“So ties our shooter to the bracelet and severed hand,” Russ said. “But since you didn’t get a hit on the prints from these items, we don’t have a hit on the casing.”
“Correct,” Sierra said. “But it does say that your suspect isn’t very careful if he’d leave his prints behind.”
“Yeah,” Russ said. “Thankfully for detectives, some people don’t watch all the forensic TV shows or read murder mysteries and know to glove up.”
Mia was one of those people, but not anymore. She now knew more than she wanted to about crimes and crime scenes. Especially when it came to murder.
“I located a single chain link buried in mud by the barn’s front door,” Sierra said. “Could be from the missing locks you mentioned. Looks to be standard. Someone cut it, and if you find a set of bolt cutters we can match the blade to the link.”
Mia looked at Russ. “We should check Nico’s shed for that.”
“Not we.” He eyed Mia. “I’ll do it right after we’re done.”
She had no reason to argue so just nodded.
“We also picked up the rifle from Nico and processed the lodge yesterday,” Sierra said. “I took a good sampling of the dust from the table where you found the package and lifted quite a few prints from the target. We’ll run all of that when we get back to the office too.”
“Were you able to determine if our victim was killed in the barn?” Russ asked.
“The quantity of blood under the body says he didn’t die there. I’m sure when your ME does the autopsy, the body’s lividity might confirm that he’d been moved.”
“Lividity?” Mia asked.
“When a person dies, their blood settles to the lowest area of the body. It remains fluid for a short period of time, but then becomes fixed. If the victim is found in a position contrary to the pooling blood, it can tell you the body has been moved.”
“I’ll check with the ME,” Russ said. “But at least we now know we’re looking elsewhere for a murder scene.”
Sierra nodded and gestured at Chad. “We’re just packing up now to move over to the shooter’s hide near your property line and then we’ll move on to Orrin Jackson’s house. Hopefully, we’ll find prints on his gun cabinet. It would be good if you got those bolt cutters to us before we leave.”
“Heading out now. Thanks, Sierra.” He spun and marched back to his car.
Sierra watched Russ. “He’s a serious one. Direct and to the point, like most law enforcement officers I deal with.”
“If that’s the case, I don’t envy you your job.” Mia smiled. “I’ll take a surly teenager any day.”
Sierra shuddered and rested a hand on her belly. “I could never handle that all day long. If this one gets surly as a teen, I’ll send it to you.”
Mia laughed with the woman, but Mia’s phone rang putting an end to her fun. “Excuse me. Gotta take this.”
“And I need to get this van loaded.” Sierra strode away, a waddle in her step.
Caller ID didn’t register, but Mia answered in case the call was related to the incidents.
“Did I catch you at a bad time?” David asked.
“Not at all.” Mia headed toward the porch, hoping he was calling to tell her that he enjoyed dinner with her last night and wanted to do it again.
“I’m glad I caught you.” His cheerful tone from last night was long gone. “I updated Russ Maddox on Evergreen’s files that he dropped off for our review early this morning. I thought you should have a heads-up before the local gossips got wind of this news.”
Mia was intrigued more than concerned, but also wished Russ had told her that he’d taken the files to Kurt and David.
“You might not believe this,” David continued. “But the folders hold clear evidence of Verna’s embezzlement from Evergreen.”
Mia stopped dead in her tracks. “Verna stole money?”
“A considerable amount, actually. Not that I had a clue. There was a decline in income, but the records showed higher vacancy rates so it seemed normal.” David sighed. “I feel kind of dumb for not seeing the theft, but she hid it well, and Wally didn’t seem concerned about income being down. Did he say anything to you?”
“He never talked about business with me.” Mia tried to wrap her mind around what this news meant. If Verna was embezzling, she might be trying to get rid of Mia before she discovered the crime. But what did Mia do about it? “Did Russ tell you how he would proceed?”
