Natalie, Luke, Lenny, and Augie spent the afternoon gathering evidence from Russ Swinton’s house. The old-fashioned six-over-six windows overlooked the woods. The high-ceilinged rooms were tastefully decorated. They didn’t find any dead bodies hidden away in the basement. No secret dungeons.
Natalie found a number of antique musical instruments—flutes, violins, and mandolins—along with a Victorian-era doctor’s bag and surgical tools in a display cabinet. Above the mantelpiece in the living room was a picture of Russ’s dead sister posing with her violin. There were more pictures of Russ’s extended family—mother, father, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins.
Lenny powdered for prints in the living room, while Augie searched the house for trace and Natalie and Luke gathered up the computer records, telephone records, medical textbooks, and old patient files. A total of a hundred and twenty-three items were taken from the home, including several knives, a hammer, trash bags, different-colored fibers, and several long hairs collected from various surfaces, but the small quantity of blood they found in the first-floor powder room was the most relevant piece of evidence they’d found.
Outside, two BLPD officers were busy scouring the property with cadaver dogs, while Lenny processed the car—no blood so far, but an abundance of prints, hairs, and fibers.
As they packed the last of the boxes into the van, Luke got a call and turned away from Natalie, answering, “Lieutenant Pittman.”
She watched his shoulders tense.
“Yeah? Really? Cordon off the area. We’ll be right over.” He hung up. “That was Brandon,” he said, the change in his expression profound. “The cleanup crew found human remains in the park. Severed body parts inside a violin case.”