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“It could have come from anywhere,” Hayes said. “You’re making assumptions.”
Marzillo’s words became clipped. “We’ll do a comparison to determine.”
Arnett squatted down next to Peterson and pointed. “Looks like blood all over that end of it.”
“And if I’m not much mistaken, several strands of hair,” Jo said.
“The ME will have to determine if it fits the damage done to the skull,” Hayes said.
Jo forced herself to nod, then stood back up and rotated to take in the scene as a whole. “You said the damage is to the back of the head, but she’s lying on her back. So either she didn’t die right away or the killer moved her after she was dead?”
“Until I get the ME’s report back, I can’t tell you how many times the killer struck her, and thus can’t tell you how likely it was she was instantly knocked out. Either way we know the killer put the blindfold on after the injury, so my guess is he moved her in the course of tying it or slipping it on.”
Arnett tilted his head. “Seems like it’d be easier to just lift the head and put on the blindfold than flip her over and still have to lift her head to put on the blindfold.”
“Exactly right. So either Winnie fell that way, or she was moved to that position for some other reason. But—hang on. Something about this is familiar.” Jo took a step back for a more bird’s-eye view.
“The blindfold isn’t enough for you?” Hayes sniped.
“The arms. Look—both away from her sides, one palm up and the other down.” Jo gestured to each.
“Probably just how the body naturally fell after the killer put on the blindfold,” Hayes said.
Jo pulled up a picture of Sandra Ashville, and held it out to Arnett. “See?”
Marzillo and Hayes stepped in to peer at the phone.
“You’re right. Left arm up, right arm down in both cases, at very similar angles.” Arnett turned to Marzillo. “How likely is it that she fell that way?”
Marzillo didn’t hesitate. “Extremely unlikely for even one person. For two to fall the same way? Astronomical odds against it.”
Hayes’ face reddened. “We’ll test it out with a lab dummy.”
Jo decided not to push the point. “Other than that, this murder is substantially different from the first. Sandra was shot, Winnie was bludgeoned. Public versus private location. The killer didn’t even try to hide the murder weapon here, but we haven’t found one at Sandra’s scene.” She paused to confirm with Marzillo.
“Nope,” Marzillo interjected. “The divers finished early this morning and found nothing except a few empty beer bottles.”
Arnett squinted down at Winnie. “Ashville was shot from the front, but in this case, the killer attacked from the back.”
“I’m not sure it’s clear he meant to attack from the back,” Marzillo said. “The site of the fracture isn’t centered in the back of the head, it’s off to the left.”
Visualizing Winnie sitting on the bench, Jo mimed a series of gestures. “Maybe a left-handed person came up behind her. Or maybe she was having a face-to-face conversation with her killer, realized she was in danger, and tried to get away.”
“Second possibility makes more sense,” Arnett said. “Sakurai didn’t have earbuds like Ashville, she would’ve heard someone coming up behind her.”
“And in a setting like this a gunshot would have received immediate attention,” Jo said.
“So why pick here to do it in the first place?” Arnett asked.
Jo chewed on her lip. “Excellent question—there has to be a reason. No point mixing up your MO if the blindfolds are going to flag that the killings are related regardless.”
“Could be he didn’t have control over the setting, and used the blindfolds to make sure we connected them? We’ve seen that tactic before,” Arnett said.
“If that’s all it is, why pose the arms?” Jo asked.
“And it’s almost unavoidable that you’d get blood on yourself putting on the blindfold,” Marzillo said. “Why take that risk if you don’t have to?”
“Let’s keep this moving.” Hayes checked her watch. “We need to get this scene processed as quickly as possible, Barbieri’s waiting for my call. And we’re keeping it as under wraps as possible, but the press will find out about it soon and will be all over it. I need something concrete to tell them, and we need someone we can bring into custody. So get to work and do the chatting later over tea.”
