An Unladylike Murder, page 11
part #1 of Jessica Sloan Mystery Series
John saw that his partner was clutching herself.
Cutter pointed to a stool close to the feet of the corpse. “Sit there for a few minutes while you adjust. There’s a bucket beside it, just in case.”
Jessica popped the hard candy into her mouth.
Then she looked at a third slab that had another corpse covered with a sheet.
Oh my God! It’s moving.
Chapter 27
Fitz’s voice echoed off the hard surfaces. “I took five vials of blood and requested a full tox screening for twenty-six drug groups instead of the normal twelve. It’s going to take several more days for the results.”
Jessica barely heard John say, “Then why did you call us down here?”
Oh, my, God!
“Guys, uh guys, the sheet’s moving.”
Fitz and John stopped talking.
The sheet flew off.
Jessica felt weak.
A corpse wearing underwear sat up. “Where am I?”
Bloody bastards!
Jessica saw Fitz and Cutter starting to laugh. “What do you think, I’m a rookie to fall for a morgue hazing?”
“Sorry, Sloan. Cutter told me to do it.”
Jessica watched as the man pulled the sheet around his body as he slid off the slab, then walked out of the lab. “I’m late for my toga party.”
Fitz went back to talking as if nothing had happened. “When you called to tell me that the Forensics Lab didn’t find any trace of poison in the syringe, I wondered if it had indeed contained air instead of a poison. 200cc of air could kill anyone. So I gave the body a quick CT scan and found a large air bubble in the right ventricle.”
Fitz stood next to Jill’s corpse. “My autopsy confirmed that the air was administered into the femoral artery in her thigh. The cause of death was an air injection. If you hadn’t told me about the air bubble, when I did the autopsy I would have probably not seen the bubble. It would have simply popped and evaporated.”
Cutter glanced at Jessica who was sitting with her eyes averted away from the slab holding Jill’s corpse. “When I saw the syringe I immediately thought it was a poisoning.”
Fitz said, “Most times that’s what it is, so don’t feel bad. What you need to understand is that poisoning is a chancy way to kill someone. A killer can’t be certain that a poison is going to be consumed or that the dose is sufficient for the size of the victim. Unless the poison acts instantly, there is always the possibility the victim will fall ill and get to a hospital before it’s too late.”
“Using air must be a highly unusual way to kill someone. Have you ever seen it before? I haven’t.”
“No, I haven’t either.”
“So whoever the suspect is, they had to think out of the box. It means that this murder was most likely personal and planned.”
“So now that we know how she was killed, we need to find out why, and by whom.”
Cutter and Fitz were both surprised to hear Jessica’s voice.
Fitz looked at Jessica. “Do you have any questions for me?”
Jessica seemed to be composed. “Sure, is there anything else her body told you?”
“She was healthy and should have lived a long life.”
“Did you determine if she fought her attacker?”
“Not that I could find. As I mentioned at the crime scene, I did discover a small dent on the side of her skull that was hidden in her hair.”
Cutter seemed happy. “Now we know why she didn’t fight back. Do you know what caused the indentation?”
“Good question. It appears to be from the butt of a handgun. The blow would have most likely knocked her out.”
Jessica jumped in. “Can you please do a cast of the wound so we can compare it to future evidence.”
Fitz seemed impressed. “Absolutely, Sloan. Good call.”
Sloan felt better. “If the killer had a gun why didn’t he shoot her?”
Cutter said, “Maybe they thought it would be too noisy and attract attention.”
Sloan was thinking out loud. “So what you’re saying is that it could have been a woman or a man that hit her, then injected the air.”
Fitz said, “Yes, either.”
“Would it have taken someone with medical training, say a nurse, to have made that injection?”
“I believe I answered that question at the crime scene. Once again, anyone with access to a search engine or YouTube would know how to do it pretty quickly.”
Jessica slid off the stool and looked towards the lab door. “Is that it? Are we done here Fitz?”
“Yes, you are.”
Cutter lifted his right palm towards Fitz. “Thank you for getting it done so quickly.”
Outside the morgue, they stopped to collect their handguns.
As soon as they exited the building Jessica stopped and took several deep breathes. “How does a Medical Examiner like Fitz do it all day, every day?”
