“Not that I’m aware of.” He looks at me over the tops of his glasses. “Once we realized she was pregnant, we took vaginal swabs, cervical swabs and did what’s called a vaginal wash. On the outside chance she’d had recent sexual intercourse, Jason prepared a wet-mount slide.”

“I don’t know what that is,” I say.

“The wet-mount slide revealed that she had live sperm in her vagina.”

All I can think is that we now have DNA. “So she was raped and he didn’t use a condom?”

“I don’t think so. Most of these sperm were immobile. I would guess they were over forty-eight hours old.”

Surprise lands another hard blow. “I didn’t realize sperm could live that long.”

“They can survive up to about seventy-two hours.”

I blink at him, confused. “So she had sex or was raped well before the murders?”

“Correct.”

I look from man to man. “Was she raped?”

Doc Coblentz shrugs. “There was no vaginal tearing or bruising of the pubis. Of course, that’s not definitive proof it wasn’t forcible rape. But there were no visible signs.”

My gaze darts to Rohrbacher. “At least now we have DNA.” I can’t keep the optimism from my voice. This development could break the case wide open. “I’ll have BCI check CODIS.” CODIS is the acronym for the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System. Beginning in 1994, DNA samples of offenders were taken and entered into a database. If the semen retrieved from Mary Plank’s body is from an identified past offender, the FBI analyst may be able to match it with a name.

“How long will it take?” the doc asks.

“I’m not sure. A few days maybe. But if this guy’s in the system, we’ll have a name.”

The possibility bolsters me. But I know if the DNA is not in the system we’ll be back at square one. I look again at the girl’s body. So young and with so many secrets. I wish I didn’t know what that was like, but I do. And I feel a hell of a lot more than I should. I know what it’s like to be part of a close-knit group, to desperately want to belong, only to be held apart by secrets.

“Any hair or fibers on any of the bodies?” I ask.

He nods. “Both. We sent everything to BCI.”

If any of the hairs found are from the offender and include an intact root, we could have a second source of DNA. One more nail in the bastard’s coffin. “What about Bonnie Plank?” I ask.

Rohrbacher replaces the sheet. Doc Coblentz shuffles to the second gurney. “She died from a single penetrating gunshot wound to the mid-back area. The bullet transected the lower cervical and upper thoracic spinal cord.”

“She died instantly?”