Page 68 of Den of Iniquity

“We had an early dismissal today. Don’t you remember?” he asked.

I hadn’t been involved in school affairs long enough to knowthere was any such thing as an early dismissal day. I don’t remember ever having had any of those at Ballard High. Since starting next Wednesday school would be shut down for the foreseeable future, having an early dismissal day the week before seemed a bit silly, but I zipped my lip, once again recalling my mother’s oft-repeated advice to “think before you speak.”

“What’s all this talk about vape pens?” Kyle wanted to know.

Two of the cases in question were now active investigations, and I should have kept mum, but he had overheard enough that there was no sense in shutting him out, so I went ahead and explained.

“It’s about some cold case homicides I’m working on,” I told him. “There are several instances where drug overdose deaths were declared to be accidents or suicides when I believe they should have been treated as homicides. In at least two of those crimes, vape pens were used to administer the drugs.”

“Wow,” Kyle said. “I thought you were retired. I didn’t know you were still investigating murders.”

That made me laugh. “It’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks,” I told him, but by then I was already dialing Detective Byrd’s number in Liberty Lake.

“What’s up?” she asked, once I identified myself.

I spent the next several minutes telling her about the Delgado case, ending with, “So I hope you still have your vape pen.”

“As a matter of fact I do. In fact, it’s right here on my desk at the moment, still in the evidence box. Why?”

“Does it happen to have a serial number?”

“Hold on,” she said. She came back on the line a moment later. “I’m looking at it now. I can see a spot where there probably used to be a serial number, but it looks as though someone has gone to the trouble of grinding it off. That’s pretty interesting. I’ll get thisover to the State Patrol Crime Lab in Spokane first thing tomorrow. They have the technology to retrieve serial numbers that have been ground off weapons, so they should be able to do the same thing with this.”

“Thanks, Beth,” I told her. “Let me know what you find out, and I’ll do the same on this end.”

Detective Miller called back ten minutes later. “I can see where the serial number is supposed to be,” he began.

“But it’s been ground off, right?” I asked.

“Right.”

“Same thing over in Liberty Lake. Detective Byrd is going to submit hers to the crime lab in Spokane tomorrow morning to see if they can retrieve it. Spaulding’s death was ruled undetermined, so she doesn’t have to wait around for the case to be reopened.”

“I don’t, either,” Detective Miller told me. “I checked with the chief on my way past. Five questionable deaths with two hundred-dollar bills left as calling cards were enough to convince him. Delgado’s death may still be a suicide as far as the M.E. is concerned, but it’s been reopened here at the Kent Police Department. Marty, my partner, actually lives in Seattle. I’ll have him drop the pen off at the crime lab on his way home tonight so they can check it out.”

“Great,” I said. “Keep me posted.”

“Will do,” he said. “You do the same.”

I put the phone down with a real sense of exhilaration. The three related Seattle cases still remained closed, but two of the other ones were back on track. With any kind of luck, maybe the others would fall into place as well.

Kyle was over by the kitchen island making himself a bologna sandwich. Mel has never approved of our having bologna around,but when Kyle had come dragging it home from Costco, she had made an exception to that rule.

“Making any progress?” Kyle asked.

“As a matter of fact I am,” I assured him. “On these cases and on yours as well.”

“Really?” he wanted to know. “What’s going on with mine?”

So I told him about the call from Marisa and about her plan to meet up with Caroline Richards in Portland on Saturday. Kyle listened in silence, but by the time I finished, he was frowning.

“If Caroline’s finally getting a chance to meet up with her family, that should be good news, but you don’t sound very happy about it.”

“Because I’m not,” I admitted. “Rather than tell your father the truth, Caroline told your dad that she’s meeting up with an old school chum instead of with her mother’s sister.”

“So she’s lying to him,” Kyle surmised.

“She’sstilllying to him,” I corrected. “And if that’s the case, what’s to keep her from lying to Marisa as well? I have a bad feeling that your father’s going to be hurt real bad before all this is over, and I hope Marisa Young doesn’t end up in the same boat.”

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