Dead End by Mariah Stewart Page A

McCall.” Sheridan walked from behind his desk to greet her. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to have you back here so soon. I’m hoping you have something good to share with us.”
    “I think I do.”
    “Have you met Detective Weller?” The D.A. smiled. Next to the petite profiler, who was always meticulously dressed, Weller looked like an unkempt Amazon. Sheridan wondered if Crosby knew just how lucky he was.
    “I have. How are you, Detective?” Annie offered her hand.
    “I’m hoping I’ll be better once we hear what you have to say.”
    “Were you able to get in touch with Agents Cahill, Hoffman, and Muller?” Annie asked pointedly.
    “Ah, no. I thought, since time was so short, I’d let Detective Weller here pass along whatever information you might have.”
    “I see,” Annie said.
    “Ah, here’s Detective Crosby.” Malone tilted his head in the direction of the door, where Evan stood.
    “Come on in, Evan. We’re just about ready to start. Take a seat there”—Sheridan pointed to the remaining unoccupied chair—“and let’s see what Dr. McCall has for us.”
    “I think you might want to copy these so everyone has their own.” Annie held up the folder containing the lab reports.
    Malone left his seat and reached for the folder.
    “I’ll take care of it,” he told her, and left the room.
    “Just so you know”—Sheridan addressed Annie—“I’m treating these murders as two separate cases. We’re going to work on the assumption that we do in fact have two different killers. Detective Weller is going to be in charge of the Schoolgirl Slayer killings; Detective Crosby will lead the investigation of the unidentified victims. As far as the public is concerned, however, this is one case. Maybe if this second killer thinks he has us fooled, he’ll get careless.”
    He turned to Evan.
    “Just remember this was your idea, when Jackie solves the big case and gets all the publicity.” Sheridan’s idea of a joke.
    “Jackie brings that guy in, she is more than welcome to the publicity.” Evan turned to her as Malone came back into the room. “Hey, this case could make you a star.”
    “Right,” she said without smiling. “And the book deal could make me rich.”
    Before anyone could comment on that, Malone started passing out the lab reports.
    “Dr. McCall, if you’d like to start . . . ,” Sheridan said.
    “Just a few things of note,” Annie told them. “First of all, we have recovered several areas of trace evidence. On all your victims, Detective Weller, the lab found traces of maroon carpet fibers. The fibers were matched to carpeting used by several auto manufacturers—specifically Ford and GMC—between 1992 and 1999.”
    “Any particular models?” Weller asked.
    “No. They used this pretty much across the board. But we’re checking to determine if this color carpet was used exclusively with any exterior colors. We’ll narrow it down as much as we can. In the meantime, there is more . . .” Annie turned to the next page in the pack. “On these same victims, the lab found snippets of grass.”
    “Grass?”
    “Grass, Chief Malone. Green grass. Which fits quite nicely with our theory that the killer is a laborer. I understand you’ve narrowed the field down a bit, Detective Crosby?”
    “We’ve determined that three businesses were common to all of the victims. Green Briar Country Club, Sweet Summer Pools, and Davison’s Lawn and Garden. All employ workers who would come into contact with mowed grass.”
    “Wait a minute, I thought this was my case,” Detective Weller said crisply, the only animation she’d shown since she arrived.
    “It is, as of this morning,” Evan responded pleasantly. “I went through all of the businesses and services the victims might have had in common last night. I found that some were used by two or three of the victims’ families, but only these three were utilized by all of them.”
    Jackie Weller turned to Annie.
    “Anything