Chapter 16
Kate studied the small footprint in the blood close to the side door of the church.
She crouched to get a closer look at it.
It was too hard to identify the brand of the shoe, but it appeared to be a sneaker.
She looked over at the forensics tech taking a bunch of photos of it and said, “I would say a female.”
He immediately nodded. “Yeah, about a size seven. We’ll have more when we get this back. We’ll take a mold of it and find out exactly what sneaker it is.”
“Perfect.” She stood up and took a look back. “So, a couple of the footprints are here, but this is the most distinct one.”
“Yes, and it goes straight out that door,” he noted.
“No weapon found yet?” she asked him. He shook his head.
She stepped over to the door, which was open, and found blood on the handle.
“Why would blood be on the handle if the killer used gloves?” she muttered to herself, but of course that wasn’t the same thing as somebody coming prepared.
None of the evidence so far in this case was about somebody coming prepared.
This was sheer fury, for whatever reason.
She stepped outside, careful to leave no trace herself as the little bit of blood trailed out to the parking lot.
From where she stood, she noted a commercial lot across from her and a small parking lot around behind the church.
So, this person could have come from either spot, could also have potentially just walked from around the block or from another area.
As she walked past the hedge and headed up the block to see what was around, she then crossed the road and came back down the other side.
Only as she stood here, her hands on her hips, staring at the door she had come out of, did she catch a twinkle ever-so-slightly in the light.
Focused on that, she walked across the street, nearly getting hit by a vehicle, now honking at her.
She raised a hand in apology, found the object again, and came straight for it. She bent down and smiled. She immediately pulled out her phone and called Rodney. “Got a weapon here. I need forensics outside in the left-side parking lot across the road.”
“On my way.”
With that, she ended the call, pocketed her phone, and stared at the item.
This would imply that whoever the killer was, a woman had walked on this side of the sidewalk in order to toss the knife into the hedge.
Rodney joined her a few minutes later, took one look, and the forensic tech immediately took a bunch of photos, then reached down with gloved hands and pulled it out. He looked at it and nodded. “This could be it. Seems to be more of a ceremonial dagger though.”
“I don’t know why a ceremonial dagger would be in a Catholic church, but I guess it’s possible.”
He didn’t say anything.
“She also could have brought it with her and then tossed it.”
As he held it up, he turned it over. “There’s blood on it.”
Kate frowned and asked, “What are the chances that she cut herself in all this rage?”
He looked at her in surprise and nodded. “Pretty good really,” he replied, as he studied it. “It’s pretty sharp at the base, and she might have nicked her hand. That would explain the blood on the knob as well.”
“See if you can get any prints off anything,” she muttered.
“And, if she was walking this way,” she thought out loud, as she saw it in her mind, “she would have come down the steps, bolted around the corner of the hedge to hide from anybody at the church. She would have walked down here, what, twenty, twenty-five feet?” she guessed, turning to judge the distance to where the sidewalk met the short walkway up to the steps.
“Then tossed it, as if in a panic to get rid of it.
“And then what?” she muttered to herself, as she turned and glanced around. “She would have just kept going.” And, with that, she headed toward the end of the block, Rodney with her. “Are any cameras in this area?”
“It’s a side street, so not likely.” Rodney told her.
She nodded and then noted a series of residential houses, unless she kept going around the corner to the right, which was another entrance into the parking lot.
She stopped at the entrance to the parking lot and pointed.
“She could have just gone this way. Then came around here, headed to the parking lot, and got in her vehicle.” She looked down and pointed out, “Is that blood?”
Rodney took a closer look and then called over one of the forensic techs. They looked carefully and immediately picked up what was likely a very faint blood trail that led around the block and to the parking lot.
Kate nodded. “So, her vehicle was parked here. Now my questions are, Were any other vehicles here? Who else was here this morning? Are there any cameras for the parking lot itself?”
Rodney nodded. “I’ll find out and hopefully fast.” He took off at a lope.
Kate remained here with the forensic techs as they photographed the area, then picked up the rocks that had a little bit of blood spatter. Following the bloody trail back, it stopped right behind the church.
She looked around. “Obviously she’s got a small injury, probably from the knife itself. There weren’t any defensive wounds that I saw on the priest,” she murmured to herself. “And I didn’t see anything broken.” She turned to look at the two forensic techs, now standing in front of her.
She asked them, “Did you find any broken glass or anything else sharp that she could have cut herself on?” They shook their heads. “Then it’s got to be that knife.”
As she turned to go back inside, she saw Simon standing at the bottom of the front steps to the church. “Hey,” she said, with a smile, and then she froze in reaction to the look on his face. She raced toward him and grabbed his hand. He was cold as a block of ice. “What’s the matter?”
He glanced at the two men behind her, but they walked on by, busy in their own conversation about their tasks at hand.
“She just told me that she killed him,” he whispered, his voice heavy.
Her eyebrows shot up. “Who?”
He glanced around and whispered, “Sarah, that woman in my head.”
“Oh crap,” she muttered, as she scrubbed her face. “Why is it that they never just say the truth? My name is Sarah. At 10:00 a.m. I killed the priest.”
He turned to her, and a gleam of amusement flickered for a brief moment before disappearing. “Wouldn’t that be nice?” he muttered. “That would be absolutely fabulous if somebody would be so kind, but it won’t necessarily be the answer that you’re looking for.”
She asked him as many questions as she could, but he didn’t really have much in the way of answers. He had plenty of questions too, but she was the one who would have to find the answers, … for both of them.