Dead Guilty

female.’’
‘‘Miss Beck?’’ said Garnett.
‘‘No. We have her prints and these don’t match. Inside the car we found three beer bottle caps, and a parking ticket issued by the Bartram campus police. He had parked in a faculty lot at the university library. The ticket had a boot print on it that matched Chris Edwards’ left boot. We also found carpet fibers that matched Mayberry’s trailer carpet. There were also cotton fibers, but we won’t be able to provide any distinguishing match for those.’’
‘‘I don’t suppose there were any orange carpet fi bers?’’ said Garnett.
‘‘No matching orange carpet fibers found anywhere yet. So far we haven’t been able to physically connect any of the crime scenes. The only connection is the coincidence of Edwards and Mayberry finding the bodies and Waller assisting with the autopsy.’’
‘‘So it could all be a coincidence,’’ said Garnett. ‘‘And one murder doesn’t have a damn thing to do with the others.’’
Diane briefly went over the other crime scenes, ex cept Raymond Waller’s. They had covered them in the previous meeting, but it helped her to repeat the evidence. She suspected it would help Braden and Garnett too.
Both Sheriff Braden and Chief Garnett were silent when she finished her summary. Each sat back in his chair like they were digesting a large meal.
‘‘The perp was looking for something in both the Edwards and Waller crime scenes,’’ said the sheriff, after a moment.
‘‘In Mayberry’s trailer, too,’’ said Diane. ‘‘It was tossed like the others.’’
‘‘So what do you think the perp, or perps, was look ing for?’’ asked the sheriff to neither of them in particular.
‘‘Waller had a significant baseball collection,’’ said Garnett. ‘‘I don’t know that our other two boys had anything valuable.’’
Diane gave Garnett copies of the newest reports on the Chris Edwards scene and gave the sheriff the photographs of the Cobber’s Wood skeletons.
‘‘I’ll send you information as it comes in,’’ she said. ‘‘For the sheriff’s case, identifying the victims is the key to the solution. If the crimes are related, then that may shed light on the others.’’
‘‘If not, it’ll have to be the old-fashioned way of interviewing everyone the vics knew,’’ said Garnett. ‘‘I’ve got detectives doing that right now. So far, it looks like Edwards and Mayberry didn’t have an enemy in the world. They were just two recent gradu ates from the forestry department working as timber cruisers. Raymond Waller didn’t have any enemies ei ther. He went to work every day and never got into any trouble. The worst we could find out about him is that he may have given a funeral home or two a heads-up on deaths that came through the morgue.’’
Garnett turned to Diane. ‘‘Do you think it was the killer who called you?’’
‘‘I don’t know. Every time the news shows that in terview with me the day we opened the crime lab, I get all kinds of mail and phone calls from people who don’t like it. It could very well be one of those people with some strange take on justice. However, the flow ers bother me.’’
‘‘Flowers?’’ asked the sheriff.
Diane explained to him about the flowers, the Email and the phone call.
‘‘This changes things a bit. You say you occasionally have this problem from people who see the interview?’’
‘‘None have ever sent flowers before.’’
‘‘The guy who called from the motel on 441 says he sent the flowers, and he also E-mailed you from inside the museum.’’
‘‘I don’t know if the E-mail was the same guy—but the themes of justice and guilt seem to be similar. So it wouldn’t be a stretch thinking it’s the same person.’’
‘‘Then if we watch you, we’re likely to catch the killer,’’ said the sheriff.
‘‘For which crime?’’ asked Garnett.
‘‘Who knows?’’ began the sheriff.
He was interrupted by a detective who stuck his head in the door.
‘‘Chief, we got an emergency call from Dr. Lynn Webber.’’

Chapter 24
    Garnett and the sheriff dashed out the door. Diane wanted to go with them, but there was no reason for her presence. She stood in Garnett’s office a moment with a chill in the pit of her stomach. What was going on? She was beginning to feel responsible for not solv ing the murders. Maybe there was something she and her team had missed.
    As she started out the door, Janice Warrick ap peared