Free A Guilty Mind by K.L. Murphy Page A

was clean but the door and the knob weren’t. Prints were all over the office, most of them smudges or partials. So far, no matches with FBI files or any other files. My guess is they belong to patients, Mrs. Watson, and the doctor himself. Speaking of prints, what about the cleaning ser­vice?”
    â€œCommercial company. A crew of two came in at six-­thirty according to their records. Emptied trash cans, cleaned the floors and bathroom. Gone by seven and on to the next office. Said the door was locked when they came in; they used their company passkey and locked it again when they left.”
    â€œAnyone see Dr. Michael?”
    â€œYep, both of ’em. He was working at his desk. Both are immigrants and don’t speak much English.”
    â€œThat’s convenient. How can we be sure they didn’t knife him, intend to rob him, but something went wrong?”
    â€œWe don’t. Seems unlikely, though, since a call was made from the doctor’s desk phone around nine and our cleaning ser­vice was working in another building by then. There are witnesses.”
    â€œWhat about the call? Have we traced it yet?”
    â€œStill working on it.”
    â€œLet me know.” Cancini mind turned over the little evidence they had. “Let’s assume all we’ve been told is true. That means Dr. Michael was still alive in his office after seven P.M. , after the cleaning ser­vice had left. Let’s also assume the door is locked as they claim. After that, someone, either the victim or possibly our perp, used the phone at approximately nine P.M .” He paused, hands shoved deep in his pockets. “For now, based on the fact that no blood was found on or near the doctor’s desk, I’m going to assume the doctor himself used the phone. With me so far?”
    Smitty nodded.
    â€œHe’s alive at nine. Is the perp already there? We don’t know.” Cancini paused and stretched his neck again. “Damn, that hurts.”
    â€œYou’re old.”
    â€œTell me about it. All right, I think we can safely assume the murder took place at the secretary’s desk and not in Dr. Michael’s office. Since we have no evidence to place the perp in the office where the call was made, let’s assume the perp hadn’t yet arrived. Sometime after the call, Dr. Michael is knifed in the back.”
    â€œMakes sense, but how did he get in?”
    Cancini’s eyes came to rest on the younger man. “That’s the question, isn’t it? Did the perp come in with a key or was he let in by Dr. Michael himself?”
    â€œAccording to Mrs. Watson, only she and Dr. Michael had keys,” Smitty reminded him. “He must have let his killer in.”
    â€œMaybe,” Cancini said. “Let’s look at it a different way. The murder weapon was clean and the doorknob wasn’t. Based on that, I think it’s safe to assume the perp was wearing gloves.”
    â€œOr wiped the knife clean.”
    â€œI don’t think so. First, if you take the time to wipe the knife clean, you’re going to wipe everything you touched. The print guys didn’t find any other surfaces that had been wiped. Second, although the knife handle was clean of prints, there were blood spatters that weren’t wiped away. He must have been wearing gloves.”
    Smitty considered this information. “Okay, I’ll buy it. He was wearing gloves, but that also implies the murder—­or some other crime that led to the murder—­was planned, at least to some degree.”
    â€œExactly. So, until we get something that disproves our theory, the murder was at least partially premeditated. Our perp is either someone who knew the victim and was let in or had access to his office through one of the keys we know about. If we assume premeditation, our perp knew enough to know the victim would work late that night.”
    â€œLike one of his