Murder Stalks by Sara York

You’re
available.” Rex smiled his overly charming grin. That smile had
saved his hide on many occasions.
    Frustration pulled at Tony. “Yeah, something
like that.”
    Rex pushed through the door to Sekorski’s
office. Tony followed a few steps behind. He took one look at the
medical examiner’s face and knew this meeting wasn’t going to be a
revelation of good news.
    “ Rex. Tony. Glad to see
you. You didn’t invite anybody else to this meeting?”
    “ No, just us two,” Tony
replied, glancing over at Rex. A somber expression covered the zeal
that Tony had detected just a moment ago in the hall. A Chameleon
came to mind. Had Rex always been this changeable in the
past?
    “ Good, I want this kept
between the three of us.”
    “ Oh damn, Sekorski, don’t
tell me it’s bad.” Tony ran his hand down his face. Disappointment
over the case rose in his chest. They needed a break, not
trouble.
    “ Santos, I’m not even sure
I want both of you here.”
    “ What does that mean?”
Tony shot back, not liking the threat of being excluded.
    “ Someone took a
fiber.”
    “ What?” Tony
exploded.
    “ I found one lousy fiber
on Angela Longfellow. A piece of carpet, or maybe some upholstery
from a car, I don’t know, but it was something.”
    “ What’s wrong then?” Tony
asked.
    “ It’s gone.”
    “ Shit.” Rex slammed his
fist into his hand.
    “ What do you mean gone?
Sekorski, evidence doesn’t just stand up and leave.” Tony’s voice
thundered.
    Sekorski shrank back and moved over to a
tray on his desk. “Everything pertaining to the Longfellow case was
here, in my office, except for the brown liquid. I took an early
lunch break. An hour, maybe an hour and a half, and when I came
back the fiber was gone.”
    “ Was that the only thing
missing?” Tony asked, his mind clicking into gear.
    “ That was the only unique
piece of evidence we retrieved from her body. She was cleaner than
my mom’s kitchen. Somebody used bleach to scrub her down. Her teeth
had been brushed and flossed too.”
    “ Strange. Why brush her
teeth and why bleach?” Rex asked.
    “ Brushing the teeth, I
don’t know. I did find toothpaste residue and a small amount of
water in the back of her throat. If she’d been conscious, she would
have spit or swallowed. Flossing is easy to figure out. He wanted
to get rid of any skin she’d bitten during the crime. I found a
fiber from the floss stuck in one of her back teeth. Reach brand,
cinnamon, non-waxed.”
    “ Those bruises on her
shoulder, could they be from forced oral sex?” Tony
asked.
    “ Could be, that would
explain the need for him to floss her teeth. As for the bleach, it
doesn’t get rid of DNA trace evidence, but when you’re as good as
this guy you don’t leave much behind.”
    “ Bleach? That’s strange.”
Rex turned away from Tony as he paced around the room.
    “ Rex, what’s up?” Tony
asked.
    “ It’s nothing.”
    Rex was lying. Tony wanted to drag the truth
out of him and find out what he was holding back.
    “ Sekorski, how did someone
get in here? We went through security, why not our
thief?”
    “ Smoking.”
    “ Excuse me?” Tony asked,
unsure he had heard Sekorski correctly.
    “ Some of the employees go
out the back door for a smoke. They prop it open. Who’s going to be
messing around at the back of the city morgue? So after lunch, when
I found that a packet was missing, I went to check. Sure enough the
door had been propped open.”
    “ Any cameras?” Rex
questioned.
    “ No, not back there. Look
guys, I’m not sure about this, but who would know I had evidence
out today? Why today?”
    “ Who’d you tell?” Tony
asked.
    “ No one. But someone knew.
They have to be familiar with crime documentation and proceedings.
Someone who knows our timeline... Damn it, I can’t think that. I
can’t go down that path.”
    “ Sekorski, are you trying
to say it was a cop?” Tony asked, his mind clicking through the
evidence and information