“Maybe I could get the ViCAP and NCIC parts done,” said Esti after a moment. The way she said “maybe” meant she could get it done, but by a route she was not about to reveal. “For ViCAP, what data bits are you most interested in?”

“To avoid being swamped with results, concentrate on the oddities—the most peculiar elements at each of the murder sites—and use those as the search terms.”

“Like ‘.220 Swift’—the Long Falls gun caliber?”

“Right. And ‘suppressor’ or ‘silencer’ combined with ‘rifle.’ ”

She made some quick notes. “Okay, what else?”

“ ‘Firecrackers.’ ”

“What?”

“Witnesses at the cemetery heard firecrackers going off around the time that Carl was hit. If that was an attempt to conceal the residual sound of the suppressed muzzle blast, it may have been a technique the shooter used before, and a witness may have mentioned it to an investigator, and the investigator may have entered it on his ViCAP form.”

“Jesus,” said Hardwick. “That’s one goddamn way-out long shot.”

“It’s worth a try.”

Esti was tapping her pen again on her pad. “You’re assuming the shooter was a pro?”

“Feels that way to me.”

“Okay. Any other search terms?”

“ ‘Cemetery’ and ‘funeral.’ If the shooter went to the trouble of killing someone just to set his main victim up at the grave, maybe the same thing’s worked for him before.”

As she was writing, Gurney added, “All the surnames connected with the case should be searched as well—Spalter, Angelidis, Gurikos. Also, we need to run Darryl’s surname, the surnames of the other prosecution witnesses, and Kay’s maiden name. You can find them all in the trial transcript.”

Hardwick spoke with loathing in his voice. “Don’t forget to include ‘nails,’ ‘nails in eyes,’ ‘nails in ears,’ ‘nails in throat.’ ”

Esti nodded, then asked Gurney, “Anything from the mother’s location?”

“That one’s not so easy. You could look for homicides set up as bathtub falls, homicides involving floral deliveries, even the fake florist name—Flowers by Florence—but that feels like an even longer shot than the firecrackers.”

“I think this is enough to keep me busy for a while.”

“Jack, I recall from the Jillian Perry case that you might know somebody at Interpol. That still true?”

“Far as I know.”

“Maybe you could see what they have on Gurikos?”

“I can try. No promises.”

“You think you could also take a stab at tracking down the main prosecution witnesses?”

He nodded slowly. “Freddie, who testified that Kay was in the apartment building at the time of the shooting … Jimmy Flats, the con who said Kay tried to hire him to whack Carl … and Darryl, the boyfriend who said she tried the same line on him?”

“Those three at least.”

“I’ll see what I can do. You thinking we might squeeze a perjury admission out of one of them?”