‘Anything on the car?’ Bryan asked, popping a piece of Nicorette into his mouth as he headed up the stairs that led to Poole’s master bedroom. After Audrey left him he’d started smoking again and he’d still managed to gain seventy pounds. Then his internist had told him two of his arteries were clogged and his blood pressure could not be controlled without a pill: he had to quit smoking. And eating. He’d gained another thirty since putting down the smokes and he still couldn’t breathe. He pulled the phone away from his mouth so Tatiana couldn’t hear him sucking wind.
‘We found fibers,’ Tatiana replied. She was at the PBSO crime lab with Poole’s Honda Accord. ‘In the trunk. Also on the passenger-side floorboard and into the seat cushion.’
‘How many?’
‘Nine in the trunk, and another dozen in and around the front seat. Red and black. Maybe they’ll match Santri’s jacket. That would place her in his car.’
‘Santri’s jacket wasn’t ripped. But we never found her panties or her jeans.’
‘Her bra?’ she tried.
‘It was leopard print. T-shirt was white.’
‘What about that piece of fabric Crime Scene found out in the lot in Pahokee?’ she asked.
Now that was interesting. Crime Scene had done a sweep of the area where Faith Saunders had claimed she saw Santri and Poole, including the wooded lot across the street. Because almost three weeks had passed since the encounter, there was no way of knowing what was evidence and what was a beer can that had been sitting there for years. So they’d seized everything – including a torn, not-so weathered piece of plaid fabric that was found in the wooded lot near a felled tree.
‘That’s a thought, Maldonado. Let’s see if we can match those fibers you found to that fabric. If it looks good, we’ll send it out to FDLE to see if they can pull DNA. It was out there in the elements for a while, not sure what we’ll get.’
‘Tell me you found a torn plaid shirt in Poole’s closet,’ said Tatiana. ‘That would be a trifecta: fibers in trunk to fabric in woods to shirt in suspect’s closet.’
‘The trifecta would actually be fibers under victim’s fingernails to fabric in woods to ripped shirt splashed with victim’s blood hanging in Poole’s closet. But that’s not happening on either end. There’s nothing here, Maldonado,’ Bryan said with a sigh, looking around Poole’s neat, minimalist-styled bedroom. Framed movie posters decorated white walls, like they did downstairs – the guy was obviously a movie buff. TV show and movie memorabilia from The Walking Dead, The Office, The Godfather, Criminal Minds filled free-standing shelves. Everything was in its original packaging and arranged as if on a store shelf. The closet, too, looked like it was staged: ironed clothes – all arranged by color – spit-shined shoes. The top shelf was a little more cluttered. There was an assortment of sports equipment and memorabilia: tennis rackets, golf cleats, baseball gloves, a football, pads, hats, lacrosse stick, soccer ball. Even ice skates and roller blades. Looking at him, you wouldn’t take the guy for an athlete. No way. Not only because he was an accountant. He was tall and lanky, almost scrawny on the upper chest area, and with those glasses and boring, practical car, you wouldn’t think there was enough testosterone running through those veins to fuel an interest in playing every sport imaginable. Plus, Bryan had watched him do nothing but play video games for the last five days. He fingered the equipment. Most of it looked like it had never been used. There was a separate section in the closet for signed jerseys – hockey, football and basketball – that were preserved in plastic. Boy, the shrinks would have a field day with this guy.
‘Are you done over there?’ she asked.
‘Not yet; they’re packing up downstairs. If he ever had anything here, Maldonado, he got rid of it as soon as he knew we were on him.’
‘Did he bond out yet?’
The DWLS charge was only a misdemeanor. It let them cart Poole off to jail, but it definitely wouldn’t keep him there for long. ‘I’m sure by now. Nobody was here when we got here with the warrant. I had the place secured by uniforms before we even took him down at CVS, in case he called someone to move shit while he was locked up. No one’s shown up. Probably waiting on us to finish up here, ’cause he knows we ain’t gonna find anything anyway, Maldonado.’
‘Stop beating yourself up. Surveillance was the smart decision,’ she said.
‘Thanks. The fibers are something, at least. I’ll take anything at this point to put her in that damn car. That would be nice.’
‘What about three strands of her hair?’ Tatiana offered.
‘You’re shitting me.’
‘In the trunk. And no, I would never do that.’
‘You have Santri’s hair in Poole’s trunk?’ He caught himself smiling for the first time today.
‘Well, the lab will confirm if they’re hers, but they’re long and dark and one is purple, which, if I remember correctly, matches the color of the streaks she had in her hair. And that would not only place her in his car – it would place her in his trunk. Now what the hell would she be doing back there?’