"So I've been told.What can I do for you?"
"I have questions about blood."
"Blood."Saylor nodded and gestured for Nikolai to follow him.They went into an office with two desks.Saylor sat at one of them, and Nikolai grabbed a chair by the wall and sat across from him.
"Which case are we talking?"Saylor tapped in something on his computer.
"The stabbed women.We're wondering about the rugs."He asked Saylor about blood flow, how the fabric of the rugs would have soaked it up, if it was likely the entire rug would be wet with it, and so on.
He left not much wiser than he'd entered, but Saylor promised to take an extra look at the rugs and get back to him as soon as possible.He didn't think there was anything strange about the state the rugs were in.Nikolai wasn't sure he agreed, but a forensic investigator would know better than he did, so he tried to let it go.
Fifteen minutes later, he entered the corner conference room they'd made theirs.
"Anything?"Isaacdidn't look up from the screen of his laptop.
"Nah.Saylor will have a look at how much liquid the rugs are likely to soak up, but since it's not the same model of rug, it's likely to vary from victim to victim.And if he can't find an exact match to the rug, it'll still be guesswork.How about you?"
"I haven't managed to figure out where they bought the rugs, no receipts in their inboxes and so on, so most likely not online purchases.But they're all fairly new.I called the women's mothers since they all appeared to have a good relationship with their families."
Nikolai nodded.Who the fuck would they call if he ended up killed?Julian was still listed as his emergency contact.He had to change it, but he had no one else.
"Okay, victim number one, Gabriela Montes.Mrs.Montes wasn't sure exactly when she got the rug.Gabriela never told her she'd bought one, and while they had dinner together once a week, Mrs.Montes didn't often visit Gabriela's apartment.She was there on August twenty-second to borrow Gabriela's car, and there was no rug then.So sometime between August twenty-second and when she was killed--" He grabbed a notepad from next to the laptop and flipped a page."--on October seventh, she got the rug."
"Okay.That's not too bad.We can check her bank transactions."
Isaac nodded."Victim number two, Leah Redding, was found on December twenty-seventh.Her mother was in her apartment on December sixteenth, no rug."
Nikolai winced."Christmas."
"Yeah, I know."A solemn expression slid over Isaac's face."Terrible to have a family member murdered under any circumstances, but around the holidays..."He shook his head.
Yeah, of course.It wasn't what Nikolai had been thinking though."She could've been gifted the rug.If it wasn't there on December sixteenth, it could've been a gift from someone."
A crease formed between Isaac's brows."Not good.We'll never be able to trace it."
"Unless we can figure out who gave it to her."
"True, but then the whole concept of it being the rug guy falls apart."
Nikolai huffed."The rug guy?"
"New rugs.It's the only link we've found."
Was it a link?"What if the killer brought the rugs with him, and they never bought them at all?"
Isaac stared at him, then looked down at the notepad in his hand."Right.Buuut victim number three, Jennifer Elder, was found dead on April fourteenth, and her mother dropped her cat off a week before because she had a conference out of town, and the rug was there."
"On April seventh?"
"She was there on the evening of April sixth, but yeah."
Nikolai nodded."Did they talk about it?"
"No.Mrs.Elder was running late, so they only talked about the cat."
Nikolai looked at the whiteboard."We haven't missed a victim, right?"
Isaac tossed the notepad on the conference table."Hush."Then he frowned."Why did you ask?"
