Viper - Michael Morley [75]
‘The dead teenagers. There’s no way you’re looking at them for the murder in the pit?’ Jack couldn’t see how, but he wanted to check anyway.
‘No, we are not thinking so. The families are decent families. It looks like the boy and the girl they were just out having some fun.’
‘May I look inside?’
Pietro spoke to a technician who was squatting in a tiny protected space in the vehicle, and he climbed out. Jack asked for gloves. He snapped them on and was careful not to brush against anything as he leaned inside.
The vehicle stank of blood, forensic swabs and a new pine air freshener that was still hanging from the cigarette lighter beneath the plastic dashboard. ‘The girl was in the back, her head on the right side, behind the passenger seat?’
‘Sì, that is right.’
Jack ran sequences through his head. He shoots the boyfriend, blowing out the window, then opens the door and leans into the vehicle. The girl’s frightened so she moves as far away as she can from him. It’s a two-door, so there’s no exit from the back. He has to have got his face inside to see her, maybe even talk to her. Then he shoots her. ‘Have Ballistics already been all over the vehicle?’
Pietro nodded. ‘Been and gone. That’s what you say, yes?’
Jack smiled. ‘Yep, that’s what we say. There’ll be gunshot residue all over this car. Massive amounts of it. And, of course, all over our killer’s hand and clothing.’
‘They have taken the GSR tests.’
‘Good. You find the cartridges?’
‘Two.’
‘I guess one was outside, near the back of the front tyre, that would be the first shot. The other, the second – well, the second one would be inside, in the footwell beneath the driver’s seat?’
Pietro looked surprised. ‘How did you know?’
‘All handguns – well, at least, all the handguns I’ve ever heard of – eject cartridges only to the right. So given where the bodies were, the discovery sites are pretty obvious.’
Pietro made a mental note to remember this.
Jack’s head was once more inside the car. His mind was back at the moment of the murders. ‘Our shooter will have pushed the dead boyfriend out of the way and the girl would have been screaming or pleading for her life. If the girl screamed, then he probably shot her immediately. If she pleaded for her life, then he would have dragged it out. Enjoyed it more. A man who likes to see women burn to death doesn’t like to kill quickly, unless he has to. So, let’s guess that he tried to calm her down. He would have made her believe she could live – he’d have liked that – then he’d have killed her.’
‘Ritardato! ’
Jack ignored the obscenity. He slowly reversed out of the vehicle, sucking in fresh air to clear his lungs and his head. He’d have tried to calm her down. The thought stuck to him like hot tar.
‘Shall we go down to the other scene now?’ asked Pietro.
Made her believe she could live, then killed her. ‘I think our killer may have made a critical mistake. Right here. And it may tell us exactly who he is.’
Pietro frowned. ‘Where?’
Jack leaned into the car again. ‘He’ll have been very careful when he shoved the boy out of the way, anxious not to snag a cuff or leave fibres. The victims’ bodies will be clean of any trace of him. But I bet he’s missed something.’
‘What?’
‘Somewhere here.’ Jack pointed around the back of the driver’s seat and the window area. ‘This is where you’ll find it. Test all around here. The fabric of the roof lining, the plastic back of the seat, even the inside of the window, and you’ll find it.’
Pietro was still confused. ‘What? What will we find?’
‘DNA,’ said Jack. ‘That old Gene Jeanie might just do his magic for us. Our killer will have spoken to the girl. Maybe even shouted