“I asked Fitz once. He told me that the more organs that are removed, the more he becomes detached and the less he looks at the remains on the slab as a person.”
Sloan punched Cutter on his shoulder.
“Ouch. What did you do that for?”
“That’s for trying to haze me and for doing your best to get me to puke.”
“Sorry, partner.”
Jessica started towards the Taurus. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you back when you’re least expecting it.”
“You did fine, Sloan. Think about how grateful you should be that you’re young, healthy and full of functioning organs.”
“I’ll try. But unless you want to spend two weeks in sensitivity training, don’t pull shit like that on me again.”
“Look, why don’t you take the rest of today off. You’ll be on a high for a few hours, and you might have trouble sleeping tonight. Drink plenty of water, have a snack and do something to decompress. You’re going to be processing it for a few days but I expect you to show up ready to go in the morning.”
“I’m fine. Let’s head back to the office, but you drive.”
Chapter 28
Cutter took the wheel on the short drive back to the squad room.
Sloan was lost in her thoughts.
They passed another protest. It was a small gathering with about twenty people carrying signs. Most of the signs said, ‘I Want SF Back, or ‘Tech Wants To Evict You’.
Sloan asked, “Should we stop or call it in?”
“Why bother?”
They parked and took the elevator up to the fourth floor.
“Cutter, Sloan. My office. Now.” Susan Brown’s tone conveyed urgency.
They entered to find Detectives Jose Garcia and George Lee waiting inside.
Lieutenant Susan Brown said, “The Jill Gillberry case has become an ever higher priority so I’m assigning Detectives Garcia and Lee to help out. I know you like to use a murder board, Cutter, so I’ve assigned you a room with a magnetic white board.”
Cutter nodded. “Thanks.”
“Do you have a prime suspect yet?”
“Not yet, Lieutenant.”
“Then the four of you better get to work.”
The next twenty minutes were spent carrying computers and other materials into the room.
As they plugged in the computers and made sure everything was working, Cutter told Sloan, “This’ll be our murder room until we crack the case.”
In the middle of the room was a worn grey metal table where the four detectives placed the paperwork they’d brought with them.
“We need more air in here,” Cutter switched on an oscillating fan that sat on a battered filing cabinet.
At the front of the room was the large white board where Cutter placed pictures and wrote the names of the key people involved so far. He grouped the names in a bubble that looked like a cloud.
Above the murder board hung a pull-down video screen.
Cutter explained its use to Sloan. “Before anyone other than the four of us, or Brown, enters the room, make sure you pull down the screen to hide our work. Whoever’s the last person to leave the room will do the same.”
“Got it.”
Sloan’s first impression of Garcia was that he was talkative and prickly while Lee was quiet but competent. Lee was Garcia’s Sloan.
Lee held up the front page of the day’s Chronicle newspaper so the front page could be seen. The headline read ‘Tech CEO Gets A Taste Of Her Own Dog Food.’
Cutter didn’t understand. “What does that mean?”
Sloan provided the answer. “When the tech business uses its own product to test that it works, they call it eating their own dog food.”
“So how does that apply to Jill Gillberry?”
Lee said, “The reporter makes the jump that since users of Jill’s product died, it was coincidental that she died from a syringe.”
Cutter raised his voice. “How in hell did the press find out about the syringe?”
Sloan already knew that most police departments leaked to the press for favors. It was a relationship that worked, until it didn’t.
“No idea. We need to focus on the case”
Garcia said, “Can one of you bring us up to date.”
Cutter approached the white board and attached the picture of Jill that her father had given to Cutter.
He wrote Monday on the board then went over the facts starting with the crime scene.
Timeline: Monday, Victim murdered
Victim: Jill Gillberry. CEO of Jill Gillberry Technologies.
Where: Orpheum Theatre Ladies Restroom stall.
How: Blow to head followed by fatal injection via a 200cc syringe into her thigh.
“Then we interviewed Jill Gillberry’s rent-a date and her two bodyguards for the evening while they were still at the theatre. They had all been hired for the evening by her main investor.”
Garcia asked, “Anyone with an arrest record?”
“The body guards records show no arrests or gang affiliations, while the rent-a-date had a DUI two years ago. The rent-a-date told us that her limo got blocked by those anti-tech protestors while they were on the way to the theatre.”
