Sense of Evil - Kay Hooper [78]
Rafe shut the folder and shoved it toward the center of the conference table. “Okay, so neither the post nor any forensic evidence gathered at the scene has told us much more than we knew yesterday.”
Mallory said, “Well, the doc's sure she wasn't bound in any way when she died, and there are absolutely no defensive wounds, so we can reasonably infer she didn't put up a fight.”
“Yeah,” Rafe said, “but if she was one of Jamie's partners, submissive might have been her natural state.”
“So she wouldn't necessarily have fought an attacker,” Isabel agreed. “Still, strangling is up close and personal; if somebody was very obviously trying to kill her, the reflexive survival instinct would have kicked in. At the very least, we should have found some skin cells underneath her fingernails. The fact that we didn't lends weight to the idea that she didn't realize what was happening to her until too late.”
Hollis said, “And our killer uses a knife, he doesn't strangle. So that's another argument for an accidental death at someone's hands, probably Jamie's.”
Mallory added, “Especially since forensics found bits of that old linoleum floor covering embedded in the vic's knees, which places her in Jamie's playhouse and in a kneeling, possibly submissive position. Which is, at least, more tangible evidence to confirm what we were pretty sure of but couldn't have proven in court—that this woman was one of Jamie's partners.”
“An unlucky one,” Rafe noted. “According to the info we have on the S&M scene, strangulation to the point of unconsciousness is fairly common. Supposedly intensifies orgasm.”
“Another thing I don't want that much,” Mallory murmured.
Rafe nodded a wry agreement, but said, “We'll probably never know why Jamie went too far, if it was anger or just a . . . miscalculation. But we need to I.D. this woman. Notify her family.”
Isabel said, “A forensic dentist at Quantico is comparing her chart to those we have from women reported missing in the area; we should know in the next hour or so if there's a match.”
“But we didn't have charts for every woman,” Mallory reminded her. “Either they used dentists we haven't been able to track down, or no dentists. Lots of people are still scared of sitting in that chair.”
“And none of the missing women had ever been fingerprinted,” Rafe added.
“Is getting an I.D. even going to help us?” Hollis wondered. “I mean, it's closure for her family, which is great, but what's it going to tell us?”
“Maybe if she was a regular client of Jamie's,” Isabel said. “We can talk to her relatives and friends, check her bank accounts, hopefully find a diary or journal if we're very lucky. But, yeah, I know what you mean. It's not really likely to put us any closer to the serial killer. Or help us identify and protect the woman he's undoubtedly stalking even as we speak.”
“And we're running out of time,” Mallory said.
There was a moment of silence, and then a somewhat timid knock at the door preceded Ginny's entry into the room.
“Chief, excuse me for interrupting—”
“You didn't,” Rafe told her. “What's up?”
“I've been trying to call Tim Helton, just to check if his wife came home, and I can't get an answer. He doesn't go to church and by all accounts almost never leaves the farm. He should be there.”
“If he's out in his barns—”
“He gave me his cell number, Chief, and he said he always wears it clipped to his belt. I tried the house number, too, but there was no answer. And just the machine at the dairy number. It's like the place is deserted out there.”
Isabel said, “I don't much like the sound of that. If this killer is escalating, there's nothing to say he might not have decided to change his M.O. and kill somebody in or near her own home. Or just come back later and take out the husband as well.”
“What worries me,” Rafe said, “is that Tim Helton is the type to get his gun and go looking himself if he feels the police aren't doing enough to find his wife. The detective I sent out there to talk to him