Fractured

She spoke softly, but this was her team and they had all been waiting for her to ask the question.

Charlie Reed stepped forward, two plastic evidence bags in his hands. 'Rope and duct tape,' he explained, indicating each. 'We found these in the trunk.'

Will took the bag of rope, which appeared to be unused clothesline; there was a plastic tie around the neatly folded line. One side was faintly red where the fibers had wicked up blood. 'Was it coiled up like this when you found it?'

Charlie gave him a look that asked if Will really thought he was that stupid. 'Just like that,' he said. 'No fingerprints on either one.'

Amanda surmised, 'He came prepared.'

Will handed back the rope and Charlie continued, 'There was a patch of blood in the trunk that matched Emma Campano's blood type. We'll have to check with a doc, but the injury doesn't seem life threatening.' He pointed to a semicircle of dark blood in the trunk. Will guessed it was about the same size as a seventeen-year-old girl's head. 'Based on the volume of blood, I'd say it was a nasty cut. The head bleeds a lot. Oh-' He directed this toward Will. 'We found microscopic sprays of blood in Emma Campano's closet above the urine you found. My guess is she was either kicked or punched in the head, causing the spray. We cut out the Sheetrock, but I'm not sure there's enough to test.' He added, 'Maybe that's why he didn't need to use the rope and tape. He knocked her out before removing her from the closet.'

Amanda apparently already assumed this. 'Next.'

Charlie walked around the car, pointing to different spots. 'The steering wheel, door panels and trunk latch show faint streaks of the same blood we found in the trunk. This is classic glove transfer.' He meant the abductor had been wearing latex gloves. 'As for the trash, we're assuming it came from the owner.'

Will looked inside the car. The keys dangled from the ignition slot just beside what looked like a toggle knob that served as the gearshift. There were go-cups and empty fast food bags and school-books and papers and melted makeup and sticky spots of spilled soda and other items that indicated Kayla Alexander had been too lazy to find a trashcan, but nothing else that stuck out.

Charlie continued, 'We got a positive on body fluids in the seats. Could be blood, urine, sperm, sweat, sputum. The seat material is dark and there's not much, but it's something. I'm going to cut out the patches and see if we can soak something out of them back at the lab.'

Will asked him, 'The blood on the outside of the car was Emma's only?'

'That's right.'

'So he would've changed his gloves from the time he was in the Campano house?'

Charlie considered his answer. 'That would make sense. If he was using the same gloves, then Adam and Kayla's blood would also be on the car.'

Amanda asked, 'Wouldn't it have dried in the heat?'

'Possibly, but the new wet blood would release the dried blood. I would expect to see some cross- contamination.'

'How are you sure the blood is Emma's?'

'I'm not, really,' Charlie admitted. He found a roll of paper towels and tore off a strip so he could wipe the sweat off his face. 'All I cangoby is type. The blood wefound onthe car is O-positive. Emma was the only one in the house that we know of who had that type.'

'Not to question your methods,' Will began, then did exactly that. 'How do you know for sure that it's only type O-positive?'

'Blood types don't get along well,' Charlie explained. 'If you put O-pos with any type A or B, then you get a violent reaction. It's why they type you at the hospital before they give you a transfusion. It's a simple test-takes only a few minutes.'

Amanda piped in. 'I thought O-positive was universal?'

'That's O-negative,' Charlie told her. 'It has to do with antigens. If the blood types aren't compatible, then red blood cells clump together. In the body, this can cause clots that block vessels and bring about death.'

Amanda's impatience was clear. 'I don't need a science lesson, Charlie, just the facts. What else have you found?'

He looked back at the car, the team collecting evidence and putting it into bags, the photographer documenting each empty McDonald's cup and candy wrapper. 'Not much,' he admitted.

'What about the building?'

'The top two floors are empty. We cleared them first thing. I'd guess no one's stepped foot up there in six months, maybe a year. Same with the parking area upstairs. The concrete barricade has been there for a while. My guess is that this place is so old, it wasn't built to handle newer, larger cars so they closed it off to prevent collapse.'

Amanda nodded. 'Find me if anything else comes up.'

She headed toward the building, Will trailing behind her. 'Barry didn't find any discarded gloves,' she told him, referring to the chief of the canine unit. 'This afternoon, the dogs were able to find a trail from the Campano house to the woods at the end of their street, but there were too many scents and they lost the trail.' She pointed to an area directly behind the garage. 'There's another path back there that goes into those same woods. It would take ten minutes to get to the Campanos from here if you knew what you were doing.'

Will remembered what Leo had told him earlier. 'The girls were skipping last year until the neighbor across the street told Abigail that Emma's car was in the driveway. They could've started parking here to avoid being told on.'

'But Kayla's car was parked in the driveway today,' Amanda pointed out.

'Should we recanvass the neighbors, see if they remember anything?'

'You mean for a third time?' She didn't say no, but reminded him, 'It's all over the news now. I'm surprised no one has talked themselves into seeing something.'

Will knew that was often a problem with eyewitness testimony, especially when the crime involved children. People wanted to help so much that their brains often came up with scenarios that didn't actually happen. 'What's the kid's name-the one who called in the Prius?'

'Lionel Petty.' She pressed a red button by the door. A few seconds passed, then there was a buzz and click.

Will opened the door for her and followed Amanda down a long hallway that led to the Copy Right. The air- conditioning was a welcome relief from the stagnant heat in the garage. Inside the store, signs hung from the ceiling with cartoon smiling pens writing out helpful directions. The front counter was covered with reams of paper. Machines whirred in the background, swirling out sheets of paper at incredible speeds. Will glanced around, but couldn't see anyone. There was a bell on the counter and he rang it.

A kid poked up his head from behind one of the machines. His hair was a mess, as if he'd just rolled out of bed, though his goatee was neatly trimmed. 'Are you the cops?' He walked toward them, and Will saw that he wasn't really a kid. Will would have put him in his late twenties, but he was dressed like a teen and he had the round, open face of a child. Except for the receding hairline, he could have passed for fifteen. He repeated his question. 'Are you guys with the cops?'

Will spoke first because he knew from experience that Amanda's style of rattling off questions and demanding quick answers didn't exactly lend itself to eliciting information from strangers. He had to raise his voice to be heard above the machines. 'You're Lionel Petty?'

'Yeah,' he answered, smiling nervously at Amanda. 'Is this going to crack the case?' The slow cadence of his voice had a slight lilt to it, and Will couldn't tell if the man was just that laid-back or had smoked a little too much weed. 'I've been watching it on the news all day, and they've been showing the car, like, every five minutes. I couldn't believe when I checked out for a smoke and looked up and there it was. I thought maybe my brain was making it up because what're the odds, right?'

'Petty,' a disembodied voice called. Will moved down the counter. He saw the lower half of a body sticking out from a copy machine. 'Did you clock out like I told you?'

Petty smiled, and Will saw the crookedest set of teeth he'd ever seen on a man. 'So, not to be crass or anything, but is there a reward? ‘We can't say no at Campano.' They live in Ansley Park. The family must be loaded.'

'No,' Amanda answered. She had figured out who was in charge. She asked the kid under the copier,