Dead Past

we are not necessarily looking for evidence we can take to court.”
    “I’m with you, Boss, but still, there’s a possibility that everyone will have been smoking the same brand.”
    “Not necessarily,” said David. “If the brand is Marlboro you’re in trouble; about half the smoking population smokes them. However, that diminishes with age. You get in the twenty-six-plus age group and the percentage falls considerably. Look at your photographs and see if you can figure out what brand you have and go from there. Diane’s right. Get off your sorry butt and do some old-fashioned detective work.”
    They all stared at David. Neva spoke first.
    “You have a cigarette database, I take it?”
    “Of course, I do. Do you know how may perps smoke?” said David.
    “But you’ve memorized it,” said Neva.
    “No, I looked it up while Diane and Jin were talking.”
    Jin jumped up and fetched his photographs and sat down by David. He took a magnifying glass and began examining the images.
    “Here’s something. Is that a logo?” asked Jin.
    David looked at the picture.
    “OK,” he said and clicked through his screen. “I was just looking at these. You’re in luck. Those are Dorals. They’re generic brands—as opposed to the premium brands. They’re smoked mostly by the age group twenty-six and older, and then only by about 5.4 percent of them. You find a Doral smoker at tent city, and they’re definitely someone who needs to be looked at more closely. To qualify as your possible attacker, they will also have to be physically fit. Probably someone who is addicted to tobacco. Look for someone who has to watch their budget or is just frugal by nature—but not so tight as to have to buy the cheaper value brands. And is most likely white.”
    “How in the world do you know all that stuff?” said Neva.
    “Both the smoking interests and nonsmoking interests keep reams of data on the demographics of smokers,” said David.
    “Wow,” said Jin. “This might work. I’ll get on my deerstalker and go collect some more butts.”
    “I’ll help,” said Neva.
    They left, Jin obviously in a happier frame of mind.
    “Good idea,” said David. “It’s a place to start, and something might actually come of it.”
    “At least it will get Jin to thinking again. He hates feeling that he made a mistake,” said Diane. “Now, I need to call Garnett. I just found out something that might change our thinking yet again.”
    Diane called Garnett from David’s workstation. David sat listening to her as she explained about Shawn Keith and his quick departure from his job.
    “I can’t pick him up simply because he’s changing jobs,” said Garnett. “But he did witness a crime and called 911. We interviewed him once as a witness. I’ll bring him in for a reinterview.”
    “I know it’s a long shot, but if he was the one helping Blake Stanton steal from the university, he had a motive for killing him.”
    “Would Shawn Keith really kill the Stanton kid over a matter of petty theft?” asked Garnett.
    “Keith was a faculty member in the History Department. If he were linked to theft from the university, his career as a college professor would be over. He could never work at a college or university again. He had a lot to lose.”
    “I guess you’re right about that. So, you’re changing the theory of the crime again?” said Garnett.
    “I’m not changing anything. This is a process. I’m looking at all possibilities,” said Diane.
    “OK, I’ll see if I can find him. You say he lives in your building?”
    “In the basement,” said Diane.
    “Well,” said David, after she had hung up with Garnett, “that’s interesting.”
    “It is, isn’t it? We’ll see what Garnett comes up with. In the meantime, I was on my way to Aquatics.”
    Diane started out the door, then suddenly turned back to David. “I need to find out if there was a mass murder in either Glendale-Marsh, Florida, or Scottsdale, Arizona, in the summer or fall of 1987. The victims may have been wrapped in clear plastic.”
    “What’s this about?” asked David. “A new case?”
    “Something private I’m working on,” said Diane.
    “Will do,” he said.
    Diane left the crime lab and went back down to the first floor and across to Aquatics. When she arrived, there was a commotion going on. A thin older woman with tanned leather-looking skin and blond brown hair up in a bun was arguing with a security guard in front of the fish