Delusion in Death

ones who were able to remember mentioned theonset of a headache followed by hallucinations, anger, fear. It’s a resplay, LT.”
    “We got Lydia McMeara examined, as ordered,” Jenkinson told her. “She’s got mild inflammation, nose and throat. They ran her blood. She’s got some trace of the chemical. She was jittery, Dallas, but it’s hard to tell if that’s the chemical or shock. One of the women she was with, Brenda Deitz, is in the morgue. The other’s in the hospital, in critical.”
    “We got two survivors …” Reineke gestured to the board, got Eve’s nod. He rose, walked to the board with IDs of survivors.
    “Patricia Beckel and Zack Phips. Each stated they’d known someone who was killed yesterday. On further questioning, Beckel identified her neighbor Allison Nighly, and Phips a coworker, Macie Snyder. We pursued with five more survivors. Three of those knew a total of seven of the dead or injured from the bar. The remaining four survivors were in surgery or unable to be questioned. We’ll follow that up.”
    “So out of the eight survivors you were able to question on this point, five had a connection to one or more victims from the first incident.”
    “Yeah, that’s more’n half, Loo. I call bullshit on coincidence.”
    “I second that bullshit. Keep on it. Following that theme. Baxter?”
    “We’ve been doing the cross, employment, relations, residence. Survivors, vics, wits, persons of interest. Our boy Trueheart made a graph.”
    “It’s more of a spreadsheet.” Trueheart, young and built in his uniform, flushed a little. “There’s a lot of cross, Lieutenant, like you figured. I programmed it so it’s easier to see. Peabody loaded it if you want it on screen.”

    “I do. Peabody.”
    When it flashed on, Eve rocked back on her heels as she scanned. “Run the numbers, Trueheart.”
    “Sir?”
    “Run it through. Explain.”
    He looked a little ill, but he rose, took the laser pointer she handed him. “We’ve grouped them by type—DB, wit, survivor, POI. We cross that with places of employment and residence. An additional cross with relations. We highlighted areas of connection—blue for employment, green for residence, yellow for relationships.”
    “It’s colorful,” Eve commented.
    “Yes, sir. We anticipated considerable employment connections as both scenes catered to the offices in that area. And as you suggested, there’s also additional matches with residences. The numbers drop off with relationships, but as you can see there are crosses there, too. The highest percentage of connections involve Stevenson and Reede for place of business, excluding the crime scenes themselves, sir. For residence, the highest percentage of connection ranges along this block of Franklin. A probability scan has a sixty-eight-point-three the target or targets and/or perpetrator or perpetrators work or worked in, um, the highlighted triangulation.”
    He cleared his throat. “With more time, I think I can eliminate some of the connections and refine the results.”
    “Do that.” Geography, she thought again. Geography and relationships. “Give Feeney a copy. I want this transferred to a board we can work on. That’s good work, Trueheart, Baxter. Feeney, will you run the EDD report?”
    She stepped away, pulled out her ’link when it signaled, then slipped out of the room.

    When she came back, Feeney had several ID shots on screen.
    “We don’t need all of them,” she told him. “Just her. Just Jeni Curve.”
    Feeney’s eyes narrowed. “You got something.”
    “She’s the source. I asked Morris to do a secondary exam on her and the others you’ve got up there. Curve’s tox levels were significantly higher than the other vics, the inflammation more pronounced. At this time forensics is testing her clothing, and the minute pieces of glass recovered from her jacket pocket.
    “Morris has also determined that Macie Snyder, a vic from the first incident, exhibits those same elevated levels. Her clothing is also being examined at this time. She was the source on the first.
    “Peabody, bring up Trueheart’s chart again.”
    “Yes, sir. There’s no connection between them,” Peabody said when the data was on screen.
    “Yeah, there is. It’s just not highlighted yet. We’ll use red for the killer. It fits. Replay Curve’s security image. Walking into work. Stops, smiles, waves, calls out what lip-reading program makes out as No prob. I’ll put it in for you .