O'Donnell paused. 'No, just the ones from the letter.'
'What's the FBI doing?' Duncan asked.
'They're interested but haven't taken over yet. They've got a profiler
studying the cases. Can't give me a time line on when they might have
something.'
Duncan gave a dismissive wave. 'Useless anyway. Let me take a wild
guess. Guy in his mid-twenties to forties, loner, no meaningful
relationships with women, with a job or lifestyle that takes him
through the Pacific Northwest. Likes to type letters and call himself
the Long Hauler. Yeah, real science.'
He looked down at his desk and picked up a file.
'Alright, folks, here's what we're going to do. We're dumping the case
against Derringer.' Duncan put up a hand to silence me before any
words came out of my open mouth. 'No, Sam, we're dumping it. Your
evidence has gone to shit. You've got nothing but the vic's ID. Now,
I know you've got a personal interest in the girl, and it's admirable.
It really is. But the girl was coming out of a heroin OD. Plus you've
got a nearly identical crime committed by a different person same type
of victim, same location, both with missing purses. Oh, and don't
forget that the different person is confessing to both crimes. You
don't have enough to prove your case beyond a reasonable doubt. Hell,
Sam, you don't even have probable cause.'
'Duncan, the man's a convicted sex offender with shaved pubic hair.
That, combined with the confession '
He interrupted me. 'You know damn well the jury can't hear about the
sex offense. Plus we had that defense attorney in here a couple days
ago about that, because the shaving was bothering me too. I can see
why you butt heads with her,' he said, smiling. 'What's her name
again?'
'Lisa Lopez,' I said.
'Right, Lopez. Real firecracker, that one. But she made a good point.
She says Derringer shaved his privates because he was due for a second
pethismograph the Monday after the assault. I guess the wires pulled
at him on the first one.' Duncan and Tim both made faces like even the
thought was painful. Wusses. They should try a bikini wax. 'We
confirmed it with the PO what's his name '
'Renshaw,' O'Donnell reminded him.
Griffith nodded. 'Renshaw checked his calendar. Derringer was due in
on Monday, just like Lopez said. She couldn't find a way to bring it
out at trial without letting the jury know her guy was a pervert, so
she had to leave it out. Anyway, all you've got left is the ID, Sam,
and it's not enough.'
But I had more than that. I had solid reliable Jan. I told them about
my visit to Meier & Frank. Surely it would be enough. It meant that
the fingerprint was back. The print had always been the best evidence.
So why weren't they excited?
'No dice, Sam,' O'Donnell said, shaking his head. 'I saw your note in
the file that the mom thought she got it from Meier & Frank. Just to
be safe, I called Staffpower, the temp agency that Derringer worked
for?'
I nodded.
'They faxed this over,' O'Donnell said, handing me a piece of paper
from his file. 'Turns out most stores do inventory before the holiday
shopping frenzy, and a lot of them use Staffpower. Derringer did
inventory at Meier & Frank last October also.'
The paper he'd handed me was a list of all of the jobs Derringer took
through Staffpower last year. In the two months before Thanksgiving,
he must've worked inventory for half the stores in the mall.
'You could've saved yourself some time if you'd talked to me before you
went running around Meier & Frank on your own after you got taken off
the case,' Tim said.
'I didn't 'run around,' ' I said, making air quotes with my hands. I
was seething. And I hate air quotes. 'It's on my way home and '
Griffith put a hand up to silence us. 'Sandbox. Remember, kids?' Tim
and I stopped. Duncan was right. It didn't matter anymore.
'Sam, you'll explain the situation to the family?' Griffith asked.
I nodded. Yes, I would have to. I couldn't pretend any longer that
the case was winnable. It rested entirely on Ken-dra's ID. Eyewitness
ID is always questionable, but I had a child victim who had suffered a
horrific assault and was under the influence of heroin. And if I
couldn't maintain that the case was winnable, I couldn't argue with the
decision to dismiss it. I hated the thought of breaking the news to
Ken-dra, but I couldn't stomach the idea of anyone else doing it
either.
'What do you want to do with Taylor and Landry?' O'Donnell asked.
'That one's trickier,' Duncan said, pressing the pads of his fingertips