Lee seemed to like the idea. “You think there could be a connection between the protest and the fact she was a CEO of a tech company?”
“At this stage we need to check all the boxes on all potential suspects. See if you can find any video of the demonstration and interview the organizers. See if you think it could be connected in any way.”
“Copy that.” Lee asked, “Did the body guards note anyone of interest coming out of the restroom?”
“Three women came out. While one of them was most likely the killer, they couldn’t recall anything about the women. Ben Lopez however, has an appointment with a sketch artist today.”
Garcia volunteered to find out where the sketch was.
Jessica jumped in. “Ben didn’t rule out that it could have been a man dressed as a woman.”
Lee said, “Now, that’s interesting.”
Cutter started again. “We then did a death notification to her parents. They turn out to be the only ones who benefited from her death. I’ll run their financials but given their home and who they appear to be, I doubt they wanted her dead.”
Under Timeline, Cutter wrote Tuesday. “Sloan and I went to Jill’s home in Pacific Heights. She has a live in housekeeper who verified the Rent-An-Actor picked her up in a limo and the time she left the house. The housekeeper has only been with Jill for three weeks. She didn’t strike me as a fan of Jill’s, but she didn’t seem to have any animosity either.”
Garcia put his feet up on an extra chair. “Is there any chance Jill was secretly married or dating someone?”
“Not that we’ve discovered. Anyway, then we visited Jill’s company where we met with the Chief Operating Officer and in house lawyer.”
Sloan spoke next. “The company’s product is apparently a sham and several people who were depending on it to monitor their health, died as a result. The company is sending over the list of unhappy relatives as well as unhappy former employees.”
“So there are lots of relatives of victims and ex-employees we could interview for you.”
“Let’s split them up. Sloan and I’ll take the relatives while you guys take the former employees.” Cutter looked back at the board. “Next we paid a visit to Jill’s main investor who is now in control of her company. He’s an arrogant one that my gut tells me we should look at closer.”
Cutter wrote ‘David Coyne, VC’ then underlined his name.
Garcia said, “Why?”
“He bought the tickets, arranged for the limo, date and bodyguards so he knew she would be at the theatre and where she’d be sitting.”
“So he knew which restroom she would visit.”
“Exactly.”
“What about motive?”
Sloan said, “He bought the story of her product and he’s lost in the hundreds of millions of dollars on her company and has lost probable billions, if her firm had gone public. Even worse, I would think he’s probably damaged his ability to raise money for further investments through his funds.”
“Interesting theory. What else do we have?” Garcia asked.
Cutter went next. “This afternoon I got a call from Jayson Hale over in Forensics. The big surprise was that the 200cc syringe didn’t contain a trace of a poison. Instead, it was used to inject air into the femoral artery. From the lab, we went to see Fitz. He found an air bubble in her heart. He said she was also likely whacked on the side of her skull with a handgun.”
Lee asked, “Do we know if the guards were carrying?”
“I would assume so, but I never asked.”
Jessica noticed that John was blushing.
John wrote handgun on the board and added a question mark. “If someone had a handgun why didn’t they just shoot her? All they had to do was attach a silencer and it would have been a much easier kill.”
Garcia looked at Cutter. “How about fingerprints and other trace evidence?”
“They’re still working on those. The holdup seems to be the new iPoirot system.”
Garcia said, “If iPoirot is so smart why isn’t it working?”
Sloan said, “I’m guessing that the database portion is working. No one has said that uploading data is the bottleneck. So I’m guessing the problem is in the artificial intelligence layer where it’s supposed to make connections and unveil people and information to pursue further.”
Lee said, “That isn’t rocket science. Why isn’t the AI working? Is it something special?”
“What I learned was that it uses an AI similar to what self-driving cars do where they observe another cars’ speed and direction. That can’t be done in just one moment, but rather requires identifying specific objects and monitoring them over time. It relies on existing data from multiple databases.”
“How does that work?”
“The same way a self-driving car uses lane markings and traffic lights.”
Lee shook his head. “I don’t get it. Let’s get back to solving the case. Maybe we can solve it before iPoirot joins the party.”
Wearing a big grin, Cutter slapped his hand on the table.
Sloan immediately knew whom her partner was pulling for.
Chapter 29
Wednesday Night
Jessica lived in the East Bay, roughly fifty commuter miles away, in the bedroom suburb of Dublin.
