Page 84 of In Cold Blood

“Already biting at the bit?” she asked.

“No. Until you called, I was all but ready to head back on Monday.”

Callie stood beside him, admiring the immense outpouring of love shown through cards, flowers, and messages. “The community admired your brother. He did a lot for the county. Was always at charity events. Helped raise money and awareness for cancer.” She dipped her chin. “Won’t be the same without him.”

“Yeah. His good name might be marred if the investigation goes in the direction it is,” he said. He didn’t need to explain. She understood. She’d read the Cliff Notes and what had been held back from the family. It was done out of respect and because they still lacked evidence. As Noah rose, he sniffed hard. “I drove the length of this road a few times today. Something you said yesterday made me look at the report again.”

“Again? You’ve read the police report?”

He regarded her through narrowed eyes.

She understood. “Right. Your father.”

He nodded.

“Should have known.”

“Anyway, yesterday when you swung by after my truck got trashed, you mentioned having the truck dusted for prints. I didn’t see any mention in the report of them doing the same with Luke’s cruiser.”

She looked at him, surprised. “The only thing I can think of why it wasn’t done is because they assumed there would be no reason. Nothing was destroyed or taken.”

“Right, which raises another point. The drugs were alleged to be found in the trunk of his cruiser. The ones taken out of evidence. If it was a drug deal gone wrong, why didn’t they take them before leaving?”

“They?”

“Well, there was obviously more than one person who shot him, Callie. That’s clear from the autopsy report. He was hit from multiple sides. However, the theory that is being put forward is Luke was there to conduct a drug deal that went wrong. So… if that’s true, which I don’t believe it is. But if it was, why didn’t they take the drugs?”

She nodded. “Yeah, that part never added up to me either. However, it’s possible they were interrupted… right? I mean by the witness. Maybe they were about to remove them and she approached the scene. They heard her vehicle or saw her coming and left.”

“But she left too.”

“Yeah, after she called it in.”

“Exactly. You see, I’ve been thinking. The witness didn’t give her name. No one knows who she is or what vehicle she was driving.”

“Right.”

“Think about this. In many ways, this is like those who commit a crime and have vanished. No one knows who they are. But what if there was a way to find the witness using the same method that we do now for solving cold cases — DNA.”

“Go on.”

“She called into dispatch on the radio, right? Which meant she had to have touched either the radio on Luke’s chest or the one in the vehicle. Now of course that depends on whether shewas wearing gloves but if she wasn’t. In the heat of the moment, she might not have thought about wiping her prints off. She calls it in, panics when they ask for her name, and then gets the hell out of there.”

Callie nodded. “Okay. So, if we had her DNA, we could run it through CODIS but if she’s not in the system, then what?”

“We find a relative of hers through genetic genealogy and pin down her location that way.”

Her eyebrows shot up.

“Right now, Callie, she’s the best lead we have on what happened that night. Maybe she saw it. Maybe she didn’t. Maybe she was responsible. But until we can speak to her, we’re walking in the dark with nothing more than conjecture.” He lifted his finger, looking up the road. “Another thing. The other night. What was the next thing you suggested?”

“Um. To do a video canvass of the neighborhood.”

“Exactly. Was that done immediately while you were here at the scene?”

“If it was, I wasn’t involved. I was here to secure the scene with several deputies who showed up. And to be fair, this stretch of road doesn’t have businesses or homes on it.”

“There are only a few ways in and out of here,” he said. Noah took out his phone and googled “New York 73.” He accessed Google maps and showed her the 27.55-mile-long state highway that ran through Adirondack County. “Underwood is here, Saint Huberts is here. Both have homes that may have video surveillance. That should have been canvassed. We need to find out if it was and if it wasn’t get on that ASAP.”