Her leg felt like a lead weight. His words made her heart sink. It became fairly obvious that Blythe had no intention of requesting her opinion and she stared at him. She didn’t like Dr. Blythe very much at this moment. Worse yet, after this snub, she felt he didn’t respect her opinion, and she had no idea why. Other than maybe the obvious. He suspects my connections to Oliver, the man who is supposed to have recommended me, are complete and utter crap. The very thought of this made Val break out in a sweat.

Dr. Blythe picked up the teeth, placing each one into a separate evidence bag. “I’m done. You can go ahead with what you need to do.” Blythe stayed for only a few more minutes and then thankfully for Val, he left.

The technicians began to spray the area with a liquid. Howie tapped Val on the arm. “That’s luminol.” He smiled at her, his face sympathetic. She feigned a smile back. He must have seen her reaction. “Once everything is covered, they’ll turn out the room lights and use a UV light to see where the blood once was. Just wait. This should be pretty astonishing to see.”

Once everything went dark, a blue light was shone on every surface. Howie was right. The room glowed like a Christmas tree. The horror of Francine Donohue’s death was splattered on the walls and floor. The shocking, expansive patterns caused Val to forget being slighted by Dr. Blythe as she stared at the blood-streaked walls.

“Are you getting pictures of this?” Warren called to the photographer.

“My camera hasn’t stopped,” he replied.

“Who would take the time to clean this up? This would have taken hours,” Warren remarked. “The crime scene from the other victim wasn’t as bad as this.”

“Someone was very comfortable in the house, knew they’d have time to do what they needed and that they wouldn’t be interrupted,” Gavin said.

Warren inhaled deeply several times. “You know, I’ve been trying to place that scent ever since we came in. It smells like Fresh ‘n Clean.” Warren sniffed the air again. Val did the same.

Gavin, who had been studying the patterns on the wall, seemed jarred by the comment from Warren. He stared at him.

“The laundry detergent. Fresh ‘n Clean is a laundry detergent,” Warren informed.

Gavin let out a deep breath. The lights came back on and he yelled out, “Who’s checking the bathroom?”

A technician answered, “It looks like the bathroom was cleaned too. Everything in there has been bleached. The odor will knock you out.”

“So, the bathroom was bleached, but not the bedroom? Why?”