Be Mine Forever (Detectives Kane and Alton)

Jenna forced her lips into a smile. “I don’t think so. I guess we’ll be letting a court decide.”

Fifty-One

Kane led the way into Jenna’s office and went straight to the coffee machine and set about making a fresh pot. When Jenna came in behind him, closed the door, and slammed her paperwork from the bail hearing on the desk, he turned to look at her. “I know you’re angry about Dr. Turner getting bail but the DA hasn’t dropped the charges. He still believes we have enough for him to proceed to trial.”

“That’s if we can produce enough new evidence.” Jenna dropped into her chair and stared into space. “Do you think it’s too late to ask Wolfe to re-check the DNA samples?” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Lately, he gets no time at all to spend with his girls.”

Turning to lean against the counter, Kane shook his head. “Nah, they’re used to him being at work. When the caseload is light, he spends tons of time with them. Call him.” He straightened and headed for the door. “What we need to do is to find patient 124. We know he is a student at the high school and Dr. Turner referred to him as ‘the young man’.”

“Yeah, he tripped up there, didn’t he?” Jenna held up a hand. “Wait up. Jo is convinced Turner is as guilty as hell but for now, we’ll leave the evidence finding to Wolfe. We need to concentrate on the cheerleader murders and find out the name of patient 124. I’m convinced Dr. Turner has something he’s holding over him and 124 is the key to unlock the mystery of the murders. I’ve kept Jo and Carter in the loop and Jo is going to discuss the case with Carter and see what they can do to help.”

“I’ll ask Rio if he can do some overtime tonight and assist us as well. We can’t ask Jake.” Kane turned to face her and placed both palms on the table. “I agree with your findings, patient 124 has to be involved in the cheerleader murders and is the person who helped carry Jeanette Turner down the stairs. I figure we start looking at guys on the football team. It’s more than likely it’s one of them, as someone close to the team was stealing their underwear. If someone had been hanging around the locker room, I figure Wyatt Cooper would have said something. Guys notice if someone is watching them, especially in a locker room.”

“We only have lists of students who were at the festival.” Jenna stood and went to the counter and pulled out cups. “They were all over town at different times. What data are you planning to use?”

Kane smiled. “It’s not who was there, Jenna. It’s who was missing.” He walked to the door and pulled it open. “Zac is like a computer and he can do things much faster than either of us because his brain works differently. You call Wolfe and I’ll talk to Zac.”

“Get at it.” Jenna pulled out her phone.

Kane headed to the deputies sitting in their booths, both reading the autopsy results. “Hey, I need a list of the members of the high school football team. I’d like to run a comparison against our files to see if anyone was missing from the group in town on Wednesday night.” He looked at Rowley. “I don’t expect you to work back, Sandy is your priority right now.”

“She hates the food at the hospital.” Rowley frowned. “I’m guessing they’ll let her come home tomorrow. I’ll grab her some takeout and spend some time with her and then come back if you need me. She’s happy to watch TV and sleep right now.”

“I don’t know how long this will take. Spend time with Sandy and I’ll call you if all hell breaks loose.” Kane turned to Zac. The young deputy had his own responsibilities at home as well and they’d work around them if necessary. “Are the twins okay with the housekeeper?”

“They’re sixteen and yeah, Mrs. Jacobs has a tongue like a whip.” Zac chuckled. “She’ll make sure they’re okay. They understand my hours aren’t predictable. I’ll call and tell them I’ll be late.” He smiled at Kane. “You’ll have horses to tend as well.”

“I’ll go and tend the horses.” Carter walked up behind Kane and slapped him on the back.

Kane sucked in a breath as his wound screamed in protest but he didn’t react. He turned to Carter and smiled. “I thought you’d come to help with the case.” He bent to pat Zorro, Carter’s dog.

“I’ve read over what you’ve got so far and I do my best figuring around horses.” Carter moved a toothpick across his grin. “I’d ask to take your ride but Jenna’s will do as well. I’m guessing you don’t have a portable device to disable your alarm system and open the gate?”

“Nope.” Kane shook his head. “It would be too easy to misplace. Jenna’s in her office, ask her for the keys to her cruise

r.” He glanced at his watch. “Grab some takeout on the way back from Aunt Betty’s. It’s going to be a long night. Put it on the department’s tab.”

“Sure. Catch you later.” Carter strolled into Jenna’s office. He followed Jenna out a short time later and headed for the door, whistling with Zorro walking close to his side.

“Bring your things and work in my office.” Jenna turned back and sat behind her desk. “Help yourself to coffee.” She looked at Kane, pulled a jar of cookies from her bottom drawer, and pushed them toward him. “I called Wolfe and he is pretty sure the skin and blood he used to extract the DNA are fresh but he is going to prepare comparison tissue samples that will hold up in court.” She sighed. “He’ll call back in an hour or so. He also mentioned searching for Touch DNA.”

Kane poured coffee, added the fixings, and sat down. “Yeah, I’ve been reading about that process, now Wolfe is able to extract DNA from fingerprints on anything, including skin. I figure he’ll see if he can find any trace of Dr. Turner’s DNA on his wife’s face. He slapped her that’s for sure.”

“I’m aware of Touch DNA as well.” Zac poured a cup of coffee and took it to the desk. He sat down. “Everyone’s skin loses cells and the new process identifies them as trace DNA, so really we’re all shedding skin like dandruff and don’t know it.” He smiled. “In principle a person could shake hands and then take a knife and murder someone. The new process might find traces of DNA from both parties on the handle. I wonder if it’s going to make DNA evidence harder to prove?”

Kane shrugged. “I’m sure the forensics team will be able to distinguish between dead skin flakes and the oil found in fingerprints or fresh blood but I guess it could make a case for reasonable doubt.”

“Ah, Sheriff.” Rowley stepped into the office. “I’ve added the names of the football team to your files and the latest team images. I’ve also added the images of the cheerleading squad and names as well.”

“Thanks.” Jenna smiled at him. “Yes, they do seem to hang out together. Thanks, Jake. It’s five-thirty. You’d better head home, or to the hospital. Give Sandy my best.”

“Will do.” Rowley backed out the door.

Kane sent information to the printer and it whirred and chugged, spewing out documents. “I’ve made hard copies of the lists. It will be easier as we don’t have Bobby Kalo to run them through one of his programs.” He stood and went to the printer. “Who is missing from the lists?” He handed them around.

“From what I recall, everyone returned to the gym after Laurie went missing.” Jenna stared at the sheets of paper. “That was a specific question. We all asked if people recalled anyone missing.” She tapped the sheets into a pile and looked at Kane. “That was a question Rowley asked each kid at the high school as well. Not all of them could remember Wyatt Cooper being with them all the time because they broke into groups and some of them had their girlfriends with them.”

“Hmm, so Wyatt Cooper is a maybe?” Zac was scanning the lists back and forth and lifted his head. “If you only concentrate on the nights when the murders of Becky Powell and Jeanette Turner took place, we can condense the missing people down to a few possibilities.” He pointed to the images. “The guys moved around town mainly in twos or threes and some had girls with them. We know Wyatt Cooper and Becky Powell are missing at times during both nights and moved between groups of friends. If you look at the cheerleaders, we have two girls not mentioned after the initial sightings before eight on both nights, Verna Hughes and Marlene Moore.”