Chapter 42
Steady progress unfolds with the Knight of Cups.
DANNY
Imiss Cal but I don’t miss Cal’s erratic behavior. The “one day I love you, next day I hate you” back and forth is exhausting. I don’t need that kind of drama in my life.
As a favor to Laura, and because it is the right thing to do, I’m still working with Eagle to bring Paul Davis’s murderer to justice. Believe it or not, Biz is on board.
We’ve had a breakthrough in the case. Biz scrutinizes all lab reports for every case until she is satisfied there are no holes in the data. In this case, she noticed there were traces of cornstarch on all pieces of physical evidence: the shoe, the wine bottle, cup, and the bag. Cornstarch is used to lubricate medical gloves to make them easier to put on and take off.
I went back to the crime scene and dusted again for prints and cornstarch. On a hunch, I dusted the closest bathroom. One partial print from the toilet flush handle came back as a match for Abigail Stewart, aka Juliet Morrison.
I asked Eagle to put a trace on Juliet’s credit cards and bank account. I couldn’t do it because I didn’t yet have probable cause for a warrant. Biz and I were careful to color inside the lines ourselves. As the investigator for the defense attorney, Eagle had slightly more leeway to smudge those lines.
She located Juliet in Marietta. Eagle and I staked out the grocery store where Juliet had used her credit cards several times. She surfaced on the second day. We followed her back to a garage apartment off Hwy. 5.
Armed with new information, I convinced Biz to question Juliet in conjunction with Paul Davis’s murder.
We had heard Marci’s report of Juliet exhibiting three distinct personalities at her restaurant. The psychiatrist at Summit Ridge confirmed Juliet’s diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder.
All three personalities surfaced during the interview. It was a complete circus.
We knocked on the door of her apartment at 8:00 a.m. We wanted her off kilter from the get-go.