Stride shook his head. ‘No. That would be standard procedure, but in this case, the defendant told us that she had taken a shower, which would have erased reliable evidence of chemical residue on her hands, body, and hair. She also washed the clothes she was wearing, which would have accomplished the same thing. In light of that, running gunshot residue tests would have been unrevealing.’

‘You didn’t find the murder weapon, Lieutenant,’ Dan went on, ‘so it must have been removed from the house?’

‘That’s correct.’

‘Did the defendant have time to hide a gun and jewelry outside the house before she contacted the police?’

‘Yes, she did,’ Stride said. ‘We conducted exercises in which a policewoman put clothes in the washing machine, showered, and then drove from the defendant’s house to separate locations to secrete evidence and then drove back to the house. We ran that exercise several times, and in no instance did it take longer than thirty minutes. Sometimes, it took less than twenty minutes. So yes, she had time.’

‘Now did you tell us that the defendant admitted to arguing with Mr. Ferris on the night of the murder?’

‘Yes.’

‘Did she say what the argument was about?’

‘No, but she said they argued about everything.’

‘Did she give other indications of trouble in their marriage?’

‘Yes, in a later statement, she admitted to an affair with a former police officer named Nathan Skinner.’

‘Did you subsequently interview Mr. Skinner?’ Dan asked.

‘I did.’

‘And did he provide you with any physical evidence related to the defendant’s knowledge of handguns?’

‘Yes, he provided me with a photograph of Dr. Snow at a gun range, where she is in the process of firing a revolver.’

Dan introduced the photograph of Janine at the range, which was presented to the jury. More than anything else, Stride knew that the real impact of the photograph was Janine’s expression. Confident. Assured. Almost aroused. She knew how to fire a gun, and she liked it.

‘Based on your interview with Nathan Skinner, did you also learn that the defendant owned property in addition to the home where she resided with Mr. Ferris?’

‘Yes, we discovered that she owns an apartment on Michigan Street in downtown Duluth.’

‘Did you conduct a search of this apartment?’

‘We did. We discovered a cache of prescription pain medications. There were nearly five hundred pills in fifteen bottles, made up of medicines such as Percocet, Oxycontin, and Vicodin.’

‘Did the defendant subsequently admit to you that these pills belonged to her?’

‘Yes.’

‘Were the prescriptions in her name?’

‘No, the prescriptions were all in the name of Holly Jorgenson. She acknowledged that this was a fictitious patient she created to obtain pills for herself illegally.’

‘Lieutenant, did you find that fictitious patient name significant?’