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“Well, yes and no.” Wolfe’s eyes brightened. “I’ve mentioned the strong smell of tobacco coming from Mr. Price’s stomach contents and I had a hunch, so I ran a test specifically for nicotine sulfate and it came back positive.”
Interested, Jenna leaned forward and scribbled a note in her book. “Can you explain its significance?”
“It’s a clear liquid and used as a pesticide amongst other things. It is a highly toxic substance and results in a nasty death. It is not something anyone would ingest on purpose. Due to this finding, I am ruling his death as a homicide.” Wolfe sighed. “How he drank the substance is a mystery. It was not present in the bottle of bourbon he had with him. We found no glass or empty can of cola to indicate he drank the poison at the house, but if he had taken the poison earlier, he wouldn’t have made it to the location.”
“Apart from being a great receptionist, Maggie is great for doing research. I’ll ask her to find out if it is available anywhere in town. If it’s unusual, the storekeeper might recall selling a bottle to someone local.” She cleared her throat. “Do we have a time of death?”
“Not conclusive. The heat inside the house increases the speed of decomposition so using the usual body temperature of the victim as a guide was redundant. It’s obvious the killer turned up the thermostat to confuse the time of death. We can only go on the time frame between Mr. Davis’ inspection and Miss Saunders’ visits to the house.”
“What about fingerprints? Who else was in the house?”
“We found Amos Price’s fingerprints on the front door, the bottom of the handrail to the stairs, and on the kitchen counter. Miss Saunders’ fingerprints were on the front door and on the kitchen doorframe. The others all corresponded to the cleaners and a tradesman. The two cleaners who visited the place two days prior have a GPS in their van. It is a mother and daughter team, Rosemarie and Lizzy Harper. We can place them in the immediate area over the two-day period.”
“The tradesman is a carpenter.” Kane scanned her face. “Adam Stickler moved into town two months ago. He lived in Blackwater and eight years ago his sister Jane went missing on her way home from school. She vanished without a trace, so kidnapping is a possible motive. The Blackwater sheriff conducted a full investigation; again, the FBI was involved but after a few false leads from people who saw her on the day she went missing, the trail ran dry. He has a motive and was in the area.”
“What motive? You’ll need more than that to convince me, Kane.”
“I have a motive.” Kane took a document out of a file and pushed it across the table. “It came to nothing but his mother put in a complaint against Price for inappropriately touching kids at a birthday party. Jane Stickler was at a party the weekend before she went missing. When Jane disappeared, Price was the FBI’s prime suspect.” Kane placed a photocopy of a newspaper on the desk. “His name is mentioned as a person of interest in the Blackwater News.”
Jenna sighed. “If Jane was at a party, then everyone there would have been investigated. Was Price even at the party?”
“Yeah, and he was questioned and came up clean. The sheriff searched his place and found nothing but we have vital information the investigation didn’t have at the time: More than one man is involved. He could have stashed Jane somewhere else.”
“Okay, we’ll need to talk to Stickler. He would have been about fourteen at the time and could have waited until he was older to strike.” Jenna stared at her notes. “I’ve been looking into Lizzy Harper, one of the cleaners. She has a key to the house and has a motive too. She served a three-year sentence in juvie for stabbing her abusive father to death, almost six years ago. She has a seven-year-old son fathered by him. At the time, the newspaper reports believed others were involved. The court sealed her case files so all we have to go on is the casebook from the initial investigation and reports in the local newspapers. If her father was part of the pedophile ring, she might want to take revenge on predators. Both Harper and Stickler would know the property was vacant.” She lifted her gaze. “The thing is, how did they lure him to the house?”
“If he was actively looking for a kid, say online, they might have played him at his own game.” Kane cleared his throat. “The FBI has been active in chat rooms for years to catch pedophiles. It’s on TV and it wouldn’t take a genius to act as a kid to lure him there.”
“Yes, you have a point.” Jenna raised one eyebrow. “But it would be difficult to act as a young teenager; they have their own language.” She sighed. “They don’t get all of their kids online though, do they? I’ve read about cases involving family members or close friends.”
“You have to remember, predators are cunning.” Kane gripped the arm of the chair with one large hand. “They often work or become involved in pastimes that involve children. Price worked as a clown to access kids. Pedophiles gain parents’ trust then move in to groom the kids. One of the most prevalent is the man who befriends a widow or single mom—he pretends to care for the mom and behind her back, abuses the kids. He becomes the dad they never had and the kids trust him. Most victims keep quiet because they don’t want to be without a dad again or he threatens to kill their mom. The problem is pedophiles act both alone and in groups, which makes them difficult to catch.”
“I am aware of that, Kane.” She tapped her pen on the table. “All this leads to the question: Why attack Price now? It’s been years. What would make Lizzy Harper suddenly be out for Price’s blood?”
“Harper works as a housekeeper, so I gather she does the cleanup after kids’ parties as well.” Wolfe’s gaze hardened. “Maybe being molested as a kid then seeing a man acting inappropriately with kids at a birthday party might get her angry enough to kill him. She did kill her father. This would be extreme; usually people don’t want to get involved, or think they are being a little too sensitive, or are ashamed to report this type of behavior.”
She swallowed the rising bile. “I can’t believe people could act so irresponsibly.” She glanced back at her notes. “Was he the only clown around town?” Jenna swept her gaze over the men.
“No, I checked.” Rowley’s brown eyes met her own and narrowed. “There are usually two clowns who put up the bounce house when we have a festival, which is at least once a month. The kids flock there.”
More damn clowns. “Who owns the bounce house?”
“The town council.”
“Contact them and find out the names of the clowns.” Jenna pushed both hands through her hair. She hated this case. Acting in a cold and professional manner when dealing with child violation was proving difficult. Especially when Kane and Wolfe seethed with anger every time they discussed the case. Knowing Kane would kill on her command, if warranted, without question was not a responsibility she enjoyed.
“Didn’t you say Zoe mentioned other men?” Rowley’s pen hovered over his notebook. “Do we have any leads on who they might be?”
Jenna smiled at him. “Good question.” Her attention moved to Wolfe. “Did you collect any evidence at the cabin we can use?”
“No. From what I can ascertain, only Price and the girl lived at the cabin.” Wolfe’s pale lashes dropped over his eyes as he flicked through his notes. “All the fingerprints are either his or Zoe’s. If anyone else went there they were very careful and wore gloves. I can’t understand how the cellar was so spotless. I know it was disgusting in the cage where he kept the child but it appeared he cleaned the rest of the room recently. The bed in the cellar had freshly laundered sheets and I could smell bleach on a plastic under-sheet. Considering the rest of the house is a pigsty, why would he clean the cellar yet leave her cage filthy?”
“Only one person would know.” Kane leaned back in his chair and stretched out his long legs. “You’ll have to speak to Zoe again, ma’am.”
“I will as soon as I have permission from her parents and clearance from the doctor, but she isn’t going to recognize anyone if they wore masks.” Jenna tapped her bottom lip with the top of her pen. “Perhaps he, I mean Price, didn’t clean the room. If he had friends over at the weekends like Zoe told us, perhaps they had concerns about leaving trace evidence.”
“Yeah.” Kane’s eyes flashed. “They wouldn’t risk leaving DNA behind, would they?”
“Yet, Amos hadn’t allowed her to take a shower since his friends left.” Jenna made a few notes. “Wouldn’t you think if he was worried about DNA, he would have made her wash?”
