Free Death Angel by Martha Powers Page B

in
appreciation.  
    “Where were we?” she asked as she pulled
her chair up to the desk and looked back over her notes.
    “I want Diego to coordinate all the
door-to-door interviews. Tell him to go over them to see if he can pick up
anything that might be useful.”
    “He’ll bellyache. He prefers to be out
on the street.”
    “Don’t we all. Sweet talk him. Once this
phase is over, I’ll get him on something else.”
    She grimaced but nodded in agreement.
She handed him several typed sheets. “This is Ellen’s interview with the
victim’s teacher.”
    “Good. Tell her I talked to Father
Blaney at St. Madelaine’s. He and the principal, Miss —” Carl leafed through
the stack of papers on his left until he found the note he wanted. “Aha. Miss
McGough will talk to the children at a special assembly this morning. Both the
school psychologist and the social worker suggested that normal routine be
followed for the remainder of the day. They’ll treat individual problems as
they come up.”
    “Okay. Ellen’s going back to the school
today to interview some of the children in the victim’s class.”
    “Make sure we get a list of all the
pupils and all the staff. Anyone who would have a reason to be at the school.
Nurse, janitors, coaches, bus drivers, deliveries. You know the drill.”  
    “Got it,” she said. “Bob Jackson’s in
charge of the interviews at Mr. Warner’s office and at the hospital.”
    “How about Tony for priors?”
    “Just seeing his ugly mug should make
any previous offender confess to jay walking. Do you think it’s a repeater?”
    “I don’t know. I talked to the crime lab
boys in Chicago last night. They’re going to run it to see if the MO fits. Same
with the suburbs on the north side of Chicago.” His expression hardened. “I’ve
a gut feeling that it was a one-shot deal. If it had been planned, there would
have been more of an attempt to hide the body. My guess is it was someone the
kid knew. Once he’d raped her, he panicked, and killed her.”
    He took a sip of the coffee then
continued. “While Ellen’s at the school, have her check to see if the Warner
kid ever showed any signs of abuse.” Bea looked up, her face a question. “We
don’t want to overlook the possibility that it’s an escalation of an ongoing
situation.”
    “All right.” Bea wrote a note in the
margin of the paper, underlining it twice. “I notice you’re running a pretty
heavy check on Richard Warner. It’s early days yet to zero in on anyone. Once
that happens, everyone gets a blind spot and we could miss something major.”
    Carl’s voice was cold. “If you’re
suggesting that my own personal agenda is clouding my judgment, forget it. I’m
open at this point. However just because Warner is the victim’s father doesn’t
automatically keep him off the list of suspects. He lied about where he was on
the day of the murder and I want to know why.”
    Bea held up both hands in surrender.
“I’m not criticizing.”
    “Like hell.” There was a moment of tense
silence as their eyes met. Carl jerked his head in an abrupt nod. “I’ll keep
your concerns in mind.”
    “Good.” She ran a finger down the list
on the top of her papers, pausing at the last item. “I talked to Squint last
night. He’ll have individual photos in the computer today after two.”
    “He’ll have pictures from the funeral
home, church, and the cemetery?”
    “Yes. And he’s trying to get footage
from the other media. Those he won’t have right away.”
    “That’s all right. The shrinks say
there’s always a chance, even if he’s a stranger, that he’ll show up at the
funeral or cemetery.” Carl pushed his chair away from the desk. “Once we
identify the majority of the people we’ll have a preliminary list to work
from.”
    “For the unknowns, we’ll have everyone
in the department take a look. If one of us can’t ID them, they’re probably not
local.” She gathered her papers together into