Tiny bits of samples collected in the swabs were mud, pebbles, and wood fibers, all common to the environment.

But one swab had picked up a small piece of human fingernail that appeared to have been chipped, broken, or torn off. But it was the hard part of the nail, so it had not been tested.

Most studies in DNA sourcing said that specific area of the nail held only keratinized cells, which didn’t yield adequate DNA for analysis. It was believed that you needed the root bed of the nail for analysis, because it contained blood vessels.

But at the conference, a Yale professor had presented a paper showing that with specific reagents, and using a particular process, analysts could access required DNA material in any part of the nail.

This put the wind in Spruce’s sails, because she didn’t want the Moore case to go cold.

Spruce had applied the new process to the fingernail material, and expected the results today.

As she waited, she reflected on the lab’s previous successes. They ranged from smaller cases—such as the arrest of a burglary suspect after his DNA matched a sample taken from urine in a snowbank near the crime scene—to difficult ones, like the cold case of Sylvia Hedda Talton, a college student murdered 20 years earlier.

Talton’s body was found in a ravine at the edge of Burlington. The case had gone cold until DNA collected from her matched a sample in the state database. It belonged to Clyde Horace Barthell, a criminal with a history of assaulting women. Barthell was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for Talton’s murder.

Later that afternoon, Spruce had results from the new analysis of the fingernail in the Moore case.

We have a profile. She smiled to herself. Now, I need to determine if it’s Moore’s, or the suspect’s.

CHAPTER 22

Spiritsburg, Vermont

Home at last.

George and Hilda Houghton were exhausted, but happy to be back in Spiritsburg.

Their adventure came to an end after they’d flown from Miami to Boston, then taken a connecting flight to Burlington. There, they hired a car to take them back to their beautiful home on Hickory Lane.

After getting in late last night, they woke still feeling as if the last few months had been a dream. They’d been on the vacation of a lifetime, one they’d planned and saved for as a retirement gift to themselves—a world cruise that had taken them to 40 countries. Now, they prepared to ease back into reality and the quiet life in their tranquil corner of the world.

After they got up, showered, and dressed, Hilda went through the house opening windows.

“It’s so stuffy in here. I’ll start cleaning later today,” she said. “George, there’s not a thing to eat in the house. I’ll have to get groceries, too.”