Page 22 of Stay Awake
Lavelle wandered over from his desk to take a look.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“Was the message intended for the victim?” Halliday asked. “Regret for killing him? Or was it written for someone else? And why write the message on the window and then lower the shades? Why not keep the shades up? Or write the message on the bedroom wall near the body?”
“Because the message wasn’t intended for the victim,” Lavelle said, cottoning on to her train of thought.
“Exactly. That’s why the killer wrote it in reverse; to make sure it was read properly from outside the building. The killer was making a statement to the outside world, not to the victim.”
The glass door behind them slammed loudly. They both turned around to see Detectives Rosco and Tran from Central Robbery walking toward them between a row of desks.
“Looks like the cavalry’s arrived,” said Lavelle, holding out his hand to greet the two detectives.
He’d cleared two tables near Halliday’s desk by the window, where both loan detectives would sit for the duration they’d be helping out. They’d be on transfer for a couple of weeks. It might be shorter or longer depending on how quickly they got a break in the case.
Halliday’s cell phone rang just as Lavelle brought the detectives over to her for an introduction. She quickly shook their hands before answering.
“Halliday,” she said, moving to the window where she’d taped the photo.
On the line was Owen Jeffries, an old friend from the military who had been recruited to the CIA when he finished his last tour.
“So you got my voicemail,” she said.
“Sure did. What’s up?”
While Halliday briefed Jeffries on the murder, she texted him the photo of the ghoulish writing on the window. “Any thoughts?” she asked.
“It shows premeditation,” he said, once he received the photo.
“Why do you say that?”
“It’s not natural to sign-write the message so it could be read correctly from the outside. It involves reversing not just the words but the shape of the letters. In my opinion, achieving this type of complexwriting without any mistake, especially during a high stress situation such as after committing a murder, would require a cool head and planning.”
“What sort of planning?” Halliday asked.
“It could be as simple as writing the message in reverse on a piece of paper before the murder. Or even on the back of a hand. That way it could be copied letter by letter to avoid mistakes. There are no mistakes, or reversing errors in the photo you sent me. That suggests it was preplanned.”
The captain motioned for everyone on the investigation team to assemble in his office. Halliday covered the phone receiver and asked Lavelle to start without her. His expression suggested it wasn’t a smart move for her to be late to her own briefing.
She pulled a notepad across the desk and wrote:Talking to an old friend from my unit who’s in the CIA. Give me a couple of minutes.He nodded and headed into the office with Rosco and Tran.
Halliday asked Jeffries if he could run the message through the CIA’s handwriting analysis database to compare the writing sample from the window to the millions of samples in the CIA and law enforcement databases.
“I can also do one better. I can run it through a new algo we’ve developed that gives a pretty good profile of the probable characteristics of the writer.”
“What sorts of characteristics?”
“It can tell us with a high degree of probability whether the message was written by a male or female. The rough height of the writer. Left- or right-handed. Native English speaker. A read on the writer’s age since writing styles taught at schools have changed over time. That sort of thing,” he said. “Normally you’d have to request permission, but since we’re old friends, I can cut through the red tape and run it through for you today.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” she said.
“Make sure the lab cuts off the glass pane and scans it,” Jeffries instructed. “It’s more accurate than relying on photos or a tracing outline of the message.”
The squeaking wheels of the portable whiteboard Halliday pulled into Captain Ken Clarke’s office brought the conversation she’d interrupted to an immediate halt.
The captain was propped on the edge of his desk as he listened to Jack Lavelle give an overview of the case. Lavelle was leaning against a filing cabinet with his arms crossed as he spoke. Rosco and Tran sat on a sofa in front of a large internal window that looked out at rows of detectives’ cluttered desks. Detective Tran half rose to give Halliday his seat, but she motioned for him to stay put.
“The ME believes the victim was killed by a single stab wound,” said Lavelle. “Death was immediate, or close to it. No hesitation wounds. The crime scene was neat and organized. No signs of a struggle. Forensic evidence at the scene suggests that a woman might have been involved.”
