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“Could I look at the file and the evidence?”
“Why? Do you think it might be connected to what happened to Jenny?”
“Well, Jenny had come up here on some unfinished business and she had talked to Alex about the attack. And I understand that Jenny’s body was found near where Alex was assaulted.”
James frowned. “Yes, I thought that was awfully strange. Well, I can’t see how it would hurt to have another pair of eyes on it.”
She led him to a locked room at the back of the small building and showed him where the files and evidence were located. She had him sign a logbook.
“There’s a little room with a table just through that door you can use. Just let me know when you’re done.”
He thanked her and she left him there.
Devine gathered up the box of evidence and the related files and carried them to the room, where he set everything out. He first unsealed the evidence bags and took pictures of the items inside with his phone. They consisted of Alex’s clothing and underclothing, which was torn and dirty, some hair samples, a pair of women’s sneakers, and the contents of a small bag. They were mostly art-related: a couple of tubes of paint, a brush, a pencil, and a small sketchpad.
He opened the latter and saw some pencil drawings that she had done. They were all of the coastline or else looking out to sea. They were quite good and demonstrated the natural talent that the woman had exhibited while still in her teens.
What he didn’t find was the rape kit. He checked the log that was in the box and it showed a rape kit, but he didn’t see anything that looked like it. He was familiar with them because he had worked with Army CID overseas when some soldiers in his company had been accused of raping a local woman. Two of them had been found innocent, one had not. He was currently serving time in a military prison at Fort Leavenworth for his crime.
He sealed the evidence bags and put them back in the box. He glanced out the window and saw that the rain had started up again. You would be just as wet walking down the street as you would be jumping in the ocean, he figured.
He went methodically through the files and official statements. Alex had told the investigators that she remembered riding her bicycle along that section of the coast. She was on her way to Jocelyn Point after seeing some friends in town. It was later than she had realized and she was hurrying to get home before it got completely dark. That was the last thing she remembered until she woke up in the hospital. There was semen, hair, and other trace on her person from her attacker, but the police never had anyone to match it to. There were no witnesses. Then he got to the part about the couple who had found Alex.
Their names jumped off the page and seemed to scream at Devine.
Steve and Valerie Palmer had been the ones to find Alex and call the police.
Devine checked the date, and then Googled something on his phone.
The story popped up on his screen.
Three days after finding Alex’s body, Steve and Valerie Palmer had died in the house fire. The story said that it had been accidental and due to a portable heater being knocked over, probably by the couple’s cat, which had also perished in the fire. It seemed the drapes had caught on fire and the room had been engulfed in flames while the doomed couple had slept. They had apparently been overcome by smoke inhalation because their badly charred bodies had been found in the bed.
Devine went and asked James about the rape kit. She looked through the box and then through the entire evidence room.
“My God, it’s not here,” she said.
Devine looked at the log to see who had last accessed the evidence. The date was from over ten years ago, and while the ink had faded some, Devine could still make out the name and signature.
Sergeant Richard Wayne Harper.
CHAPTER
40
DEVINE DROVE STRAIGHT TO MAINEBrew to find that Annie Palmer was just leaving. Devine checked his watch. It was after eight. Long, long day for the woman. She had her motorcycle helmet in hand, a rain slicker on, and was climbing onto her scooter as he pulled to the curb.
“Do you have time to talk?” he asked after rolling his window down.
She looked flustered. “I was going to check on my grandfather before heading home.”
“It won’t take long. Just a few questions.”
She hesitated. “Okay, where?”
“In here. Out of the storm.”
They sat in the SUV while the rain clattered against the vehicle’s roof.