In traffic, it could take her an hour and a half each way to make the commute. If there was an accident it could easily take her well over two hours.
She and her sister had chosen to live in Dublin because the rent was a little cheaper and it had a BART transit station for the days when she knew she would be working a regular shift.
With the crazy hours of being a Detective, Jessica decided to drive her five-year old hybrid Camry into San Francisco.
The problem with using BART is that if I have to work past midnight, I won’t get home.
As the evening scenery of lights flew by she kept her eyes on the road but her mind was still going over the crime scene and their interviews so far.
Which one of you is the murderer?
Jessica entered her third floor walkup two-bedroom apartment when she heard her sister Brooklyn and a male voice.
Brad’s here.
She stopped to listen to her sister stroking Brad’s ego. “Do you think we’ll discover aliens on other planets soon?”
“No. We’ve only been technically modern for what, fifty years? The odds are that if another civilization is out there, they’re ahead of us by thousands if not millions of years.”
“That’s so insightful.”
You could have been an actress, Brooklyn.
“If I was an alien species who had developed technology before ours, I wouldn’t want to be detected by a relatively low level civilization like ours. They most likely know who and what we are. They’ve probably developed technology that allows them to ensure that their signals and communications are directed away from planets like ours. We will never detect them unless they want us to.”
Feeling that Brad was finally finished, Jessica turned the corner and entered the living room.
Brooklyn looked up. “You’re home early. Are you feeling ill or something?”
“No, I’m not sick. Just a bit wired. I had my first visit to the Medical Examiner’s lab today and saw my first autopsied corpses.”
Brad asked, “Why were you at the Medical Examiners?”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you Brad, Jess’s been promoted, she’s now a detective.”
“You mean like in tracking down stolen merchandise?”
Jessica corrected him. “I’m a Homicide Detective. In the San Francisco Police Department, the Homicide Detail does not investigate anything but homicides and officer-involved shootings.”
“Good for you.” Brad scrunched his lips. “Do you work with a lot of other female detectives?”
“No. In fact, I’m the only one at the moment.”
“Is it because men are bigger and stronger and could beat the shit out of you?”
Brad is a bit of an asshole.
Cutter pointed to a stool close to the feet of the corpse. “Sit there for a few minutes while you adjust. There’s a bucket beside it, just in case.”
Jessica popped the hard candy into her mouth.
Then she looked at a third slab that had another corpse covered with a sheet.
Oh my God! It’s moving.
Chapter 27
Fitz’s voice echoed off the hard surfaces. “I took five vials of blood and requested a full tox screening for twenty-six drug groups instead of the normal twelve. It’s going to take several more days for the results.”
Jessica barely heard John say, “Then why did you call us down here?”
Oh, my, God!
“Guys, uh guys, the sheet’s moving.”
Fitz and John stopped talking.
The sheet flew off.
Jessica felt weak.
A corpse wearing underwear sat up. “Where am I?”
Bloody bastards!
Jessica saw Fitz and Cutter starting to laugh. “What do you think, I’m a rookie to fall for a morgue hazing?”
“Sorry, Sloan. Cutter told me to do it.”
Jessica watched as the man pulled the sheet around his body as he slid off the slab, then walked out of the lab. “I’m late for my toga party.”
Fitz went back to talking as if nothing had happened. “When you called to tell me that the Forensics Lab didn’t find any trace of poison in the syringe, I wondered if it had indeed contained air instead of a poison. 200cc of air could kill anyone. So I gave the body a quick CT scan and found a large air bubble in the right ventricle.”
Fitz stood next to Jill’s corpse. “My autopsy confirmed that the air was administered into the femoral artery in her thigh. The cause of death was an air injection. If you hadn’t told me about the air bubble, when I did the autopsy I would have probably not seen the bubble. It would have simply popped and evaporated.”
Cutter glanced at Jessica who was sitting with her eyes averted away from the slab holding Jill’s corpse. “When I saw the syringe I immediately thought it was a poisoning.”
Fitz said, “Most times that’s what it is, so don’t feel bad. What you need to understand is that poisoning is a chancy way to kill someone. A killer can’t be certain that a poison is going to be consumed or that the dose is sufficient for the size of the victim. Unless the poison acts instantly, there is always the possibility the victim will fall ill and get to a hospital before it’s too late.”
