Downfall

Downfall by J. A. Jance Page A

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Authors: J. A. Jance
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Hadlock’s skill set.
    â€œThanks, Detective Waters,” Joanna said as Ian resumed his seat. She looked around the room. “Questions or comments?”
    â€œCan you zero in on that hoodie for us?” Casey asked.
    It took the better part of three minutes for Ian to find a frame of the two people walking away from the camera and then enhance it to the point where the lettering on the back of the hoodie finally came into focus: SVSSE .
    Joanna felt as though she’d taken a blow to the gut. “Most likely a student, then,” she breathed. “How many kids at that school?”
    â€œTwo hundred and fifty or so,” Ian answered.
    â€œWe’re going to need to interview all of them and the teachers as well,” Joanna said. “I’d like to do that on a full-court press basis, and it’ll be easier if we do the interviews at school in a group-grope situation rather than tracking everyone down at their individual homes. So here’s another assignment for you, Ian. Let the school authorities know that we’ll be coming in tomorrow morning and will need access to enough rooms for my three detectives and you as well as anyone else Chief Montoya can spare to conduct private interviews, one after the other, with both students and school personnel.
    â€œOur goal will be to sort out anyone who may require additional screening. Since these are preliminary discussions only, I think simple audio recordings of the interviews will suffice. Even so, the school will have to work out a tentative schedule and then notify parents in writing so they can be on hand when their child is being interviewed. The students are juveniles. We won’t beable to talk to them without parental units actually in attendance unless we have written permission to do so in their absence.”
    â€œInterviewing that many people is going to take time,” Ian said.
    â€œYes, it certainly is,” Joanna agreed, “but the sooner we do it the better. What time does school start?”
    â€œEight thirty.”
    â€œLet the school know that we’ll be on hand at eight thirty sharp. Got it?”
    â€œYes, ma’am,” Ian said. “Will do.” He glanced at his watch and frowned. “School gets out at three thirty. If you want interview rooms set aside for tomorrow morning, and if you want those parental notices to go out today, I should hit the road. I can either work on that end of things, or I can stay for the rest of the meeting. Which do you prefer?”
    â€œBy all means go,” Joanna urged. “We can always bring you up to speed later.”

CHAPTER 7          
    IAN HURRIEDLY GATHERED HIS EQUIPMENT IN ADVANCE OF LEAVING . As he approached the door, it opened from the other side, letting Dave Hollicker into the room. He stopped off at the back table, loaded a pasty onto a paper plate, grabbed some plastic silverware, and poured himself a cup of coffee before taking a vacant seat next to Casey.
    â€œThanks for joining us, Dave,” Joanna said wryly. “I trust you were working.”
    He had already taken a bite of the meat pie, so at first he could only nod. “Sorry, Sheriff Brady,” he said, “I was. I’ve been out at the crime scene dismantling Desirée’s campsite and bringing everything I could find back to the lab.”
    â€œDid you find anything interesting?”
    â€œNot so much,” Dave replied. “She had a really cool solar-powered fridge, but it didn’t have a single crumb of food in it. Allit held was slides, hundreds of them, all of them apparently containing DNA samples from individual hedgehog cactuses that she had been collecting all summer long. Each sample is labeled with a date and a GPS coordinate. I can’t imagine why someone would be that crazy about hedgehog cactus that she’d decide to spend the whole summer out in the wilderness tracking them down.”
    When

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