gold necklace.

The first thing she did was lay it down gently on the white surface of the big table in the crime lab, with the tiny stain visible, and photograph it. After taking several shots of it as a whole, she attached the Sigma telephoto lens to the camera and zoomed in on the stain itself.

She grabbed a sterile cotton swab and moistened it with distilled water, then applied it to the necklace where the stain was. The blood obligingly came off on the swab.

She applied part of the sample on the swab to a plastic container. Then she brought the swab over to the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrograph. The MALDI would measure the mass-to- charge ratio of the ions, which would enable Lindsay to discover the molecular nature of the sample. In this particular case, it would allow her to identify the species of the sample's source from the hemogloblin in the blood.

While she waited for that analysis to complete, she brought the plastic container to the DNA lab.

She saw the blond-haired head of Jane Parsons sitting at her desk. Turning around at Lindsay's entrance, she smiled raggedly and said, 'Ah-beware Montanans bearing gifts.'

Lindsay smiled. 'Sorry, but I've got blood.'

'Don't we all?' She shook her head. 'Sorry-had a long night. I've been dating this nice young ER doctor, and he keeps odd hours.'

'When do you get to see him?' Lindsay asked. She knew that emergency-room physicians kept hours that were as long as they were odd. She'd gotten to know a couple of ER docs since coming to New York. Often during assault and rape cases, she'd have to go to the ER at Bellevue or Cabrini or St. Luke's-Roosevelt or somewhere. In particular, Lindsay had had to do a lot of rape kits, since it was generally preferred that female techs do those, and Stella wasn't always available. But the docs in the ER were constantly talking about their lack of a social life.

'Not very often, which is why I take advantage when I can. I joked with him last night that he should become a librarian-their hours are a trifle more sane. Besides, he likes to read, it'd be good work for him. And I'm babbling, I'm sorry-what've you got for me?'

Handing over the sample, Lindsay said, 'This is for the Campagna case. It might be the vic's, but if it isn't, we need to know. First person to check it against after the vic is Jack Morgenstern-he's in the system. And then do the reference samples that are in the case file.'

'All right. Oh, and the results are back on the trace around the vic's knuckles. Hang on.' Jane started digging around on her desk. 'I swear, I was organized once.' She finally liberated the proper folder. 'I'm afraid there's no love there-the blood and epithelials you found were all hers. The only way it's a transfer is if she was killed by a family member.'

'Thanks, Jane. And I hope you and the ER doc are able to make it work.'

'I'm sure we will, somehow. Pity he can't actually become a librarian.'

Frowning, Lindsay asked, 'Why not?'

'You need a degree for that, I'm afraid. And the only master's degree my young man has is in biology.'

Lindsay had no idea you needed a master's degree to be a librarian, but that was neither here nor there. 'Well, I'm sure you two will work it out.'

'Let's hope, shall we? We don't have it as easy as you and Danny do.'

Having already turned to leave, Lindsay stopped dead in her tracks. 'What're you talking about?' She tried desperately to sound casual and hoped it worked.

'Don't be coy, Lindsay. He flew to Montana for you. I've known the good Mr. Messer for some time-he