top of the easel. Ray
Greene, James Wingate and Howard Spere were
sitting with their coffees at the table in front of her.
'We're going to go over what we know and then
figure out what our best move is. Ray, you start.'
Greene opened his notebook and flipped back a
couple of pages. 'We have two bodies. One here in
Port Dundas, the other in Chamberlain, three
hundred and fifteen kilometres away. The first, Delia
Chandler, was murdered sometime after four o'clock
on Friday 12 November. White female aged eightyone.
She was heavily sedated, murdered, and then
partially drained of blood. After she was dead, the
killer cut her throat. According to Dr Deacon's
report, her mouth was interfered with post mortem.
She also had a broken finger.'
'DC Wingate has a theory about that,' said Hazel,
who had been writing the details down hurriedly on
the easel, 'which, for the time being, he is going to
keep to himself.' Wingate smiled in a pained
fashion. 'Forensics, Howard?'
'We found fingerprints on the door that belong to
the victim, as well as to Bob Chandler. We have
to presume that the killer wore gloves, because there
are no fingerprints inside the house that don't match
the victim or her son. There was a scuff in the carpet
inside the door with a partial impression of a
shoeprint in it, and it suggests the killer is a size
eleven, but it's inconclusive. No forced entry, as has
been previously established. No struggle is
evident—'
'Although let's keep in mind that the place was
spotless,' said Hazel. 'Either Delia cleaned it top to
bottom before her visitor arrived, or the killer himself
cleaned up. Jack Deacon says he would have had
to be in the house a minimum of three hours after
her death. If there was a struggle, there would have
been plenty of time to erase all evidence of it.'
'Okay,' said Detective Spere, 'so maybe there was
a struggle, but I think Jack would have been able to
back it up with defensive wounds on the victim's
body, so for now, we're going to go with no struggle,
and I think we'll find the Ulmer murder backs that
up.'
'No, it doesn't,' said Greene.
'Can we finish with Mrs Chandler before we
move on?' said Hazel, and Greene gestured to her to
carry on.
'Okay,' said Hazel, taking out Jack Deacon's
report. 'The time frame of the murder, according to
Jack, is that a heavily sedating agent is introduced to
the victim at around four o'clock in the afternoon,
and takes effect shortly afterward. Between four and
five, the killer breaks the victim's finger and then
introduces a trace amount of amatoxin, this being
the agent that causes death. Then he puts a widebore
needle into the victim's femoral artery and sucks most of the blood out of her body, either by
using a large syringe or pump of some kind.'
'They have pumps for that?' said Greene.
Hazel ignored him. 'Deacon puts death at five in
the afternoon, according to the potassium levels
in the victim's vitreous humour. He had three hours
after that to cut her head nearly off, clean – if he
cleaned – and to do what he did to her mouth.'
'What do you think that means?' asked Greene.
'It could mean that it doesn't matter to the killer
whether we see that sign or not,' said Spere.
'Great,' said Greene, and he made a gesture as if
to throw his notebook over his shoulder.
'All right, that's Delia, unless anyone has anything
else to add.' Hazel drew a circle around the
facts as she'd written them down in short form on
the easel. No one spoke as she wrote 'Michael
Ulmer' on the other half of the sheet. 'Ray?'
'Okay, so Ulmer. Less than forty-eight hours later,
most likely around noon on Sunday 14 November.
A call was placed to the Chamberlain Community
Policing office around eleven. The caller identified
himself as a homecare nurse. We're going to have to
go with Chamberlain's superior policing skills on
that one and take it at face value unless anyone
wants to propose a reason the killer called in his own
crime.'
'Forty-five minutes before the time of
Greene, James Wingate and Howard Spere were
sitting with their coffees at the table in front of her.
'We're going to go over what we know and then
figure out what our best move is. Ray, you start.'
Greene opened his notebook and flipped back a
couple of pages. 'We have two bodies. One here in
Port Dundas, the other in Chamberlain, three
hundred and fifteen kilometres away. The first, Delia
Chandler, was murdered sometime after four o'clock
on Friday 12 November. White female aged eightyone.
She was heavily sedated, murdered, and then
partially drained of blood. After she was dead, the
killer cut her throat. According to Dr Deacon's
report, her mouth was interfered with post mortem.
She also had a broken finger.'
'DC Wingate has a theory about that,' said Hazel,
who had been writing the details down hurriedly on
the easel, 'which, for the time being, he is going to
keep to himself.' Wingate smiled in a pained
fashion. 'Forensics, Howard?'
'We found fingerprints on the door that belong to
the victim, as well as to Bob Chandler. We have
to presume that the killer wore gloves, because there
are no fingerprints inside the house that don't match
the victim or her son. There was a scuff in the carpet
inside the door with a partial impression of a
shoeprint in it, and it suggests the killer is a size
eleven, but it's inconclusive. No forced entry, as has
been previously established. No struggle is
evident—'
'Although let's keep in mind that the place was
spotless,' said Hazel. 'Either Delia cleaned it top to
bottom before her visitor arrived, or the killer himself
cleaned up. Jack Deacon says he would have had
to be in the house a minimum of three hours after
her death. If there was a struggle, there would have
been plenty of time to erase all evidence of it.'
'Okay,' said Detective Spere, 'so maybe there was
a struggle, but I think Jack would have been able to
back it up with defensive wounds on the victim's
body, so for now, we're going to go with no struggle,
and I think we'll find the Ulmer murder backs that
up.'
'No, it doesn't,' said Greene.
'Can we finish with Mrs Chandler before we
move on?' said Hazel, and Greene gestured to her to
carry on.
'Okay,' said Hazel, taking out Jack Deacon's
report. 'The time frame of the murder, according to
Jack, is that a heavily sedating agent is introduced to
the victim at around four o'clock in the afternoon,
and takes effect shortly afterward. Between four and
five, the killer breaks the victim's finger and then
introduces a trace amount of amatoxin, this being
the agent that causes death. Then he puts a widebore
needle into the victim's femoral artery and sucks most of the blood out of her body, either by
using a large syringe or pump of some kind.'
'They have pumps for that?' said Greene.
Hazel ignored him. 'Deacon puts death at five in
the afternoon, according to the potassium levels
in the victim's vitreous humour. He had three hours
after that to cut her head nearly off, clean – if he
cleaned – and to do what he did to her mouth.'
'What do you think that means?' asked Greene.
'It could mean that it doesn't matter to the killer
whether we see that sign or not,' said Spere.
'Great,' said Greene, and he made a gesture as if
to throw his notebook over his shoulder.
'All right, that's Delia, unless anyone has anything
else to add.' Hazel drew a circle around the
facts as she'd written them down in short form on
the easel. No one spoke as she wrote 'Michael
Ulmer' on the other half of the sheet. 'Ray?'
'Okay, so Ulmer. Less than forty-eight hours later,
most likely around noon on Sunday 14 November.
A call was placed to the Chamberlain Community
Policing office around eleven. The caller identified
himself as a homecare nurse. We're going to have to
go with Chamberlain's superior policing skills on
that one and take it at face value unless anyone
wants to propose a reason the killer called in his own
crime.'
'Forty-five minutes before the time of
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