‘Good palm print on the fence, and the aglet on the cord of the hoodie has potential. Same with DNA from the print on the body’s neck.’ She placed her camera on the desk. ‘I’m more hopeful about what we got with the ALS.’
You could always rely on Darlene. She found evidence that seasoned crime scene technicians missed. Fingerprints on skin were notoriously difficult to capture, which is why she had been using the forensic Alternative Light Source, or ALS, when the opportunity arose.
‘Got the best result at 450 nanometres. Amido black’s risky but Rex agreed to try it on one of two bloodied prints on Louise’s arms. It washed away the first, but we got lucky with the second. Blood on the ridges darkened for what I hope is enough contrast to get a good image of the print. I promised to send through our copies asap.’
‘Did they fingerprint the neighbour who found the body?’
‘I asked them to. Even though he couldn’t remember touching the body, these could turn out to be his. He was pretty shaken up.’
If the killer acted impulsively, I hoped he or she had been sloppy.
‘Any sign of the murder weapon?’
‘Not yet. The police are searching bins, drains and yards in the area.’
She scrubbed her hands and put on fresh gloves. As she wiped down the benches with antiseptic, she thought out loud, ‘If the baby was the target, why beat then stab Louise? I get that she saw the killer’s face. But if our clients did it, you and Collette could already identify them.’
As usual, Darlene spoke good sense. The knife perforating the abdomen had to be key. That made the attack personal. Maybe we were missing something. What if another couple had wanted her to be a surrogate and things had gone sour?
I texted Johnny to join us. He was there almost instantly.
‘We need to look into Louise’s surrogacy experiences, her background,’ I explained. ‘Zoe’s parents need to be checked as well. Make sure the husband was in Queensland and find out if there was any tension in the marriage or questions of paternity, custody, anything you can think of. And anyone who might have wanted either woman to suffer.’
‘I’m on it,’ he said, looking to Darlene.
She nodded, as if giving him permission to leave. There seemed to be a new dynamic between the two.
Darlene laid out the evidence samples on the clean benches and I left to help Johnny. Mary bailed me up outside the lab.
‘Mark Talbot’s here. He’s got a warrant.’
Chapter 27
MARK AND DETECTIVE Constable Massey stood in the entrance with two uniformed officers.
Mark handed over the search warrant. It was for video footage from the last twenty-four hours along with files pertaining to Gus and Jennifer Finch: addresses, emails, invoices, payments. They also wanted my personal notes.
I explained again how the video had failed to record anything from midnight. But they were welcome to the footage we did have.
‘Still find it all pretty convenient,’ sneered Mark. ‘Mystery couple visits you; you assist them with surrogacy, which is illegal in this state –’
‘It was to be an altruistic surrogacy,’ I interrupted.
; ‘Unfortunately, Louise Simpson isn’t around to verify that,’ he retorted.
Clearly, his mood hadn’t improved since we’d left the crime scene.
He stepped aside to have a quiet word with one of the uniformed officers. No doubt a power play to make me sweat.
The conversation seemed to amuse him.
When he returned his smug expression confirmed it. ‘Your story about other businesses being vandalised doesn’t seem to hold true. It appears no one else had any damage last night. Just your office.’
Our receptionist jumped to my defence. ‘The repairmen said they had a number of windows to fix in the building.’
I hadn’t recognised the glass company as one we would use. ‘Collette, where did you get the number for the repairers?’