Page 20 of Little Dark Deeds
“Sounds like it was more sporadic.There may be something there.A crime of passion, perhaps?”
“Or a novice who didn’t know what they were doing and was taking swings and trying to land them before Tiffany had a chance to fight back.”
“Did shefight back?”
“I’m not sure yet.From what I’ve seen so far, I’d say no.We took some fingernail scrapings.Once we’ve had the chance to run some tests, I’ll have a more definitive answer for you.”
“What can you tell me about the time of death?”
“Based on Kiera’s review of the scene, the murder took place not long before Tiffany’s father arrived to take her to the airport.He called 911, and when the paramedics got here, they reported her skin was pale, in a state of pallor mortis.Given her body temperature was close to normal at that time, she hadn’t entered algor mortis yet.Bottom line, she hadn’t been dead long.”
The way she’d been murdered seemed rushed—not well thought out, at least.
Had it been a random act of violence?
A crime of passion?
Something else?
“It seems risky to me, murdering her right before she was planning on heading to the airport,” I said.“Even if the killer had no knowledge of her trip, they would have noticed the luggage at the door ...ifthey came in that way.Given her bedroom window was open, it could have been an easier way to get inside the house.Were there any signs of forced entry?”
“The lock on the front door looks like it’s had some damage to it.A bit of paint is chipped off around the knob, and I noticed some scratch and dent marks too.”
“Her door was always like that,” I said.“I kept bugging her to fix it.”
In that moment, I realized something—something important.
“I bought Tiffany a doorbell security camera for her for Christmas last year,” I said.“If the killer entered through the front, there should be footage.Have you taken a look at it?”
“It was the first thing Foley did when he arrived.”
“And?”
“Turns out, it wasn’t on during the time of the murder, and for who knows how long before that.The battery was dead.”
I huffed out a disappointed sigh.
I’d purchased and installed the camera myself, and when I’d given it to her, I made sure to tell her how important it was for her to use it.She’d waved it off, laughing as she reminded me how little crime there was in our quaint little town.
Little crime didn’t meannocrime.
But when it came to convincing others of that fact, it wasn’t easy.
Whatwaseasy was for people to assume crimes of this nature were things that happened to other people, andnotto them.
“Even though we have no footage, the fact she had a camera would have been obvious to anyone who approached her front door,” I said.“I would think it would give a person pause, maybe think about another entry point so they wouldn’t be seen.If it turns out the killer came through the front door, I’d assume they knew Tiffany.Maybe they even knew the camera wasn’t on.”
“The murderer may have also worn a mask or a disguise of some kind.”
Silas was right.
I was trying to put the clues together too fast, jumping to conclusions without thinking them through first.In most of my homicide investigations, my mind was a lot clearer, but given the murder was so personal to me, I knew I wasn’t thinking straight, not as much as I should be.If I was going to figure out what happened to Tiffany and why, I needed to focus, to treat her murder like I would any other.
It was a reasonable thought.
I just wasn’t sure it was possible.
“Have you had the chance to look Tiffany over yet?”I asked.
