The Mourning Mail (FINAL)

Chapter 17

A welcome surprise phone call came from Marci early the next afternoon.

After the usual pleasantries, she said, "It didn't take long to get answers to your questions. But Danny's taking me to lunch tomorrow. I wasn't sure how soon you needed the information. No sense in making you wait until our calendars synced up again for coffee or some Italian food."

"Ha! That's very kind of you—I'll give you a rain check," I said. "What did you find out?"

"First, as to Brian Pierce," Marci began. "I think you know both prints and DNA are collected at crime scenes if they're available. Prints are quickly and cheaply processable and can be matched immediately to nationwide information online. They've been kept and stored since before anyone alive was born, but DNA hasn't been reliably collected into databases nearly as long. And, unlike a print, DNA is easily transferred, even unintentionally, from one person or thing to another. So, not the most reliable evidence that people think it is. It also takes money and time to process—some of our rape kits have taken months, even years.

"In this case, we were lucky and have both. There were two sets of viable DNA and prints, palm and finger, taken from the body. We've also got fibers and hairs that we could likely match to environments or subjects once we have candidates."

"Sounds like a good beginning," I offered.

"Not sure yet," Marci replied. "Nothing matches anything currently in the AFIS or CODIS databases. That could mean one or more of several things. Chances are good that our killers haven't served in the military since '92. They probably don't have professional licenses. The perps likely haven't spent time in prison recently. At least, not in a place or at a time when they collected DNA for the national databases. They haven't been suspects in a major crime. If they were, it was in a jurisdiction which doesn't submit investigative candidate samples for non-convicts."

"The detectives still have a lot of work left to do...," I thought out loud.

"Exactly," Marci agreed. "The good news is that once we have matching suspects for either of the two assailants, we should be able to prosecute them for Brian Pierce's murder."

"That tells me exactly what I needed to know." I hoped my gratitude came across over the phone. If I could figure out the people involved with the crimes mentioned in Brian's letters, I should have at least a few candidates for suspects.

"But there's something a little odd that we haven't released to the public," Marci added, sounding hesitant. "I'm assuming this is all off the record, and you won't be sharing it. Do I have your word on that, Debra Ann?"

"You have my word, Marci," I assured her. "I'm not taking notes, and anything you tell me will remain confidential between us."

"I could lose my badge if this gets out," Marci said, lowering her voice slightly, "but it could be important for identifying the doer. When they found the body, there were traces of ink on his fingertips and thumbs. The victim's got a record, small-time stuff. So, at first, we thought maybe someone in the department had picked him up, then booked and released him in short order. Before he had a chance to wash his hands, or the ink rubbed off by itself. The offender would have killed him sometime soon after we let him go. But the forensic tech was on his toes. He tested the ink because he didn't think it looked right."

"What did he find?" I had to ask.

"That ink wasn't the same as what we use for fingerprinting," Marci answered. "It was the cheap bulk ink for notary public stamps and fountain pens."

"Somebody who wasn't a law enforcement professional took Brian's prints around the same time he died? Does that mean what I think it means? That whoever killed him didn't know him beforehand?" I asked.