The FBI Thrillers Collection Books 1-5 - Catherine Coulter [222]
He grinned at her. “I don’t see why not. You’ve got it now, Sherlock. Now we’ve got to pray that the San Francisco police haven’t thrown away the killer’s props from each murder. Actually, I’d be willing to bet they’ve got it all. They’re good.
“Say they still have everything. Unfortunately MAXINE can’t help us here, not even using the most sophisticated visual scanners would work. We’ve got to have the human touch. I know this guy in Los Angeles who’s a genius at looking at the way, for example, a person hammers in a nail. You wondered if this was possible. It is. Not too many people know how to do it, but this guy does. You could show him a half dozen different nails in boards and Wild Ralph could tell you how many different people did the hammering. Now we’ll test him about not only hammering nails but screwing in the brackets and hinges. Now go find out if you’ve still got a match.”
Three days went by. It was hard, but Savich kept his distance. He’d given her Ralph York’s number—Wild Ralph—nicknamed ten years before when a suspect in a murder case had tried to kill him for testifying and Ralph had saved himself with a hammer. Unexpectedly, the suspect had survived. He was now serving life in San Quentin. Savich had heard there was still a dent in his head.
No, he’d keep his mouth shut, at least for another day. To do anything active would be undue interference, and he knew she wouldn’t appreciate it. If she had questions, she’d ask, he knew her well enough to know that she didn’t have a big ego. He forced himself not to call Wild Ralph to see what was going on. He knew, of course, that the SFPD hadn’t done any comparisons of this sort, simply because they’d never had any doubts that all the murders had been committed by the same person. Also, this kind of evidence wasn’t yet accepted in a court of law. He found himself worrying. As for Sherlock, she didn’t come near him. He knew from the security logs that she had worked until after midnight for the past two nights. He was really beginning to grind his teeth when she knocked on his office door three days later at two o’clock in the afternoon. She just stood in his doorway, saying nothing. He arched an eyebrow, ready to wait her out. She silently handed him a piece of paper.
It was a letter from Ralph. He read: “Agent Sherlock, the tests I ran included: 1) type of drill used, 2) drilling and hammering technique, 3) type and grade of lumber, and 4) origin of lumber.
“The drill used in all the San Francisco murders except #4 was identical. However, the drill used in murder #4 was too close in particulars for me to even try to convince the D.A. that it wasn’t identical. As to the drilling and hammering technique, it is odd, but I believe some was done by the same person and others were not. They were utterly different. No explanation for that. Perhaps it’s as simple as the murderer had hurt his right hand and was having to use his left, or that he was in a different mood, or even that he couldn’t see as well in this particular instance The lumber wasn’t identical, and it did not come from the Bosman Lumber Mill, South San Francisco. Again, it doesn’t really prove anything one way or the other, it is merely of note, although again, I wonder why only murder #4 had lumber from a different lumberyard.
“This was an interesting comparison. I’ve spoken to the police in San Francisco. The San Francisco D.A. is speaking with the Boston D.A. They will doubtless have comparisons made between the props used in the San Francisco murders and the props used in Boston. I don’t doubt that even though the lumber can’t be identical, the technique will be, and thus perhaps the presiding judge will allow