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Back We Were Killers Once Save as PDF
Chapters (65)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty–one
  25. Twenty–two
  26. Twenty–three
  27. Twenty–four
  28. Twenty–five
  29. Twenty–six
  30. Twenty–seven
  31. Twenty–eight
  32. Twenty–nine
  33. Thirty
  34. Thirty–one
  35. Thirty–two
  36. Thirty–three
  37. Thirty–four
  38. Thirty–five
  39. Thirty–six
  40. Thirty–seven
  41. Thirty–eight
  42. Thirty–nine
  43. Forty
  44. Forty–one
  45. Forty–two
  46. Forty–three
  47. Forty–four
  48. Forty–five
  49. Forty–six
  50. Forty–seven
  51. Forty–eight
  52. Forty–nine
  53. Fifty
  54. Fifty–one
  55. Fifty–two
  56. Fifty–three
  57. Fifty–four
  58. Fifty–five
  59. Fifty–six
  60. Fifty–seven
  61. Author’s Note
  62. Acknowledgments
  63. Also by Becky Masterman
  64. About the Author
  65. Newsletter Sign-up

A pocketknife with a fruit tree design that had belonged to Cliff Walker and the one like it in Hickock’s possession when he was captured.

A fingerprint on the bathtub faucet that didn’t match any known individual.

Semen in Christine Walker.

And finally, that they were trying to match Hickock’s and Smith’s DNA to that semen.

Beaufort looked at the date this was posted. April 2012. It chilled him to think of all the people who might read this, who knew so much because of this computer. Cold cases. The automated fingerprint system. DNA profiling. Could they really test those old bones of the two killers? All this was new in the last twenty years, thirty at most. In 1959 the closest they could get to matching a man to his semen was the blood group. The passing of time might have eased Beaufort’s mind, but this, this new world changed everything.

Steeling himself against the burn in his gut, he went back to the place where you could ask a question, and with two fingers slowly picked out the letters on the keyboard: “what happened to Smith and Hickock DNA test?”

An article from a newspaper called The Bradenton Times appeared.

Ian Meadows of the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Department spent years investigating all the available evidence, both physical, written, and witness, concerning the case that had been cold for nearly fifty years. Then he successfully filed an affidavit to exhume the bodies of Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, the article said. If DNA tests showed that one of them had raped Christine Walker, then it would be one more inaccuracy contained in Truman Capote’s “nonfiction novel.” Chewing more antacid tablets, Beaufort read, “‘Capote began telling everybody he was writing something that was 100 percent accurate,’” said Ralph F. Voss, who in 2011 wrote Truman Capote and the Legacy of ‘In Cold Blood.’ Should the Florida connection be confirmed, Voss said, ‘there’s going to be a whole lot of reason to write articles about how Smith and Hickock conned Capote.’”

Holy Christ. He remembered he was in a library, and looked up over the top of the computer screen to see the librarian staring at him. She looked away quickly, and he wondered if he had said the curse aloud.

As terrified as he was of taking any chances, Beaufort knew that if he was to have any peace at all the rest of his life, he couldn’t stick his head in the sand. This internet business was fine as far as it went, but he needed to track down Detective Meadows, find out what he knew that wasn’t recorded here. This forensic science business.

Seven

“I’m supposed to ask if I can turn on this recorder,” Gemma-Kate said.

“Sure, that’s fine,” Carlo said.