“Thanks,” Decker said. He looked at the sticky stuff under the fridge. Now that it was exposed to the air, and without the appliance on top of it, the edges were seeping outward. “If the pool is a leftover amount from a good cleaning, there was a lot of blood originally. We should cordon off the area.”
“I have some crime-scene tape in the car.” Quay again rocked on his feet. “I’ll go get it.”
“I have the gloves,” Decker said. “Do you have any paper shoe covers?”
“Sorry, no.”
“It’s fine.” Decker smiled to himself.
An old cop joke came to mind.
What does a dog park and a crime scene have in common?
In both places, you need to be careful where you step.
The red pool was tested and determined to be human blood. Then the floor was sprayed with luminol. Previously white tiles became streaked, smeared, and spotted with electric blue. As the techs dusted for prints and took numerous samples of the rusty pool, detectives from Baniff were busy searching the house for other potential evidence of a crime as well as canvassing the area, talking to neighbors. Whatever happened occurred days ago, which complicated the situation. One thing that the discovery allowed them to do was check the garage. Elsie Schulung’s car was gone, which prompted an immediate BOLO. Decker had finished his statement and went outside for a breather. After inhaling stale smells and the metallic odor of blood for the last hour, he welcomed the fresh air. His first call was to the stationhouse—to McAdams specifically.
“Awful,” the kid said. “Can the techs tell you anything about the makeup of the blood?”
“It’s human. They’re waiting to get a DNA profile before they say anything else. We have Bertram’s toothbrush and comb, but they’re back in Greenbury in the evidence room.”
“I’ll get them for you,” McAdams said. “Want me to run the items to the lab in Hamilton?”
“Yeah, at this point, I think we need Bertram’s DNA. Deliver the items in person”
“Sure thing. So right now, we don’t know if Elsie Schulung is the cause of the blood or the victim.”
“That is correct. The only thing I can tell you is that the place was cleaned up—which takes attention to detail. I don’t see Bertram scrubbing it down without guidance. Elsie’s car isn’t in the garage, and Bertram can’t drive. I looked up her license and registration. Elsie drove a six-year-old silver Ford Focus.”
“Yes, I know. I looked it up as well.”
“Any luck with CCTV?”
“No.” A silence across the line. “There are lots of back roads around here. If she knew the area, she could avoid the main highway pretty easily.”
“Why do you think she knew the area?” Decker asked.
“If she was planning on escaping with Lanz, she must have done some homework.”
“True,” Decker admitted. “It would be super if we had evidence that the two cases are related.”
“That’s a good point, boss,” McAdams said. “I’ve been thinking. You said there was about four or five days’ worth of mail in the box. Bertram’s only been gone a couple of days. It sounds like her disappearance could have predated his disappearance.”
A valid point. Decker said, “Why would Elsie drag Lanz into a situation like this?”
“She had a friendly relationship with Bertram. Maybe she called him in a panic.”
Decker said, “You would think she’d have other friends that she’d call first, right?”
“Maybe she called him because her other friends might go to the police,” McAdams said. “She probably had more control over Bertram, especially if she did something criminal and needed money in a hurry.”
“His parents are wealthy, but that doesn’t mean that Bertram has a lot of money in the bank.” Decker paused. “Lionel Lewis called Bertram’s parents in Germany yesterday. He got their assistant, who said they’re not in communication reach.”
“That’s strange.”
“I thought so, too,” Decker said. “I suppose there are a few places left on earth where cell phones don’t reach. According to Lewis, the assistant was evasive. At that time I thought maybe Bertram’s parents received a ransom notice and were told not to involve the police. I think I need to call them myself.”
“Sure. Maybe you’ll have better luck than Lewis.” McAdams waited a few moments. “We need like a timeline.”
“It would help. Any thoughts?”
McAdams said, “First something bad happens at Elsie’s house. In a panic, she contacts Bertram. He comes over and helps her clean up the mess and dispose of the body.”
Decker said, “Then you’re thinking that Bertram is not the victim in the kitchen?”
McAdams paused. “Good question. Assume that he’s not the victim. He is an accomplice after the fact. I’m thinking that he and Elsie cleaned up the mess together.”
“And buried an anonymous victim’s body?”
“Maybe.”
“Where?”
“No idea,” McAdams said. “I’m just working through a timeline.”
“Go on,” Decker said.
McAdams said, “Okay. At some point during the cleanup, Lanz tells her about the field trip. Something starts percolating in Elsie’s brain. She knows she needs money. But she also knows that if she escapes with Lanz that night, it’ll raise suspicions. Both of them disappearing at roughly the same time. So, she takes Lanz back to Loving Care. That gives her a few days to think. She hatches an escape plan and that involves picking up the one person who knows what she did.”
“Okay. She arranges to pick up Bertram from the diner. Then what do they do? Does she kill him since he knows about the body? Does she take him with her?”
“I’m assuming that if she needs money, Elsie would want Bertram alive,” McAdams said.
“Then you are assuming she more or less kidnapped him for ransom.”
“Let’s go down that avenue,” McAdams said. “They make a phone call to Bertram’s parents—a plea for money. Maybe that’s why the parents are not talking to Dr. Lewis. And that would also explain why her disappearance predated his.”
Decker said, “It’s a theory that explains all the moving parts except for the identity of the victim and where the body is.”
McAdams said, “Did you find any other evidence of the crime?”
“Like blood or biological matter elsewhere in the house? Not so far. We’re still checking the backyard and the garage.” Decker thought a moment. “I’ve got some snapshots from Elsie’s place. I think one of them is Bertram and Kathrine. The other is an unidentified woman who appears to be in her mid-thirties. She may be our missing link. I’ll show you the pictures when I get back.”
“Okay.”
“What’s going on with our remains in the hillside . . . which—unlike this one—is in our jurisdiction.”
“What time is it?”
“Around five.”
“It might be too late, but let me call the coroner and see if he’s made an identification,” McAdams said. “Want to hold?”