“Using air must be a highly unusual way to kill someone. Have you ever seen it before? I haven’t.”
“No, I haven’t either.”
“So whoever the suspect is, they had to think out of the box. It means that this murder was most likely personal and planned.”
“So now that we know how she was killed, we need to find out why, and by whom.”
Cutter and Fitz were both surprised to hear Jessica’s voice.
Fitz looked at Jessica. “Do you have any questions for me?”
Jessica seemed to be composed. “Sure, is there anything else her body told you?”
“She was healthy and should have lived a long life.”
“Did you determine if she fought her attacker?”
“Not that I could find. As I mentioned at the crime scene, I did discover a small dent on the side of her skull that was hidden in her hair.”
Cutter seemed happy. “Now we know why she didn’t fight back. Do you know what caused the indentation?”
“Good question. It appears to be from the butt of a handgun. The blow would have most likely knocked her out.”
Jessica jumped in. “Can you please do a cast of the wound so we can compare it to future evidence.”
Fitz seemed impressed. “Absolutely, Sloan. Good call.”
Sloan felt better. “If the killer had a gun why didn’t he shoot her?”
Cutter said, “Maybe they thought it would be too noisy and attract attention.”
Sloan was thinking out loud. “So what you’re saying is that it could have been a woman or a man that hit her, then injected the air.”
Fitz said, “Yes, either.”
“Would it have taken someone with medical training, say a nurse, to have made that injection?”
“I believe I answered that question at the crime scene. Once again, anyone with access to a search engine or YouTube would know how to do it pretty quickly.”
Jessica slid off the stool and looked towards the lab door. “Is that it? Are we done here Fitz?”
“Yes, you are.”
Cutter lifted his right palm towards Fitz. “Thank you for getting it done so quickly.”
Outside the morgue, they stopped to collect their handguns.
As soon as they exited the building Jessica stopped and took several deep breathes. “How does a Medical Examiner like Fitz do it all day, every day?”
“I asked Fitz once. He told me that the more organs that are removed, the more he becomes detached and the less he looks at the remains on the slab as a person.”
Sloan punched Cutter on his shoulder.
“Ouch. What did you do that for?”
“That’s for trying to haze me and for doing your best to get me to puke.”
“Sorry, partner.”
Jessica started towards the Taurus. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you back when you’re least expecting it.”
“You did fine, Sloan. Think about how grateful you should be that you’re young, healthy and full of functioning organs.”
“I’ll try. But unless you want to spend two weeks in sensitivity training, don’t pull shit like that on me again.”
“Look, why don’t you take the rest of today off. You’ll be on a high for a few hours, and you might have trouble sleeping tonight. Drink plenty of water, have a snack and do something to decompress. You’re going to be processing it for a few days but I expect you to show up ready to go in the morning.”
“I’m fine. Let’s head back to the office, but you drive.”
Chapter 28
Cutter took the wheel on the short drive back to the squad room.
Sloan was lost in her thoughts.
They passed another protest. It was a small gathering with about twenty people carrying signs. Most of the signs said, ‘I Want SF Back, or ‘Tech Wants To Evict You’.
Sloan asked, “Should we stop or call it in?”
“Why bother?”
They parked and took the elevator up to the fourth floor.
“Cutter, Sloan. My office. Now.” Susan Brown’s tone conveyed urgency.
They entered to find Detectives Jose Garcia and George Lee waiting inside.
Lieutenant Susan Brown said, “The Jill Gillberry case has become an ever higher priority so I’m assigning Detectives Garcia and Lee to help out. I know you like to use a murder board, Cutter, so I’ve assigned you a room with a magnetic white board.”
Cutter nodded. “Thanks.”
“Do you have a prime suspect yet?”
“Not yet, Lieutenant.”
“Then the four of you better get to work.”
The next twenty minutes were spent carrying computers and other materials into the room.
As they plugged in the computers and made sure everything was working, Cutter told Sloan, “This’ll be our murder room until we crack the case.”
In the middle of the room was a worn grey metal table where the four detectives placed the paperwork they’d brought with them.
“We need more air in here,” Cutter switched on an oscillating fan that sat on a battered filing cabinet.
