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“What’s a CDR?”
“Campaign donation report. We file them in accordance with the law. But again, what’s this about, Detective?”
His voice had an urgency and higher pitch than usual. Ballard guessed that the most likely place that elected politicians ran afoul of the law was in the area of money. She quickly tried to allay the concern.
“This has nothing to do with campaign contributions,” she said. “I was wondering about personnel, volunteers, that sort of thing. How far back do you keep records?”
“Well, we keep some,” Hastings said. “I’d have to check. Is there something specific I would be looking for?”
Ballard noted that his voice had returned to its regular, modulated tone.
“Laura Wilson,” Ballard said. “She had a ‘JAKE!’ campaign button in a drawer and I was just wondering if she might have volunteered for him. She wouldn’t have had the money to make a campaign donation, I don’t think, but her parents were active in Chicago politics. I thought maybe she could have gotten involved when she came out here.”
“I thought you told me that she was killed eleven years after Sarah,” Hastings said. “That would be, what, ’05? ’06? Jake didn’t get to the council till six years ago.”
“Right, but he ran unsuccessfully in ’05 in a special election to fill the same seat he has now. Laura lived in the district where he was running, so I thought maybe …”
“Well, that’s before my time. I’d have to see what records we have. What would it mean if that was the case and she was part of the campaign?”
“I don’t know yet. We’re looking for connections betweenthe victims, and if she worked for Jake, then that’s a pretty interesting connection. We’d have to see where it led.”
“Yes, I see what you mean. Let me do this: I’ll see what we’ve got in our records and get back to you as soon as I can. Okay?”
“That would be great. I’m not at the office right now, but when I get back, I could shoot you over a photo of her if that would help.”
“It may, but I think the councilman will know. He never forgets a supporter’s face.”
“Good. If you can run the name by him—”
“Don’t worry, I will.”
“Thank you.”
Ballard hung up and immediately called Darcy Troy at the DNA lab. She knew she might be stepping on Tom Laffont’s toes, since she had assigned him the medical angle to work, but she wanted to keep things in motion.
“Darcy, it’s Renée. Have you heard from Tom Laffont today?”
“Uh, no, was I supposed to?”
“Not necessarily, but I thought he might have called. On the Wilson case, are you able to see if they still have the specimen swabs they got the DNA from?”
“I can check. It should be there unless there was a destroy order from the District Attorney’s Office, and that is only supposed to happen when a case is closed.”
“Good. Can you see what’s there? And then I need a favor.”
“You want further analysis.”
“I do. I want to know more about the blood. In ’05, they were just interested in finding DNA. I want to know why this guy had blood in the urine. The reports in the murder bookare very general. Could be kidney disease, could be bladder. I’m thinking all these years later, we might be able to learn more with serology sciences, you know?”
“I do, and I’ll see what we’ve got.”
“How long?”
“It’s not what I do, but I think I can honcho something. If there is still material. Sometimes they use up everything processing for DNA.”
“Fingers crossed. Thanks, Darcy.”
“You got it.”
