“Could be a twisted expression of remorse,” Howie stated. “I was at a forensic conference last month and they talked about killers who go to the trouble of cleaning up blood. They don’t want to look at it after they committed the crime. It’s kind of a way to distance themselves from what they’ve done.”

“I don’t think remorse was the issue here,” Gavin said. “Bleach is one of the few things that will hinder the use of luminol, since it also reacts with it. If you’re going to clean it up, why use something that will destroy the evidence in one room and not in the other?”

Val looked at Howie, searching for an answer.

He whispered, “Bleach makes luminol glow too. If the killer wiped the area down with it, the entire surface will be camouflaged and you can’t see where the blood was anymore.” He then turned towards Gavin. “Maybe he doesn’t know how luminol works.”

Val was thinking the same thing, she certainly didn’t know before now.

“Oh, he knows all right. I’d bet my teeth on that one,” Gavin said, and then glanced over at an officer who was standing in the bedroom doorway.

The officer had a container of laundry detergent in his hands. “Bleach wouldn’t have removed the visible stains on the carpet. This did.” He held up a bottle of Fresh ‘n Clean. “It lists blood as one of the stains it’s good at removing.”

Val watched Warren and Gavin, waiting to see their reactions. Neither man spoke. Gavin finally said, “The fact that someone purposely removed the stains from the carpet, and didn’t destroy them, is more important than what they used to do it with.” Warren looked ready to respond but an officer came rushing in, grabbing everyone’s attention.

“Whoever wiped down the apartment missed another set of prints. We just found them in the hall linen closet,” the officer stated. “It also looks like a repair was made to the drywall but unlike the bedroom closet ceiling it doesn’t have any signs of water damage.”

“I don’t want this information released,” Gavin instructed. “Nothing like this was found in Jeanne Coleman’s apartment. It’s probably a dead end, but I want to keep it private for now.”

“You got it,” the officer responded. He turned to leave the room when a second officer hurried in and headed towards Gavin. A folder was in his hand.

“I think you need to take a look at this,” he said to Gavin.

“What is it?”

“The victim’s sister, the one that reported her missing, has a conviction record.”

Gavin opened the folder, reading quickly, and then told Warren, “I want to see her first thing tomorrow. If she won’t come in willingly, I want you to bring her in.”

5