Warren shook his head. “It’s a possible scenario, changing the gloves, but, Mitch, I’m not buying it because it would be so rare.”

“Maybe not so rare.” Gavin put his hands in his pockets. “Cornstarch wasn’t found on the knife.”

Warren raised his left eyebrow up. Gavin could tell he now understood the significance of what he was hearing.

“If someone other than Gabrielle murdered Adam—who had to have died first because his blood was underneath where Gabrielle lay—and this person used gloves to kill him, then they would have had to change the gloves otherwise Gabrielle and her white dress would have been a bloody mess.”

“Jesus, Mitch. It’s possible,” Warren said. “People who use latex gloves are skilled at removal. Hell, we’ve watched Dr. Maddox do it enough times to know they can do it without letting anything from the outside of the glove contaminate themselves. The blood wouldn’t have transferred to the person’s hands. What’s on the inside, the powder, that’s unavoidable.”

“Exactly. Alex, this is making me feel uncomfortable. If Gabrielle didn’t tape herself, someone did a damn good job of making it look like she did. They would have known to put her fingerprints on the inside of the tape. Honestly, for all practical purpose, this was the only real evidence we can use that suggests Gabrielle is responsible for her own death.”

“That means someone wanted her dead and knew how to do it the right way. Smart killer, as I said at the beginning, if this is how it went down.”

“And what did I tell you, there’s nothing I like better than taking down some asshole who thinks he’s smart. They all have a weakness, my friend, and this is how we catch them.”

Warren looked at Gavin, his expression serious. “Mitch, remember one thing. If someone was setting Gabrielle up to look like murder–suicide, you can’t set up cancer.”

“Very true. If someone wanted her dead, they had to have known she had cancer because if this is a setup, it revolves around it.” Gavin circled the car to the driver’s side, his thoughts churning. Suddenly he remembered something else and he stopped in his tracks. “A co-worker of Gabrielle’s filed the missing person’s report. What was their name?”

Warren searched through his phone. “His name is Scott Payne.”

“His? A male co-worker reported her missing? You know, Alex, I keep getting bothered by things here, and this is another one of those. Gabrielle was an extremely private person. She didn’t socialize with her neighbors. Her son wasn’t seen outside alone. She didn’t even let him come home from school on his own. But this person happened to have pictures of Gabrielle and Adam that he supplied for the missing person’s report. How did he get those?”

“Seems awfully friendly to me.”