‘The hat’s a match; same DNA as the fabric patch in the woods,’ Bryan started. ‘Fibers in the car and at the shack match the patch.’ He was standing in Elisabetta Romolo’s office. She had not asked him to sit. She was reading something at her desk, and her Prada glasses rested precariously on the tip of her nose as she looked up at him.
‘Whose DNA is it?’ she asked.
‘I have the profile. I think the name is Ed Carbone. He was Poole’s tutor and mentor when Poole was locked up in juvi. They spent a lot of time together.’
‘Where’s Carbone?’
‘We can’t find him. He was living in an apartment in Okeechobee for the past year. Had a part-time job off the books working at a scrap-metal plant. Disappeared about two months back. No one knows where.’
Elisabetta took off her glasses. ‘Besides being Poole’s mentor, what makes you think this guy is his partner?’
‘He dated Emily Foss. Or tried to. Hung around her at the strip joint where she worked in Miami so many times that she took out a restraining order against him and moved up to Palm Beach. He stopped coming around the club after that, and she disappeared a year later. No one knew about the restraining order up here, because it was taken out in Miami and she let it lapse. I found it running his name through FCIC. She’s the link, Elisabetta. She was the first victim. If Jane Doe, the charred torso found in Glades back in 2012 is this guy’s, she might have happened before he hooked up with Poole, because we couldn’t find anything linking her to the shack. But the two of them murdered four girls together, maybe more.’ He slid the volunteer photo and the Cuddy sketch across her desk. ‘Faith Saunders identified his photo this morning. I have a BOLO out to locate him for questioning. The dots are connected.’
She nodded. ‘I’ll indict the DNA profile. Once you pick up Carbone, we’ll swab him.’
Bryan put the pictures back in his file. ‘I’m picking up Poole today. This is as good as we’re gonna get on him.’
‘Serial killer partners in Palm Beach. A Little Shack of Horrors,’ Elisabetta mused aloud as she spun around to look outside her window at the bustle of people going in and out of the courthouse across the street. ‘This is going to be huge, Detective; get ready.’