“Ask the ME. Clothing is intact. Nothing obvious.”

“You think she’s the stepdaughter?”

“Spitting image of the mom, doesn’t look a thing like the dad.”

“So maybe his goal was sexual in nature. Was attracted to her, wanted her for himself….”

Alex looked at her.

“Come on, I’ll show you the rest.”

The back of the house opened onto a screened-in porch. Kind of place to hang out during the mosquito-filled summer evenings. This area obviously hadn’t been included in the renovations; several screens were ripped, the linoleum floor peeled back at the seams. But that was okay. The ripped floor was now covered in blood, while the lone piece of furniture, a broken-down futon, had, according to Alex, become the resting place of an entire family.

“He laid them out side by side. First the mom, then the oldest son, then the daughter, then the youngest son.”

Alex pointed toward the blood-soaked mattress, currently buzzing with flies drawn to the scent of fresh kill.

“ME has the bodies?” D.D. asked.

“Yeah. Given the heat and fly activity, body removal was a priority.”

“You’re saying the daughter was killed back here, though?”

“On the futon, I think. ME will have to analyze, but it looks like he brought her back here, then strangled her—manual asphyxiation. Patrick’s a big guy. It wouldn’t have taken him that long.”

“Then he moved all the other bodies?”

“I’m guessing in that order. He’d want her taken care of first, then he’d tend to housekeeping.”

D.D. frowned, not liking it. “You’re saying the subject carried three bodies through the house to this one room. Why don’t we see more blood? Seems like we should see trails of it everywhere.”

Alex shrugged. “ME can tell you more, but I’m guessing the bodies had already bled out. Kept the process clean.”

D.D. frowned. “I don’t get it. We’re talking the dad, right? First he slaughters his family person by person, then he brings them together for one last family reunion?”

“I think he was apologizing.”

“Excuse me?”

“If we assume the father did it, then he’s a family annihilator,” Alex stated. “Now, maybe the event started impulsively—got in a fight with the wife and it went too far. Or maybe it didn’t. Maybe this is what he’d planned all along. But think of the nature of a family annihilator: Why do these guys kill?”

D.D. looked at him. “I don’t know. Why do these guys kill?”

“Because they think they’re doing their family a favor.”

“Yet another reason I’m single, now that you mention it.”