Chapters (97)
- Cover
- Back Cover Text
- Praise
- Booklist
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Sixty-Six
- Sixty-Seven
- Sixty-Eight
- Sixty-Nine
- Seventy
- Seventy-One
- Seventy-Two
- Seventy-Three
- Seventy-Four
- Seventy-Five
- Seventy-Six
- Seventy-Seven
- Seventy-Eight
- Seventy-Nine
- Eighty
- Eighty-One
- Eighty-Two
- Eighty-Three
- Eighty-Four
- Eighty-Five
- Eighty-Six
- Eighty-Seven
- Eighty-Eight
- Eighty-Nine
- Acknowledgments & A Personal Note
- Excerpt
“Yup, and all minutiae points match. The branching of the ridges match. I got twenty clear points of comparison on this one. It’s solid for court as a match. This comes from the knife, the windowsill, the bottle, the message, all over the place.”
“And the hit?”
“It’s local. The prints come from a shoplifting case.” Honchar typed a command. “Here’s the record.”
Marsh looked at the subject’s photos, the ID and the abstract of the incident at a drugstore in Eternity concerning a teenage girl’s theft of eyeliner.
“Wow,” Marsh said.
“There’s more.” Honchar entered new commands cuing up new prints on her monitor. “Got a solid match with a second subject whose prints were found in all the same places, in the blood, on the knives, the windowsill.”
“And was the hit local or from AFIS?”
“Neither. This came from the set volunteered for elimination.”
“From the elimination set?”
“Yup, and here’s who they belong to.”
Marsh stared at the information.
“Amanda,” Honchar continued, “I also have a third set of prints I’ve been unable to identify, on the knives, in the blood, the windowsill, everywhere.”
A short silence followed as they both digested the ramifications of the break in the case.
“This is a heck of a thing we’ve got here,” Honchar said. “I haven’t seen anything like this.”
Marsh nodded. Before returning to her table, she was stopped by Corporal Steve Egerton, in charge of processing footwear impressions.
“Was looking for you,” Egerton said. “I’ve got three distinct sets in the blood, tracked in the house and at the windowsill, indicating three individuals involved.”
“Three?”
“There’s a lot of overlapping so there’s a remote, very remote, possibility of four,” Egerton said. “But I can confirm three sets and we have a match on one of them. It comes from footwear that was volunteered.”
Egerton opened a file folder and handed Marsh the information on the owner of the shoes: one of the two people whose prints Honchar had identified, the ones that had been volunteered.
“Thanks, Steve.”
Marsh returned to her desk, taking in the significant developments. Forensic analysis of the evidence showed that at least three individuals were behind the Tullock family murders. They had the identities of two of the suspects. The evidence did not identify who the third person was but when investigators arrested the first two, it would likely point them to a third. Evidence seized from that person may be conclusive.
Marsh was mindful of the fact that the evidence did not show who did what, but it unraveled the mystery on who was behind it.
As Marsh reached for her phone to alert Sergeant Lou Sloan, she stared again at the scrawled message, then the photos of the Tullock family.
This one’s beyond comprehension.