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“Could it be an officer or agent that was looking through the scene?”
“Possibly. Do you think we could get our hands on a list of people who have looked through these folders following Dr. Willis’s death?”
With a growing look of excitement on his face, Agent Sullivan pulled his cellphone from his pocket and said, “There’s only one way to find out.”
CHAPTER FOUR
With the loose hair bagged up as evidence, Rachel and Sullivan left the apartment building. Because Rachel had taken a cab to the building, she rode along with Sullivan as they sped to the police department. She noted that Sullivan looked very excited, probably because he was about to walk into the office with the first solid bit of evidence that had been collected in regard to the Willis murder.
When they arrived, the place was already bustling. It was a decent sized police station—just one of six within the city—and Easton’s call to have the lab at the ready when he arrived at ignited a spark within the place. When they walked in, Rachel noticed the lingering stares right away. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to the level of fame and notoriety that came with her name. Whether it was because of her history with Alex Lynch or the fact that the news had leaked that she’d taken him down while suffering from a brain tumor, she didn’t think she’d ever be able to accept that some members of law enforcement agencies saw her as something of a legend.
She kept her eyes on the case, though, following Sullivan to the back of the building where a network of halls contained several rooms: interrogation rooms, offices, and conference rooms alike. He led her to an office near the back of the building. The break room must have been nearby because she could smell coffee and microwaved food.
Sullivan opened the door for her and gestured inside. “Make yourself at home. I’ll run this hair over to the lab. it’s right next door, so it’ll only be five minutes or so. If you…hey, I’ll be damned.”
“What?” she asked as she walked into the cramped but tidy office.
Sullivan hurried to his desk and glared at a stack of folders that had been bound together with a rubber band. “I put a request in for Jane Adler’s police file and whatever she’d been working on in the days before her murder.” He tapped the top of the stack of folders and said, “Looks like someone came through. And I suspect it’s because word got out that Agent Rachel Gift was coming by.”
“I don’t think my name has as much power as you think it does.”
He grinned at her and said, “Maybe you’re the one who’s wrong about that. Anyway…I’ll be back. Feel free to have a look at Adler’s files.”
She waited for Sullivan to leave before sitting down in a chair positioned in the car corner. She started looking through Jane Adler’s file, which was surprisingly thick. In addition to the police report concerning her murder, there were reams of other information as well: her work history, a list of people who she’d been working with over the past year or so, as well as the initial reports related to conversations the police had with them.
The paperwork had been handled well, and Rachel was able to determine quite a bit about Dr. Adler’s case. For starters, she lived just outside the city, in a well-to-do neighborhood. From what she could tell, her main focus in terms of her career was with Fulton Research Partners, but she was also involved in a few medical practices and local hospitals. Much like Dr. Emma Willis, Dr. Jane Adler seemed to have had a very busy schedule and was highly sought after.
Dr. Adler had been killed in her lab outside of St. John Memorial Hospital. She’d been stabbed four times and had her head slammed into the edge of a lab table. There had been a single witness to the murderer leaving the building late at night, and it had been caught on a security camera. But the killer had been dressed quite plainly and, during the act, had worn a ski mask over his face. So far, two people had been brought in for questioning as potential suspects but had been released once their alibis checked out.
Rachel then turned to the folders containing summaries and reports on Dr. Adler’s most recent work. Like what Rachel had seen with Dr. Willis, there were graphs and medical results that looked vaguely familiar but were also like trying to read Greek. The only section of the work Rachel could easily follow were several pages that dealt with timelines concerning medical outcomes following an injection of stem cells.
As she pored over all of this, Sullivan came back in. “The hair has been handed over to the lab. I assume you know the drill. For a hair sample, even on a rush, we’re looking at about two days.”
She did know this and instantly thought: I’ll still be in town when that comes in. However, on the heels of that, there was another thought. Should I be getting so involved in a case that may not be closed before I have to head back home? Would Anderson give me the okay to stay in Seattle until the case is wrapped?
“So, what’s the rundown?” Sullivan asked, nodding to the stack of folders as he took his seat behind the desk.
“I assume you know the basics?”
“Stabbed several times, knocked out on the side of a table. There was a witness and security camera footage, but the guy got away."
“Yeah, that’s the gist. And the work she was doing seems similar to Dr. Willis, though not exact.”
“How so?”
Rachel walked him through what she’d read. It didn’t take long because she understood so little of it.
“But stem cells, as I understand it,” Sullivan said, “are used in anti-aging research, right?”
"In some areas, yes. Sometimes, it's literally just to make older people look and feel younger. But they're also used in more pressing matters, such as replacing cells that have been damaged by certain cancers or blood-related diseases. Either way, I think it's safe to assume that our killer is probably focusing on that…the use of stem cells."
“I figured. That’s been a pretty hot-button topic over the past decade or so.”
“What I find troubling, though,” Rachel said, “is how he knew where these doctors would be at the time of their death. He knew Dr. Adler would be in the lab at such a late hour, and according to the stories I’ve read, the apartment where Dr. Willis was killed was only one of her two residences. She and her husband apparently had another house in a rural area outside of the city. So the killer knew she’d be there.”
“So maybe someone who knows the docs,” Sullivan said. “Or even someone who has seen both of them for medical issues.”
“Maybe. And I know I’m just the guest here, but I think getting a list of clients from both doctors is going to be a good place to start. It shouldn’t be long at all. If their area of interest was primarily research, I don’t even know if they would have seen any patients at all.”
