Free Chain of Evidence by Ridley Pearson Page A

reminding him of his oversight during the Ice Man investigation and the repercussions now resurfacing.
    â€œCame up with the same results,” Bragg announced wearily, clearly disappointed.
    Dart felt his words catch in his throat. The same results! He wanted to question this immediately, to cast doubt on the findings, but the burning intensity in Bragg’s eyes silenced him. “You’re saying that the Ice Man did not jump?” The Asian Strangler , he thought to himself. The man who killed Zeller’s wife. “The Ice Man was thrown from that window?” Dart’s mind was reeling. “You can prove that?” He worried that Bragg’s finding might reopen the case; and then, a moment later, what a horror that might bring Zeller. There is no secret that remains a secret forever.
    He had to focus to hear what Bragg was saying—his mind was running through damage control. A dozen internal voices competing for his attention. Was he in part to blame for Stapleton’s death by not speaking up three years earlier? Was he wrong in assuming Zeller had been involved? There was no proof , he reminded himself.
    Bragg said, “That’s what the software suggests, yeah. Though I gotta tell ya that it makes me question its validity. I’m not so sure about this. I mean: I run it on two cases, and two for two it comes out that the guy was tossed. You kidding me?” he questioned. “Seems more like a glitch to me. I’m gonna call the company and have a little chat. I wouldn’t get too worked up about it just yet, Ivy. Let me do a little research. Maybe there’s a glitch in the code—something like that. As you pointed out, the Ice Man investigation was an embarrassment to this entire department—hell if I’m gonna be the one reopens that one. Rankin would burn me at the stake.”
    â€œTrue enough,” Dart said encouragingly, his heart beginning to beat again. But the worry burned inside him.
    â€œLet’s you and I remember,” Bragg explained in a concerned and patronizing tone of voice, “that I checked this out on my own. My idea! So let’s leave it at that. I was fooling around is all—testing the software. There’s no paperwork on this. Just me experimenting with some new software. So unless you’re in a god-awful hurry to bring the wrath of god down on the both of us, I’d just as soon keep this under wraps for now. Early versions of software like this are always glitching. Always! Ten to one the stuff is fucked up somehow. Trust me.”
    The issue was trust, Dart realized, but it had little to do with Teddy Bragg. It was about the public’s trust in Dartelli to investigate fully; it was the faith the department vested in its detectives; it was Dart’s respect for Walter Zeller—his mentor and former partner—and his refusal to bring the man down for nothing more than suspicion. “A software problem,” Dart repeated, his throat dry. He coughed.
    â€œExactly.” Bragg met eyes with him, silently conveying the message, Don’t question this.
    Dart felt the need to spill his guts, to let someone in on it. The Ice Man was the Asian Strangler—a fact no one but Dart knew; the Asian Strangler case remained uncleared—and Walter Zeller had possessed the most personal reason for wanting the Asian Strangler dead. Three years ago that had been the end of it. But now?
    â€œAre we clear on this?” Bragg asked.
    Dart nodded, his voice too tight to answer.
    â€œJust so we’re clear on this.” Bragg took a long pull on the cigarette, blew the smoke high into the air, and added, “I’ll send you up a copy of Doc Ray’s prelim on Stapleton. Blood toxicology shows no street drugs, no nothing that would suggest narcotics of any sort. Aside from a lot of crushed bones, the only things of interest are a couple of needle marks on the inside of the man’s left