Karen Rose - Count to Ten

"Adler's legs were broken like the first two victims," Sam added. "But she wasn't cut like the Hill woman. If she had been, she probably wouldn't have lived long enough to have been rescued. Ledford had only the stab wound and the burns caused by the fire."

"I think it's safe to say Roxanne Ledford surprised him," Jack said. "We found pieces of her violin around where firefighters found her body. I think she hit him with it."

"After she called 911," Mia murmured.

"And we can be thankful for that," Spinnelli pronounced. "If she hadn't, Adler wouldn't have lived as long as she did and lot of other people may have been hurt."

"Thirty people lived there," Reed said. "Ledford may have saved their lives."

"I'm sure that came as a great comfort to Roxanne's family," Mia said harshly.

"You told them?" Westphalen asked gently.

"About two hours ago. They didn't take it well."

Neither had Mia, Reed thought.

Murphy squeezed her forearm. "It sucks, kid," he murmured around his carrot stick.

She chuckled bitterly. "Y'think?"

Reed wished he could touch her too, hold her hand, but he knew that was out of the question. He fixed his eyes on the board. "There was no gas explosion. The apartments only had electric. There was also a difference in the egg fragments." He pushed a glass jar holding a lump of melted plastic to the table. "I found this a few feet from the door. I think the egg came apart before the fuse burned through. It never shattered."

Spinnelli's mustache bent down. "Interesting. Theories?"

"Well, if I'd set the device, I would have put it on the mattress itself. It would have caught fire faster and have been closer to Adler's body. But I don't think it was there."

Aidan Reagan was scratching notes on a pad. "Why not?"

"Because if it was on the mattress, she wouldn't have been alive when Hunter and Mahoney got to the bedroom-she would have looked like Penny Hill and Caitlin Burnette. Also, the burn patterns indicate the fire started on the floor close to the door, so it took a few minutes to spread to the bed."

"It would explain the severe burns on the second victim- the Ledford woman," Sam said. "Even though her body had no accelerant, she was closer to the origin."

"And finally, I found what looked like ammonium nitrate deposited deep in the carpet fibers. Somehow the egg ended up on the floor, with enough force to break it open."

"She kicked it?" Mia asked and Reed shrugged.

"It's possible."

Sam shook his head. "Her legs were broken. It's hard to believe she kicked it."

"The doctor said it was hard to believe she was still muttering after being sedated," Mia said. "She was in excruciating pain, yet she kept asking for me."

"She tried to stab him," Jack commented. "We found a butcher knife on the living room floor with Adler's fingerprints on it. Unfortunately, no blood, so she didn't get him."

"I think Brooke Adler was a lot stronger than I gave her credit for yesterday." Mia's smile was bitter. "Again, that came as a great comfort to her parents."

"Mia." Westphalen's mouth bent in sympathy. "You told both families back to back?"

"I'm sure it hurt them a hell of a lot more than it hurt me. But, speaking of hell, I'm thinking he said go to hell' as some kind of symbolic tie to the fire."

"Makes perfect sense," Westphalen agreed. "So the people he's killed have done something that he's condemned them to hell for doing. What about 'count to ten"?"

"His fuse," Reed said. "Penny Hill's neighbor, Mr. Wright, said that he heard the tires squeal, saw the car driving away and a second later the house blew. Now assuming Wright is… well, right, and assuming Hill's killer ran as soon as he lit the fuse, he would have had about ten to fifteen seconds to get away. I tried it."

"But why 'ten'?" Westphalen mused. "It has to have some significance besides a Clint Eastwood-esque belligerence."

Mia's face tensed. "I hope it's not the number of people he plans to kill."

There was a half beat of silence. "Well, that's an uplifting thought," Jack muttered.

"Let's have some encouraging news," Spinnelli said pointedly. "Jack?"

"We ran prints all day and night. Theoretically, all the prints in the art room and the science lab should be accounted for. Everybody at Hope Center has been printed, staff and residents. But one set of prints was unmatchable to any of the prints on record. And although it's redundant at this point, they don't belong to Manny. Also, the prints don't match anything in AFIS, so our guy doesn't have a record."

"Someone's had access to the school without being printed," Spinnelli mused.

"Maybe." Mia met Reed's eyes and he could see her wheels turning. "But Secrest didn't seem like a slouch. He's a secretive SOB, but he knows what goes on at that place. I can't see him letting just anyone stroll through Bixby had print cards on every teacher and juvenile, past and present. Every print should have been accounted for."

Reed thought he knew where she was headed. "So Secrest missed somebody or one of the print cards Bixby gave us was wrong. Either through design or oversight."

Spinnelli's jaw tightened. "Print everybody at that school. If they balk, haul 'em in."

Mia's smile was sharp. "My pleasure."

"Have you found any connection between Burnette's and Hill's files?" Spinnelli asked.

"Um, no." Her composure slipped for an instant and Reed couldn't help but think about what she'd been doing instead of reading files. But they were entitled to some time of their own. He wouldn't feel guilty about it. He hoped she wouldn't either. She cleared her throat. "We'll keep looking. Did the news shows given the women's names?"

"I caught two of the local broadcasts," Aidan offered. "Both Channel Four and Seven said they were withholding the names of the victims until their families were notified."

"I saw Channel Nine news," Westphalen added. "Same thing."

"And the fire started after press time for all the papers," she said.

Reed followed her train of thought. "So, we may be able to assume that Bixby and his friends haven't heard about the murder yet, unless they're somehow involved."

She nodded, brows lifted. "I think we'll go back to Hope Center this morning. I want to see if the Axis of Evil can look us in the eye."

Reed's lips curved. "The Axis of Evil? Bixby, Thompson, and Secrest. It works."

She smiled back, then her month was grim again. "And I want to tell Manny that Brooke is dead. Maybe that'll unsettle him enough to tell us what he's hiding."

"Wait until I've talked with him," Westphalen requested. "I'm afraid if you push him any harder, he'll break and we won't get anything from him. I'll be done by lunchtime."

"All right. But no later. I don't want him having time to get his story right."

"What about Adler's apartment?" Murphy asked. "Any cameras?"

"No," Reed said. "This was a no-frills place and what they had wasn't maintained properly. A couple of the units didn't even have working smoke detectors. We're going to have to question all the residents the old-fashioned way to see if anybody saw him."

"Murphy and Aidan, you get the statements," Spinnelli said. "Anything else?" he asked as everyone stood up. "Then let's meet back here at five. I want a suspect with a name. Mia."

She sighed. "One can hope."

Thursday, November 30, 8:15 a.m.

He had to squint as he scanned the headlines. He was tired. He'd debated calling in sick, but that would have looked somewhat suspicious. Under the circumstances.

But what circumstances they'd been. He'd been on a roll last night. Four. Zapped. Gone. That had to be a record. It was for him anyway. My personal best . He chuckled and flipped to the next page of the Bulletin . They seemed to be the fastest with new stories, so he'd started with their paper. But there wasn't anything new about him on page one. Just recycled hash from the press conference the day before. He sat a little straighter. He'd rated a press conference. Cool .