He printed out a color copy of the best image of the intruder and studied it, noticing what looked like a tat on the perps forearm where he had the sleeves on the hoody pushed up mid-way. Then he went back to the computer screen and tried tozoom in on the image, focusing on the forearm, blowing that area up. Sure enough it was a tattoo.
Brand frowned. He’d seen one something like that before, but he couldn’t remember where.
The door opened and Rookie entered. “Sorry, I got here as fast as I could. Traffic was a nightmare.”
“Jett’s not here yet,” Brand told him. “You don’t have the surveillance footage you collected of the arena before the exhibition game do you? If you do, we can take a look at it.”
“No,” Rookie said. “He does. We didn’t see Monte Adams like you were hoping for, though.”
“I guess that was too much to hope for,” Brand pushed a hand through his hair. “That guy was too smug when Wyatt and I were questioning him. While we wait on Jett, take a look at this. Have you seen this tattoo?” He handed Rookie the printed photo and pointed to the man’s forearm “I’m sure I have, but don’t remember where.”
“That’s hard to see,” Rookie said.
“Let me print off the blown-up version,” Brand said, pressing print on the computer and Rookie picked up the page from the printer as it shot out.
“Better detail on this one,” he agree. “And it does look familiar, but like you, I’m having trouble remembering where I saw it.”
The door opened again, and Jett joined them. “I ran into Hawkeye in the hallway,” he told them. “He’s filled me in on your morning. So rat poison?”
“What?” Rookie’s brow wrinkled. “I didn’t hear about this.”
“The Medical Examiner found rat poison in the undigested peanut butter in Flynn’s stomach,” Brand explained. “Rat poison and Warfarin, a blood thinner, both have anticoagulants in them. That’s why Flynn’s original lab work came back showingWarfarin in his system, but it was probably the rat poison instead.”
“Hell’s Bells,” Rookie expelled a long breath. “Are you saying someone put rat poison in all that peanut butter Flynn was eating?”
“That’s what it looks like,” Jett concurred.
“Damn,” Rookie said shaking his head. “Damn.”
“So we can agree whoever did this had to know him,” Brand said. “Especially his eating habits. It wasn’t a random act.”
“Could it have been his sister?” Jett asked.
“I don’t believe so,” Brad said. “She could be faking being upset but I didn’t pick up on that vibe. I had Hawkeye pull surveillance footage around their brownstone and it showed someone was getting inside through the back door on several occasions.”
“A guy with a tattoo on his forearm.” Rookie handed the printout to Jett.
Jett studied it. “Huh.”
“Neither one of us can recall where we’ve seen that design before,” Brand admitted.
“I recognize it too,” Jett said. “Maybe it’s a common tat that we’ve seen on the street?”
“It would be funny if it is one of Don Juan’s,” Rookie said but his snort of laughter held no humor.
“Maybe that explains it,” Brand agreed. “Okay. Let’s talk about the surveillance you collected of the arena. Rookie said you didn’t find Monte Adams on it before the exhibition game.”
“None. And we looked at that footage at least six times,” Jett said. “But we did see Clint Rogers talking to someone at a back door to the arena.”
“That’s right,” Rookie confirmed “I forgot about that. We couldn’t tell who the guy was because of the way he was standingout of the camera angle, and he wouldn’t come inside, even though it looked like Clint kept trying to invite him in.”
“That’s suspicious,” Brand said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Show me that footage.”
Jett sat down at the computer and pulled up the link to the surveillance video and played the clip showing Clint Rogers leaving the locker room, already wearing his hockey uniform and a pair of sandals, and going down the corridor toward a back door. He opened it to talk to someone who stood at the right angle, so he couldn’t be caught on camera. But what they could see was a portion of the tattoo on his forearm.
“It’s almost as if that guy knew where the building’s security cameras were placed,” Rookie pointed out. “And he didn’t want to get caught by them.”
“Look,” Jett said and paused the video. “Here’s where Rogers tries to get the guy to come inside, but he won’t.” He clicked the video to start playing again.
