“He killed Bethany, Brandi, and Jessica,” Will stated emphatically. “He didn’t kill Anna Clark.”
Robin sucked in her breath, but said nothing. Will went on.
“We have new evidence that Theodore Glenn was physically elsewhere during the narrow window of Anna Clark’s TOD.”
“Then you’re saying that someone planted evidence on the body? The victim had Glenn’s hair in her hands.”
“It could have been planted,” Hans said.
Jim scowled. “Did you testify for the defense in the O.J. Simpson trial?”
Will couldn’t help but grin, but when he saw Jim’s and Hans’ stern faces, he covered up his humor. “Look, Jim, I know this sounds wacky. But hear me out, okay?”
“Tell me straight.”
Will told him everything they’d learned so far about the time line, admitting to his relationship with Robin and why he believed Glenn told Trinity the truth the other night.
“But the clincher-if none of that evidence convinces you that we have a problem here-Glenn didn’t kill Anna’s cat. His previous history tells us he would have hurt the animal in order to torment her, but the cat was unharmed.”
“Maybe he didn’t have time,” Jim said.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Why would he lie about this?” Hans said.
“Because he’s a psychopath?” Jim said, running a hand through his hair. “If you believe that, then you also believe that someone planted evidence.”
Will nodded. “Yes. Someone involved in the investigation had to have not only killed Anna, but framed Glenn.”
“You can’t be serious, Hooper,” Jim said.
“I am. I wish we were wrong, but I don’t think we are.”
“Then who? Who would do this? Why?”
Jim was asking all the questions Will had been thinking about last night while he lay awake next to Robin. Who? Why?
“It had to have been a cop-or someone at the crime lab.”
Jim slowly rose. “What?”
“Sit down.”
“No. You’re accusing
When Will and Hans didn’t say anything, Jim’s jaw dropped. “You think one of my people killed Anna? Because we fucked up the Coleman crime scene and they wanted to get Glenn? That’s pathetic.”
“Actually,” Hans said, “we think that whoever killed Anna planned to kill Robin, but Anna came home unexpectedly. Either Anna interrupted the intruder, or the intruder was someone she knew and trusted enough to let in. There was no sign of forced entry.”
“Nor was there in the first three murders,” Jim said.
Will said, “Wouldn’t Anna have fought Glenn off? Not let him in? There would have been something. But we assumed that he was waiting for her when she got in. That he picked the lock or had a key, possibly stealing it out of one the girls’ purses while they were working.”
“He could have picked the lock at any time. Those old buildings had crappy locks.”
“Let’s look at the photos,” Hans said. “Maybe our theory is totally off. Maybe we’re wrong.”
“You don’t think you are.”
“We don’t,” Will said. He glanced at Robin as Jim spread the files on the table. Robin was holding it together, her mouth tight and face impassive. It was her large, round eyes that showed how tense she was.
Under the table, he found her hand and squeezed it.
Jim spoke as if he were on trial. “You can see from the photographs that each victim was cut dozens of times by a sharp instrument. Analysis determined it was an X-ACTO knife.”
“Was the weapon ever recovered?” Hans asked.
“No,” Jim said. “Based on the marks, we determined that the cuts were made with the exact same type of knife-a stainless-steel X-ACTO Number 5 blade. Each incision was made precisely. You can see the initial puncture here”-he pointed to what Will knew was the beginning of the incision-“is deeper than the rest of the incision. He punctured, then sliced. It was confirmed in the autopsy.”
“I see here that the first three victims were cut in excess of forty times, but the last victim, Anna Clark, was cut only twenty-two times.”
“But the incisions are the same,” Jim said defensively.
“It’s a common knife. You identified it immediately, correct?” Hans asked.
“But the same type of knife was also used to slit the throats of the victims-a double-edged blade, three-and- a-half to four inches long, stainless steel. Very likely a butterfly knife, but I couldn’t testify to that. Two killers with the same two knives?”
“Hmm.”
“What? You can’t see it?” Jim grabbed two of the photos. “We
As Jim looked at the photos, he frowned.
“Do you see what I see?” Hans asked.
“What do you see, Hans?” Will asked, honestly curious. He believed someone else killed Anna based on the time line. He hadn’t seriously thought that the evidence itself could have proved something different than what was presented at trial.
“It’s actually a minor point,” Hans admitted. “But the depth of the cuts in Anna’s body are shallower than in the first three victims. There are also hesitation marks on Anna, but not the others. On Bethany there were two hesitation marks-but all the rest were clean. No hesitation on Brandi or Jessica. But the last victim-virtually every incision had a hesitation point.”
“That doesn’t prove Glenn didn’t kill her.” Robin spoke for the first time.
Hans’ voice softened as he said, “No, it doesn’t. But I think Jim sees what I see.”
Will looked at the photos. At first he didn’t notice anything strange at all-only the sick perversion of a psychopath.
It was Brandi’s crime scene photo that gave him the first glimpse of something.
“Is that a pattern on her body?” he asked.
Hans nodded. “I think he left a pattern on each of his victims.”
Will rotated the picture. He saw it at the same time as Jim said, “T.A.G.”
“Tag?” Will asked.
“His initials,” Robin whispered. “T.A.G. He marked the bodies of my friends with his initials.”
“Robin, if you want to step out, Mario can take you-”
She shook her head rapidly back and forth, tears glistening in her eyes. “I need to see this.”
Will grasped Robin’s hand again.
Jim continued. “There’s a pattern on each of the first three victims, but on the fourth victim it’s completely random.”
“It would be virtually impossible to notice the pattern,” Hans said, “because each body has a
Now Glenn’s initials were obvious. On all the bodies, except Anna Clark.
“I can’t believe I didn’t see this,” Jim said.
“It wasn’t clear,” Hans began, but Jim waved his hand.
“Look at this.” He pointed to a close-up of an incision on Anna’s body.
The cut had two hesitation marks, one at the beginning and one near the end. “What’s that striation?” Will asked. “It looks like a double flap of skin.”
