“Can you arrange to make sure she’s watched until we know for sure?”
Thompson rolled his eyes and shared a look with one of the uniformed officers.Women, right?“Sure.We’ll take care of that.”
“Thank you,” Kate said curtly.
She didn’t particularly care if they thought she was a bitch.Cynthia could be as innocent as a baby panda bear, but if so, then they would discover that by examining evidence, not thinking about what a poor wittle girl she was.
“Marcus?”
Marcus squeezed Cynthia’s hand, smiled, and walked to Kate.“We should have a couple officers watch her until we can corroborate her story,” he mentioned to Thompson.
Kate felt a rush of warmth for him.It felt good to hear him on the same page as her.
And now that a man had made the suggestion, Thompson seemed fine with it.“Yeah, we’ll make sure of that.In the meantime, I think I have some corroboration for her story.”
They followed him into the home and were immediately assaulted with the smell of blood, not quite fresh but far from dry.The blood began at the foyer, a long, ciliated arc that ran from the base of the door all along the left-hand wall.A single, well-defined handprint rested above the arc at the end of the wall, like a little kid signing his fingerpainting.
They turned the corner and saw the rest of the blood along with the body it belonged to.Most of it was pooled underneath the body, that of a man in his early forties, overweight, wearing a white shirt and a pair of brown slacks.The shirt sported a dozen ragged holes and the pants added another, almost perfectly in the center of his left buttock.Blood soaked the man’s back and pooled underneath him in a sticky, gel-like layer.
The rest of the blood was on the back wall of the kitchen in between the refrigerator and the sink.It spelled the words,Thou shalt not commit adultery.
“At least it’s not in code this time,” Marcus said.
Kate frowned and pulled a pair of gloves on.“Let’s make sure of that.”
She stooped down next to the body and looked closely without touching him.“Name?”
“Donald Pierce, forty-two.Foreman at the Irvin Plant in West Mifflin.Stabbed thirteen times with a kitchen knife.”
“How do you know for sure that it was a kitchen knife?”Kate asked.
Thompson pointed at the kitchen counter.Kate followed his gaze and saw a bloody chef’s knife resting in the sink.“Ah.Prints?”
“CSI’s got ‘em.A woman, about five-two.Rosalyn is five-two, just for your information.”
“Lots of women are five-two,” Kate said, carefully lifting Donald’s head and looking for any inscriptions on the pine flooring or on Donald’s own skin.“Don’t assume that it’s the wife just because Cynthia said it was.”
“Yeah, but the description matches her.Five-two, curly black hair, big t… uh, large breasts.And she was screaming, ‘How could you do this to me, Donald?’The neighbor backs her up.Said he saw a woman who looked like Rosalyn Pierce running out of her house covered in blood.”
Marcus lifted an eyebrow.“So, the wife comes home, catches Donald in the act, loses her shit and does this, then flees.”
“Well, she caught the mistress acting while Donald sat back and enjoyed it, if you catch my drift.”
Kate gave Thompson a look, and his smile vanished.He cleared his throat and said, “Uh, yeah, that’s what we believe happened.”
“If it’s that open and shut, then why are we here?”Kate asked.
“Well…” Thompson gestured at the writing on the wall.“That’s one of the commandments, right?”
Kate rolled her eyes and got to her feet.“Put an APB out for the wife.The coroner can take the body.Have them look very closely for any marks of any kind anywhere on his body.Doesn’t matter what it is.I’d rather see thirty pictures of moles than miss one of an inscription left by the killer.”
“Yeah, I’ll take care of it.Um… What are you two gonna do?”
“We’re going to search the house.Marcus?”
She led Marcus out of the kitchen and up the stairs.Below, Kate heard Thompson calling in the APB for Rosalyn Pierce.When they reached the top of the staircase, Marcus said, “You don’t think this is one of Cox’s minions, do you?”
“I do not,” she replied.“We have a witness, first of all, and according to that witness and the liberal amount of blood spread from the front door to the kitchen, this is a crime of passion.All of the Lawgiver’s disciples were premeditated in their killings.”
