Rhyme had lost all patience but he struggled to remain calm. “Again, Corporal, about the Moreno murder? Now, we’re sure the cartels had nothing to do with his death.”

Silence now, in stark contrast with the officer’s earlier rambling. Then: “Well, my efforts are on finding the student.”

“I don’t care about the student,” Rhyme blurted, bad taste maybe but, in fact, at the moment he didn’t. “Robert Moreno. Please. There is an American connection and I’m looking into it now. There’s some urgency.”

Task: Al-Barani Rashid (NIOS ID: abr942pd5t)

Born: 2/73, Michigan

Rhyme couldn’t begin to guess who this Rashid was, the next name in the STO queue, and doubted he was an innocent soccer dad in Connecticut. But he agreed with Nance Laurel that the man shouldn’t die on the basis of faulty, or faked, information.

Complete by: 5/19…

Rhyme continued, “I’d like a copy of the crime scene report, photos of the scene and the nest the sniper was shooting from, autopsy reports, lab analysis. All the documentation. And any datamined information about someone named Don Bruns on the island around the time of the shooting. It’s a cover. An AKA for the sniper.”

“Well, we don’t actually have the final report yet. Some notes but it’s not complete.”

“Not complete?” Rhyme muttered. “The killing was on May ninth.”

“I believe that’s right.”

He believes?

Rhyme suddenly felt a stab of concern. “Of course the scene’s been searched?”

“Yes, yes, naturally.”

Well, this was a relief.

Poitier said, “The day after Mr. Moreno was shot we got right to it.”

“Next day?”

“Yes.” Poitier hesitated as if he knew this was a misstep. “We had another situation, another case that same day. A prominent lawyer was killed and robbed downtown, in his office. That took priority. Mr. Moreno was not a national. The lawyer was.”

Two conditions made crime scenes infinitely less valuable to investigators. The first was contamination from people trudging through the site—including careless police officers themselves. The second was the passage of time between the crime and the search. Evidence key to establishing a suspect’s identity and conviction could, literally, evaporate in a matter of hours.

Waiting a day to search a scene could cut the amount of vital evidence in half.

“So the scene is still sealed?”

“Yes, sir.”

That was something. In a voice he hoped was suitably grave Rhyme said, “Corporal, the reason we’re involved here is that we think whoever killed Moreno will kill again.”

“Is that true, do you think?” He sounded genuinely concerned. “Here?”

“We don’t know.”

Then someone else was speaking to the corporal. A hand went over the mouthpiece of the phone, and Rhyme could hear only mumbles. Poitier came back on the line. “I will take your number, Captain, and if I am able to find anything helpful I will give you a call.”