Chapter 16
We’d just gotten into the Aston when Zane’s phone pinged with a notification. He took it out and looked at it. “Doc says they’re ready.”
“I’m starving,” I said. “Breakfast was a long time ago.”
“After this, we’ll go see what Rota has for us and grab a late lunch from Alfred.”
He parked in front of the limestone building that housed the medical and forensic laboratories.
To the left of the labs sat the courthouse, and to the left of that, the sheriff’s station.
I grabbed the evidence bag containing Sasha’s valentine card and stepped out of the Aston just as Sheriff Stiles came through the front door of his station.
“Heading over to talk with the DA about what to do regarding the incident from fifteen years ago,” he said. “I’ll let you know what he says.”
I strolled over and placed my palm on the biometric scanner next to the security door. After a second, it beeped, and the door swung open.
“Well, look who it is!” an elderly pixie with a white beehive hairdo and a pencil tucked behind her ear hovered just inside the entrance.
Thelma’s wings were glowing purple and green, and she was practically vibrating with excitement.
”Guess what? I just got word my granddaughter is in labor.
” She clasped her tiny hands together. “I should have another great-grandbaby soon!”
I smiled. “How many does that make now?”
“Fourteen!”
“Congratulations, Thelma,” I said. “That’s wonderful.”
The elderly pixie beamed. “Thank you, dear.”
“Yes, Thelma,” Zane added. “That’s wonderful for you and your family.”
“You two go on back.”
We passed through the archway and into the main front room. A skunk shifter sat behind a desk, her fingers moving across a computer keyboard. She glanced up and gave us a nod. Four pixies flittered around the room, sorting files, shelving folders, and doing general busy work.
We proceeded down the hall and stopped in front of a second biometric door. Zane motioned for me to go first, so I placed my hand on the scanner and waited for my palm to be read. “Good day, Kara Hilder. Please enter.”
I stepped inside a room more suited for a dorm than a place that housed labs.
A flat screen hung on the far wall, with chairs and a sofa angled to see the TV.
A state-of-the-art coffee and tea bar was pushed against another wall, with a mini sink and refrigerator next to it, and against a third wall sat wooden shelves filled with snack foods.
Barbie was leaning against the counter, eating popcorn and waiting for her coffee to finish brewing. ”Hey, there. Can I get you some coffee or tea?”
I shook my head. “No, thanks. We’ll have something in a bit when we go back to Zane’s.” I handed her the evidence bag. “Got this from Sasha Carter.”
Barbie’s eyes lit up. “Fabulous! I got fingerprints off the other cards, but I really needed another sample. Hopefully, I’ll get something from this one. Give me five minutes to see if it’s a match with the others.” She set down her bag of popcorn and hurried out of the room.
Doc Treestone came out of his laboratory and smiled at us. “Where did Barbie go?”
“We brought her evidence,” Zane said, “and she’s checking for fingerprints real quick.”
“Good.” Doc headed for the tea bar. “Gives me a minute to have some hot tea.” He filled a mug with hot water and dropped in a tea bag, letting it steep while he leaned against the counter. “Tell me, Kara. Have you started looking for a wedding dress yet?”
I groaned. “Not yet. I know I need to.”
“Luckily, Alfred is taking care of everything else,” Zane said.
I laughed. “I told him he can even choose the colors, that’s how much I trust him.”
Doc chuckled and blew across the top of his cup. “I’d say that’s a smart move.”
“Alfred is insistent I do some things on my own,” I said. “Well, maybe not on my own. He’s going with Zane and me to pick out flowers.”
“And the wedding cake?” Doc mused.
“Being made by him,” I said.
Doc opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Barbie hurried back into the room with a smile on her face. ”I got a match.” She grabbed her coffee from the machine and took a quick sip. “I’m ready to go.”
We followed Doc through the doorway into his medical lab. Mari Quinn lay on the examination table, a white sheet draped over her body. Doc motioned us closer to the table, and he pulled down the sheet just enough to expose the top of her chest and the marks on her neck.
“Mari Quinn. Thirty-two. Elemental fire witch. Cause of death is ligature strangulation,” Doc said.
“The ligature furrow shows a narrow, consistent indentation around the full circumference of the neck, approximately three to four millimeters wide.” He pointed to the bruising pattern with a gloved finger.
“You can see here how uniform the marks are. No knot imprint, which tells me the ligature was pulled taut from behind in a single, sustained motion. Whoever did this stood behind Mari and didn’t let up. ”
“We know it was someone she trusted since she let them into the house,” I said. “So it makes sense her back was to them.”
“The angle and position of the furrow are consistent with an attacker standing directly behind the victim.” Doc pulled the sheet back up.
“There are petechial hemorrhages in the eyes and some bruising on the larynx, both consistent with asphyxiation due to ligature compression. Time of death, I’m narrowing it even more to between 3:30 and 4:30. ”
“Any defensive wounds?” Zane asked.
Doc shook his head. “Nothing significant. A couple of minor scrapes on her palms that could have come from falling or grabbing at the ligature, but no skin under her fingernails.”
“Fibers from the scene is where I come in,” Barbie said.
“The fibers I pulled from the ligature furrow are consistent with natural jute.” She sighed.
“Unfortunately, it’s one of the most common materials for cords out there.
You’ll find jute twine in hardware stores, craft shops, marinas, bait shops.
Narrowing it down to a single source is going to be tough unless we find the actual murder weapon and can match the fiber pattern. ”
“So we’re looking for a piece of jute twine,” Zane said.
Barbie nodded. “Yes.”
I thought about the different places I’d recently seen spools of twine. I’d seen it at Halter Marina. The ribbon and twine wrapped around Sasha’s gift boxes at Fairy-Kissed Confections. The bait bags Reed had been tying on his boat. All three of them would have easy access to jute twine.
“I don’t remember if I told you or not,” Barbie said, “but there were no fingerprints on the back door. So either the killer used gloves or they wiped the handle clean.” She smiled at us.
“Now for some good news. I ran all three valentine cards through the spectrum analyzer and fingerprinted each one—I eliminated yours, Kara, on Mari’s valentine—and there were fingerprints on all three valentines belonging to the same person. ” She paused. “Mari Quinn.”
I blinked. “Mari sent the valentines herself?”
Barbie nodded. “That’s what the prints say. Her fingerprints are the only ones on all three cards.”
I looked at Zane. “I think we can assume she sent them to everyone because of what happened fifteen years ago. But maybe Sasha and Hunter didn’t realize Mari had sent them to Rayna and Reed as well, and so maybe Hunter and Sasha—either together or one of them on their own—decided to kill her.”
“What happened fifteen years ago?” Barbie asked.
Zane and I quickly filled them in on what we’d learned so far about the incident involving Eliza Nordic and the others. By the time we finished, Barbie looked absolutely horrified.
“What happens now?” Barbie asked.
“We told Sheriff Stiles,” Zane said. “He’s taking it from here.”
“I hope they are all held accountable,” Barbie said. “Especially if it comes out that Rayna really did what is being said she did to Eliza.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Doc Treestone said.
What I didn’t say aloud was that it may be Eliza Nordic already knew the truth…and she was dealing out her own vigilante justice. Which was only going to get her locked up in a PADA prison.