Faye Kellerman - The Burnt House

Decker shrugged. “He could be sending phony ones.”

“But then once we started verifying things, we would trip him up. He’s got to know that. It would be nice if we find Christie Norsewoman. If Roseanne visited her the night before the accident, she’d be Holmes’s alibi.”

“Maybe our next interview knows Christie Norsewoman,” Decker said. “Leslie Bracco. When are we supposed to meet her?”

“Five. It’s only three-thirty.”

“Can you call her and see if she can meet us earlier?”

“Sure, why not?” Marge turned on her cell phone. “I’ve got some messages. Maybe one of them is Leslie.” She listened to her answering machine and then punched in her code. “It’s Vega telling me she’s fine, but she’s turning off her phone to study. That girl is so high-strung-oh, it’s Willie…” She smiled as she listened. “Ah, he’s so cute…this one’s from Scott…”

“What going on with him?”

Marge listened for a moment. “Mike Hollander’s looking for you. He’s all excited. He got hold of the tape of the Wisconsin case.”

“That’s good.”

“Call him back when you’ve got a chance…wait, this is Leslie Bracco…she’s going to be late. ‘Don’t come any earlier than five-thirty.’” Marge snapped the cover back on her cell. “We’ve got two hours to kill. Want me to call back Oliver?”

“Absolutely. See if you can get Hollander’s number. I don’t have it on me.”

“Sure. I’m flagging a little. How about we get a cup of coffee?”

“I wouldn’t mind some food, actually. Last time I ate it was six in the morning and it was only a bowl of Cheerios. I could use something substantial.”

“Rina didn’t pack you a lunch?”

“She offered, but I told her not to bother. Lately it’s been hard to take anything on board. Lord only knows what’s next. Maybe bombs made out of roast beef.”

THE CELL RANG just as Decker was paying for two tuna-fish sandwiches with coleslaw and french fries, plus two cups of coffee, all of it courtesy of LAPD. He was feeling more alert after having eaten, which made him wonder if he’d missed something crucial during the Holmes interview. He recognized the number as the one he had dialed about an hour ago and depressed the green button. “What’s the good word, Mike?”

“Life is good, Pete, and getting better. The name of the technology is Rapid Prototyping and here’s how it works-I think.”

“Hold on a sec, Mike. Let me get inside the car so I can hear you and scribble some notes.”

“Sure. Take your time.”

After he was ensconced in his seat-this time Marge elected to drive-Decker took out a notepad. “I’m going to put you on speakerphone so Margie can hear you as well.” He jacked up the volume, pushed the button, and laid the phone on the dashboard of the rental.

“Hi, Marge,” Hollander said.

“Hey, Michael. How does it feel to be a cop again?”

“Real good.”

“You have a home with us, buddy,” Decker said. “We’re ready. Lay it on.”

“I’m reading off my notes, so bear with me. Like I said, the process is called Rapid Prototyping. It’s used in industry to construct models. Let me give you the example like the tape did. Suppose Ford Motor Company designs an engine block on a computer? Now a computer image is a two-dimensional representation of something three-dimensional. But the company needs a three-dimensional object to work with. Say, for instance, using Ford Motor again, the company wants to place it in the hood of the car to see how much room it’s going to take up. That’s where Rapid Prototyping comes in. It’s a technology that makes a three-dimensional model off of the two-dimensional computer image.”

“Got it,” Marge said.

“This is how Wisconsin solved the problem. The first thing they did was to run the skull through a CT scan. I called up the coroner’s office. They don’t have a machine, but all hospitals do. Maybe we can ask county to borrow one. It’s not far from the Crypt. Anyway, once you have the machine, you’ll also need a technician to take serial cross-section X-rays of the entire skull. Are you two with me?”

“We are,” Marge said. “Go on.”

“Okay. Now each X-ray image from the CT scan is a one-millimeter cross section of the skull.”

There was a long pause. Marge said, “Mike, are you there?”

“Yeah, wait a sec…okay, here we go. Once you have the X-rays, you need someone to feed the shots into a computer that interfaces with this prototype machine. The computer tells the machine to laser-cut a piece of paper for every CT-scan X-ray you have. So each piece of paper represents a millimeter cross-sectional outline of skull. Not the inside part, obviously, just the perimeter. Am I making myself understandable? ’Cause it’s much easier once you see the tape.”

“I think I got what you’re saying,” Decker said. “You have a cross-sectional paper silhouette that’s one millimeter thick.”

“Exactly, except that each paper silhouette is only around one one-thousandth of an inch because the computer interpolates between the X-rays to make the model smoother.”

“Okay,” Decker said. “Go on.”

“So…where was I? Oh, here I am. The machine cuts out a paper silhouette about one-one-thousandth-inch thick and stacks it onto the previous paper silhouette. So in the end, you have a huge stack of paper silhouettes that represents the skull. Then another part of the machine squeezes the stack of paper silhouettes together until you have a three-dimensional representation of the original skull.”

Decker said, “Let me recap. The original skull is fed through a CT scan that takes cross sections of the skull about one millimeter thick. Then the CT-scan images are fed into a computer that’s attached to the prototyping machine. The prototyping machine cuts paper silhouettes of the computer model based on the CT-scan images. Each silhouette is about one-one-thousandth-inch thick. The paper silhouettes are stacked upon one another in order. Then another part of the machine compresses the paper so that the skull is basically reconstituted out of paper.”

“Exactly.” Hollander paused. “You’re pretty quick at this.”

“I’ve done some carpentry in my day,” Decker said. “Gluing layers of thin laminate on top of one another to get an odd shape. What you end up with is a skull that is in essence made out of wood.”

“Perfect!”

“And the forensic artist uses the wooden skull to construct a clay face onto.”

“One hundred percent. And here’s the best part, Deck. There’s legal precedent for doing this. The Wisconsin court ruled that the replica skull could be used for forensic purposes since the model was accurate with all its bony landmarks.”

“So let me get this straight,” Decker said. “We need to transport a very delicate skull to a CAT-scan machine. Once I do that, I need a CAT-scan technician to take a bunch of serial X-rays. Then I need to find a company who has access to a machine that does Rapid Prototyping. After we find the machine, we still need to find a programmer who can program the X-rays into the computer, and lastly, we need a technician to run the machine that produces the three-dimensional object.”

“It sounds like a lot, but I bet getting your hands on the machines isn’t as hard as it appears,” Hollander said. “We’ve got some automobile plants in the Valley.”

“You’re right. I’m not worried about finding the machinery. I am worried about finding the funding.”

There was a brief silence over the phone. Then Hollander said, “You see, that’s why I’m glad I retired. I liked the detective part of the job. It was the red tape that was always a bitch.”