At the front of the room was the large white board where Cutter placed pictures and wrote the names of the key people involved so far. He grouped the names in a bubble that looked like a cloud.
Above the murder board hung a pull-down video screen.
Cutter explained its use to Sloan. “Before anyone other than the four of us, or Brown, enters the room, make sure you pull down the screen to hide our work. Whoever’s the last person to leave the room will do the same.”
“Got it.”
Sloan’s first impression of Garcia was that he was talkative and prickly while Lee was quiet but competent. Lee was Garcia’s Sloan.
Lee held up the front page of the day’s Chronicle newspaper so the front page could be seen. The headline read ‘Tech CEO Gets A Taste Of Her Own Dog Food.’
Cutter didn’t understand. “What does that mean?”
Sloan provided the answer. “When the tech business uses its own product to test that it works, they call it eating their own dog food.”
“So how does that apply to Jill Gillberry?”
Lee said, “The reporter makes the jump that since users of Jill’s product died, it was coincidental that she died from a syringe.”
Cutter raised his voice. “How in hell did the press find out about the syringe?”
Sloan already knew that most police departments leaked to the press for favors. It was a relationship that worked, until it didn’t.
“No idea. We need to focus on the case”
Garcia said, “Can one of you bring us up to date.”
Cutter approached the white board and attached the picture of Jill that her father had given to Cutter.
He wrote Monday on the board then went over the facts starting with the crime scene.
Timeline: Monday, Victim murdered
Victim: Jill Gillberry. CEO of Jill Gillberry Technologies.
Where: Orpheum Theatre Ladies Restroom stall.
How: Blow to head followed by fatal injection via a 200cc syringe into her thigh.
“Then we interviewed Jill Gillberry’s rent-a date and her two bodyguards for the evening while they were still at the theatre. They had all been hired for the evening by her main investor.”
Garcia asked, “Anyone with an arrest record?”
“The body guards records show no arrests or gang affiliations, while the rent-a-date had a DUI two years ago. The rent-a-date told us that her limo got blocked by those anti-tech protestors while they were on the way to the theatre.”
Lee seemed to like the idea. “You think there could be a connection between the protest and the fact she was a CEO of a tech company?”
“At this stage we need to check all the boxes on all potential suspects. See if you can find any video of the demonstration and interview the organizers. See if you think it could be connected in any way.”
“Copy that.” Lee asked, “Did the body guards note anyone of interest coming out of the restroom?”
“Three women came out. While one of them was most likely the killer, they couldn’t recall anything about the women. Ben Lopez however, has an appointment with a sketch artist today.”
Garcia volunteered to find out where the sketch was.
Jessica jumped in. “Ben didn’t rule out that it could have been a man dressed as a woman.”
Lee said, “Now, that’s interesting.”
Cutter started again. “We then did a death notification to her parents. They turn out to be the only ones who benefited from her death. I’ll run their financials but given their home and who they appear to be, I doubt they wanted her dead.”
Under Timeline, Cutter wrote Tuesday. “Sloan and I went to Jill’s home in Pacific Heights. She has a live in housekeeper who verified the Rent-An-Actor picked her up in a limo and the time she left the house. The housekeeper has only been with Jill for three weeks. She didn’t strike me as a fan of Jill’s, but she didn’t seem to have any animosity either.”
Garcia put his feet up on an extra chair. “Is there any chance Jill was secretly married or dating someone?”
“Not that we’ve discovered. Anyway, then we visited Jill’s company where we met with the Chief Operating Officer and in house lawyer.”
Sloan spoke next. “The company’s product is apparently a sham and several people who were depending on it to monitor their health, died as a result. The company is sending over the list of unhappy relatives as well as unhappy former employees.”
“So there are lots of relatives of victims and ex-employees we could interview for you.”
“Let’s split them up. Sloan and I’ll take the relatives while you guys take the former employees.” Cutter looked back at the board. “Next we paid a visit to Jill’s main investor who is now in control of her company. He’s an arrogant one that my gut tells me we should look at closer.”
Cutter wrote ‘David Coyne, VC’ then underlined his name.
Garcia said, “Why?”
“He bought the tickets, arranged for the limo, date and bodyguards so he knew she would be at the theatre and where she’d be sitting.”
“So he knew which restroom she would visit.”
“Exactly.”
“What about motive?”
