“Still need to check him out, though.Unfortunately, his print could have ended up on that penny anywhere.”Sean sighed heavily.He had a feeling the lead wouldn’t pan out—investigations in extreme crimes like this were never that simple—but they still had to follow up on it.He looked at Cunningham.“Anything else?Was her clothing found?”
“Nope.”
Matt glanced up from the report.“We didn’t find the other women’s clothes, either.He’s dumping them somewhere else or keeping them as trophies.And we haven’t found the kill sites yet.None of them were killed where they were found.”Addressing Hank again, he asked, “Did you get a chance to run our vic’s prints?”
The technician shook his head.“Nothing in AFIS or any other government database.She’s never been fingerprinted for any reason.”
“So she’s still a Jane Doe for now.Shit.”
“We’re still processing trace evidence from the body and the scene, including the fingernail scrapings, but nothing else appears out of the ordinary right now.Except, of course, for the penny and body carving.I’ll call you if we find anything.”
“How long for the DNA from the scrapings?”Griffin asked.
“I sent a sample up to the state lab and asked for it to be a top priority, but it’ll still take weeks.”Cunningham held up his hand at the sheriff’s scowl.“And before you ask, yes, that’s the fastest they can do it.”
Griffin wasn’t happy about that, but he nodded anyway.
“Did you save any samples?”Sean asked.
Cunningham nodded.“Yes, I always hold some back in case the sample is lost.”
“If you send it to the FBI lab, we might be able to get it back faster.I’ll have my SAC call and put a rush on it.”
“That’d be great.I’ll fill out the forms and overnight everything before I leave.”
Sean pulled out one of his business cards and jotted down his cell.“Here’s my number if you need me.What’s the number here?I’ll call you when I have a contact name for you to address the samples to.That way, they don’t get tossed into a long-term waiting bin.
The head tech grabbed a nearby notepad and wrote down the lab's phone number and extension.The two men were about to leave when Sean stopped and asked, “What year was the penny?”
Cunningham’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, then he loudly repeated the question to a young male technician across the room.
“1993,” was the reply.“Same as the other two.”
Matt eyed Sean.“What’re you thinking?”
“I don’t know yet.Were the other two in the same condition?”
“Yes.”It was Cunningham who responded.
Sean let the info spin around his mind a few times.“It’s a little odd they all had the same year and seem pretty clean, despite their age.They’ve been in circulation for what?Well over twenty years?Maybe the year means something to the killer.”
Obviously following the fed’s train of thought, Cunningham nodded in agreement.“I’ll have my techs run a few tests to see if anything was used to clean them up, but I have a jar of change sitting at home.There are plenty of older coins that look shiny, while newer ones look old.Depends on who had their grubby little hands on them.”
Thanking the head tech, the two men left.On the way to the parking lot, Griffin called dispatch on his cell phone and told them to have deputies track down Stuart Crowell for questioning.The dispatcher informed him he had two detectives from the SBI waiting for him at the station.“Tell them I’ll be there in twenty minutes.By the way, who’d they send?”
The sheriff smiled as he hung up the phone.“Well, it looks like I got lucky.”
“How’s that?”Sean asked.
“Not only do I have Sean Malone, the famous FBI agent, on the case, but I have his brother Brian Malone, one of North Carolina’s finest investigators.”
Sean grinned for the first time all day.“The Malone brothers ride again.Yee-haw!”
After making a quick stop at a deli for a takeout lunch, they headed back to the station, where they entered through a side door with Griffin’s passkey and commandeered a conference room.The sheriff immediately left the room again, hurried into his office, and then brought back the files from the two previous homicides, as well as the thin file he had started on the current victim.Within days it would probably be as thick as the others.
Just as they were getting ready to sit at the large table, Brian Malone entered the room along with a man in his early thirties.Both were dressed in sports coats, ties, and khakis.Sean’s brother stood six foot three, while the other man was about two inches shorter and a tad broader.Brian introduced his partner to the sheriff.“Matt Griffin, Rafael Montoya.”
As the sheriff shook his hand, Montoya added, “Call me Rafe.”
