So?

This girl was murdered almost two months ago. New people are living in her apartment. Her parents cleaned out the place and brought her effects home with them. It's a forensic nightmare, dude, but there I am with these poor people, the mother crying, her fucking brothers looking like they want to kick my ass, vaccing her clothes.

You find anything to connect her to Byrd?

I don't know. You know what a blind test is?

No.

They gave us samples to compare with the samples I vacced from her clothes, but the comparison samples didn't come with a name only a number. Blind. We asked why we were running blind tests, Harriet told us don't ask. She said if we told anyone we were cooking blinds, she would have our asses in the can. I don't know if we got any hits or not. Everything went to Harriet, and Harriet made the comparisons.

Like Marx ordering Poitras to seal Byrd's home.

What were you testing?

Hair, fiber, the usual stuff.

What did the homicide cops say?

Chen made a derisive snort.

They wouldn't discuss the case with us, either. We gave our reports to Harriet, and Harriet did whatever she did with them. I guess she passed them up to the task force. Those task force guys wouldn't even talk about what they were doing with the divisional dicks, and those guys are pissed.

Chen was describing a major departure from protocol. Detectives worked closely with criminalists as their cases evolved, and task force detectives almost always worked with divisional detectives because the divisional dicks had relationships with witnesses and the victims.

I thought about what he was saying and what it might mean.

Did Byrd kill these people?

Chen looked surprised.

Well, yeah. Nothing we found suggests or supports anything else. Here, check it out

He finally handed me the envelope. Chen had copied the SID work product on Repko and Byrd along with the CI's crime scene descriptions and the medical examiner's autopsy protocols.

I skimmed the reports about Debra Repko first. Her condition as described was in keeping with everything I had been told or read on the Internet, and only served to underline how little I knew about the victim. Blood tests showed a .02 alcohol level, which indicated she had consumed at least one but not more than two drinks in the hours preceding her death. This suggested a social drink or glass of wine with dinner, but I had no way of knowing. Unlike the police, I knew absolutely nothing about Debra Repko and her life, which made my guesses meaningless.

I moved on to the reports about Lionel Byrd. Everything confirmed what I had already been told by Starkey and Lindo until I read the list of items documented when Byrd's body was recovered. A single tablet identified as oxycodone was found beneath his chair.

Was he taking oxys?

He had three in his system along with the booze. He wasn't incapacitated, if that's what you're thinking. He was just numb.