Sloan said, “He bought the story of her product and he’s lost in the hundreds of millions of dollars on her company and has lost probable billions, if her firm had gone public. Even worse, I would think he’s probably damaged his ability to raise money for further investments through his funds.”
“Interesting theory. What else do we have?” Garcia asked.
Cutter went next. “This afternoon I got a call from Jayson Hale over in Forensics. The big surprise was that the 200cc syringe didn’t contain a trace of a poison. Instead, it was used to inject air into the femoral artery. From the lab, we went to see Fitz. He found an air bubble in her heart. He said she was also likely whacked on the side of her skull with a handgun.”
Lee asked, “Do we know if the guards were carrying?”
“I would assume so, but I never asked.”
Jessica noticed that John was blushing.
John wrote handgun on the board and added a question mark. “If someone had a handgun why didn’t they just shoot her? All they had to do was attach a silencer and it would have been a much easier kill.”
Garcia looked at Cutter. “How about fingerprints and other trace evidence?”
“They’re still working on those. The holdup seems to be the new iPoirot system.”
Garcia said, “If iPoirot is so smart why isn’t it working?”
Sloan said, “I’m guessing that the database portion is working. No one has said that uploading data is the bottleneck. So I’m guessing the problem is in the artificial intelligence layer where it’s supposed to make connections and unveil people and information to pursue further.”
Lee said, “That isn’t rocket science. Why isn’t the AI working? Is it something special?”
“What I learned was that it uses an AI similar to what self-driving cars do where they observe another cars’ speed and direction. That can’t be done in just one moment, but rather requires identifying specific objects and monitoring them over time. It relies on existing data from multiple databases.”
“How does that work?”
“The same way a self-driving car uses lane markings and traffic lights.”
Lee shook his head. “I don’t get it. Let’s get back to solving the case. Maybe we can solve it before iPoirot joins the party.”
Wearing a big grin, Cutter slapped his hand on the table.
Sloan immediately knew whom her partner was pulling for.
Chapter 29
Wednesday Night
Jessica lived in the East Bay, roughly fifty commuter miles away, in the bedroom suburb of Dublin.
In traffic, it could take her an hour and a half each way to make the commute. If there was an accident it could easily take her well over two hours.
She and her sister had chosen to live in Dublin because the rent was a little cheaper and it had a BART transit station for the days when she knew she would be working a regular shift.
With the crazy hours of being a Detective, Jessica decided to drive her five-year old hybrid Camry into San Francisco.
The problem with using BART is that if I have to work past midnight, I won’t get home.
As the evening scenery of lights flew by she kept her eyes on the road but her mind was still going over the crime scene and their interviews so far.
Which one of you is the murderer?
Jessica entered her third floor walkup two-bedroom apartment when she heard her sister Brooklyn and a male voice.
Brad’s here.
She stopped to listen to her sister stroking Brad’s ego. “Do you think we’ll discover aliens on other planets soon?”
“No. We’ve only been technically modern for what, fifty years? The odds are that if another civilization is out there, they’re ahead of us by thousands if not millions of years.”
“That’s so insightful.”
You could have been an actress, Brooklyn.
“If I was an alien species who had developed technology before ours, I wouldn’t want to be detected by a relatively low level civilization like ours. They most likely know who and what we are. They’ve probably developed technology that allows them to ensure that their signals and communications are directed away from planets like ours. We will never detect them unless they want us to.”
Feeling that Brad was finally finished, Jessica turned the corner and entered the living room.
Brooklyn looked up. “You’re home early. Are you feeling ill or something?”
“No, I’m not sick. Just a bit wired. I had my first visit to the Medical Examiner’s lab today and saw my first autopsied corpses.”
Brad asked, “Why were you at the Medical Examiners?”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you Brad, Jess’s been promoted, she’s now a detective.”
“You mean like in tracking down stolen merchandise?”
Jessica corrected him. “I’m a Homicide Detective. In the San Francisco Police Department, the Homicide Detail does not investigate anything but homicides and officer-involved shootings.”
“Good for you.” Brad scrunched his lips. “Do you work with a lot of other female detectives?”
“No. In fact, I’m the only one at the moment.”
“Is it because men are bigger and stronger and could beat the shit out of you?”
Brad is a bit of an asshole.
