Warning . . . Search for data of this nature twenty years or more will delay results.
“Then you’d better get started. Command given.”
Acknowledged . . . Working . . .
“Computer, send results, year by year, to both my office and home units.”
Warning . . . Extracting data by year will delay results.
“Can’t be helped. Command given.”
She topped off her coffee and left for the conference room while the computer worked.
She’d hoped Peabody would be back so she could palm off the setup on her partner. Instead, she loaded the data in the room comp, began updating the board.
She muscled out a second board and began to write.
Crime mirrors previous event?
Connection—MacMasters to killer—killer to person unknown killed by same MO. Search in progress.
UNSUB—organized, focused, ability to acclimate.
She continued, listed the salients of Mira’s profile.
Two wits with possible sightings of UNSUB currently working with Detective Yancy.
Columbia connection. Student and staff files accessed.
Shoes ID’d by wit, Columbia sweatshirt, long shots.
Attendance with vic, Columbia public performances and/or lectures, long shot.
She was still writing when Baxter and Trueheart came in.
“Report.”
“Neighborhood canvass, zip. If we get a sketch, I think we’d have better luck. We hit her known haunts, got zip there. Kids in and out, who pays attention? Plenty who recognized her, but nobody who put her with a guy who matches what we know.”
He passed to Trueheart. “Well, we didn’t really do any better with the canvass of the area
your wit states she spotted them. We had a couple people who thought maybe they’d seen her, but wouldn’t commit. We had one who thought he’d seen her and with a boy around twenty. But he couldn’t give us any more than that. Not even coloring, build, clothing. Just maybe. We have his name and data, when we get the sketch.”
“We’ve started going through MacMasters’s cases, working from current back,” Baxter added. “Anything that even squeaks, we’re ru nning.”
“Split it, work from each end and meet in the middle,” Eve ordered. “We’re stalled on the more currents, so let’s start hitting further back, all the way back and working forward.”
“Back to files from about a quarter century ago?” Baxter rubbed his nose. “You’re the boss.”
“That’s right.” She glanced over when Peabody came in carrying a large box. Trueheart hurried over to take it from her.
“My boy’s a real gentleman,” Baxter commented.
“More than the cops on the elevator when I had to squeeze in with that sucker. Have to be fifty playbills,” Peabody continued. “And programs and posters. Saw where you were going and went through her things, added show and concert tees and other memorabilia.”
“Good. I got the list from Dr. Lapkoff, detailing performances and lectures at the university since April. Odds are if the vic attended, the killer went with her. We match the paraphernalia to the list.”
She turned to the murder board where she’d put up a map. “Red pins show the three locations we know they were together. The park, the Second Avenue location, and her home. We’re going to keep digging until we add more.”