Xo (Kathryn Dance 3)

"Need you to push everything through on this Towne case."

The round man shook his head. "Poor thing. She's got to be shook up. And that big concert this weekend. I got tickets, the wife and me. You going?"

"I am," Stanning said.

Madigan wasn't. He liked music but he liked music you could shut off with a switch when you wanted to. "What've we got?"

Shean nodded toward several techs in goggles, gloves and white jackets, working with quiet intensity at several stations not far away.

"Nothing yet. Three scenes. Convention center, Bobby's trailer and Sharp's rental. We're processing about two hundred unknown prints. We have what we think are Sharp's from his rental but he's not in AIFIS."

The FBI's Automated Integrated Fingerprint Identification System was, in Madigan's opinion, one of the few things the federal government was good for.

"But we aren't sure they're his."

"I'm going to talk to Sharp. I'll get 'em with the water bottle trick."

"Who's Agent Dance, CBI?"

Madigan snapped, "Why you asking?"

"She called--"

"Called you? Here? Direct?"

"Yeah. She talked to Kayleigh's assistant, Alicia Sessions, and found out where she thought somebody was spying on Kayleigh yesterday at the convention center. We dusted the area. Didn't find anything. CBI's involved?"

"No. CBI is not involved."

"Oh." Whe

n Madigan explained no further Shean continued, "You were right, that's the cement dust at Bobby's trailer, same stuff with the Baniero convictions. It's unique to that area."

"Have you got a match from Edwin's place? Lopez said there was plenty of dust on the Kayleigh pictures and memorabilia in his house."

"Lots of trace, yeah, but no results yet. Should know soon. And one more thing? The team found something in the orchestra pit. Some boxes had been moved--the manager said they usually kept stacks of them there to break somebody's fall in an accident, you know? They're special cartons. Stunt men use them. Whoever moved them, looked like he was wearing latex gloves. And similar marks on the smoke detectors; they had the batteries taken out."

Bingo!

Miguel Lopez, who'd searched Edwin's rental, had found a box of the gloves.

"The same as we got from Edwin's place?"

"We don't know that yet either. Wrinkle marks and manufacturer's trace'll tell us."

"Good, Charlie. Interrupt me, there're any breakthroughs."

Madigan and Stanning left and walked to the sheriff's office proper, then inside and down a long corridor. Passersby going in the opposite direction nodded to him, a bit cautious, some downright intimidated.

He thought again about Kathryn Dance. She hadn't been the least intimidated by him. Thinking of her baking in the heat, he felt just a moment's bad. She could always put the AC on in that fancy Pathfinder of hers. Besides, soccer moms like her always toted round tons of bottled water. Tap wasn't good enough for them.

Madigan pushed through a swinging door on which was painted a fading sign: DETECTIVE DIVISION.

Detective Gabriel Fuentes, a bulldog of a man who sweated furiously, even in the winter, stood near the reception desk. Unlike deputies in the department who were former military, which was a lot of them, Fuentes had cast aside all trappings of the army and wore his black, shiny hair as long as he could get away with.

Edwin Sharp was here too. Madigan recognized the gangling man from the photos Kayleigh's lawyers had sent them, though he'd lost a lot of weight. He was standing over Fuentes, who, at five-eight or so, was six inches shorter than Edwin. The stalker also had long arms and massive hands. His eyes were sunken below thick brows, which gave him an ominous look though he was pretty normal otherwise. Those eyes were curious, Madigan thought. They weren't the least troubled. Hell, children on class field trips to the department looked guiltier than this boy.

His smile was the oddest Madigan had ever seen, a faint upward curving of the thin lips but mostly at the very ends.