Free Absolute Instinct by Robert W. Walker Page B

of Abrams.
    Sands looked up to see Abrams's reply.
    Abrams said, “Frankly, until this discovery here... Frankly, Darwin, I hadn't given much thought to the case.”
    “ Until now.” Reynolds held his gaze. “Until this.” He indicated the Olsen body.
    “ Right... until now. Now that we have a spine-theft murder in our own backyard—what to me appears a copycat of Towne's work.”
    “ There's not a shred of evidence to say so.”
    Abrams waded back in, his eyes traveling the room to see who was paying attention. “Look, Reynolds, the man tried the insanity defense and lost, and then he wanted a sanity defense? And now he wants a quick execution?” Abrams punctuated this with laughter. “Come on!”
    “ That's some new Johnnie Cochran—style twist his lawyers must've come up with,” added Pete as she wandered in from the kitchen.
    “ Yeah, who's he got? O.J.'s dream team?” commented another tech team member.
    A third leapt in with, “Come up with the insanity to sanity defense. Straight out of the Johnnie Confuse em' Cochran School or that guy Roy Black.”
    Jessica stayed out of it and kept working.
    Reynolds kept on Abrams, ignoring the side remarks. “Look, Abrams, his lawyers are saying he deserves another hearing in light of the way his confession was gotten, in light of this crime, and the fact he couldn't be tied to the one in Minnesota.”
    “ If Robert W. Towne is innocent I'll—”
    “ You'll what? If Towne is innocent, and we find out too late, how will that play, Chief?”
    Jessica had motioned for the photographer to take close-ups of the head wound she'd cleaned, and the man moved in with purpose. Jessica said to Darwin, “Are you personally involved in the Oregon case, Darwin? You seem to be.”
    “ I see a wrong I'd like to right. That's the extent of my personal involvement.”
    Jessica considered this as she finished the depth measurements to the killing wound down the length of Joyce Olsen's back. “My guess, Dr. Sands, some sort of surgical scalpel, a large one... A very controlled cut.”
    “ Didn't use a machete or a scimitar, that's for sure.”
    “ The M.E.'s in Portland and Minnesota concluded the same,” said Reynolds firmly, his gaze probing hers. “In all three cases, there are commonalities, Dr. Coran.”
    “ Those being?”
    Darwin spread the fingers of his enormous left hand and ticked off each item. “The obvious—a missing spine—for one. Each victim lived alone. Each had next to no family. Led a sedate life. Heavily committed to their pets—their pet preoccupations, as it were. And each of the victims had sketches drawn of themselves while involved in a favorite pastime with their pets, and there's the way the guy smeared the blood with a mop or a broom to cover his footprints. In Minnesota and Portland he used a broom in each case, here a mop. He uses a scalpel or scalpel-like knife for the incisions, and a bone cutter, not a noisy Stryker saw to detach the spine fully from the body.”
    “ Obviously, you've given this a lot of thought.”
    “ You're going to find that he used a bone cutter to remove the Olsen woman's ribs, too.”
    “ How long have you been working on this, Reynolds?” Jessica asked.
    “ Since things in the Oregon case didn't add up to me. I don't believe Towne's guilty of any of this. In fact, he claims there is—floating around somewhere—a photo of him at a lake at the Canadian border where he was fishing with a friend when his wife was being murdered.”
    “ Gone fishing? That's an awful alibi. I could cite you hundreds of foolish men who used it, including Scott Peterson.”
    “ But in Towne's case, it's true. He's an avid fisherman and hunter.”
    “ Who owns a deboning knife, a rib cutter, and a ball peen hammer, I'm sure,” said Sands with a shake of the head.
    “ And a bow and arrow, and a collection of hunting rifles rivaling Sears Roebuck.” Reynolds dropped his head, nodding. “All of which was carted into the