“Well, then,” Harris said with a smile, “on the positive side, that means we have twice the chance of getting lucky with IAFIS putting a name to those SNUs.”
IAFIS was the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System. SNU was the abbreviation for Suspect Name Unknown.
“Kerry,” Payne said, “would you click on Reggie’s SNUs?”
“Thought you’d never ask, Marshal,” Rapier said.
Payne ignored the curious sudden reference to his nickname, Wyatt Earp of the Main Line, but saw out of the corner of his eye that Rapier was grinning.
Then, on the monitor, over the text box, a cursor appeared-and he immediately understood.
“It is different, Kerry,” Payne said.
Harris snorted.
The digital pointer on-screen was not the usual black arrow. It was an actual image of a Colt. 45 ACP Officer’s Model pistol. Rapier knew it was Payne’s favorite sidearm.
“I thought you’d like it, Marshal. Changing the cursor image was easy enough. This next part took a little work.”
All the underlined words in the case file were hyperlinks that allowed a system user to access additional information on the case.
Corporal Rapier moved the Colt pistol over the underlined SNU 2010- 56-9326. When he clicked on it, three things happened in rapid succession. First, the sound of a pistol firing emanated from the speakers. Second, a puff of smoke appeared and disappeared from the muzzle of the pistol cursor. And, third, a box popped up that was headlined “Suspect Name Unknown #2010-56-9326.” It held digitized images of fingerprints that had been lifted from Reggie Jones.
Now Harris laughed out loud. “That’s great!”
Payne looked at Rapier and said, “Have a little extra time on your hands lately, Corporal?”
Rapier looked back, appearing a little embarrassed, and shrugged. “Didn’t take that long. You don’t like it?”
“No, I think it’s great, too, Kerry.”
Payne returned his attention to the big monitor, and Rapier moved the cursor to the underlined SNU 2010-56-9327. After another click of the cursor, complete with “firing pistol” effects, a second box popped up with digitized images of fingerprints, this one headlined “Suspect Name Unknown #2010-56-9327.” As in the previous box, there was a hyperlink-REGINALD “REGGIE” JONES CASE NO.: 2010-81-039613-POP-N-DROP-referencing back to Reggie Jones’s master case file. That meant, at least for the moment, that the two sets of fingerprints were associated with only a single crime-his murder.
“Well, the good news is that both doers left really clear prints, even if they’re far from a full set,” Payne said. “IAFIS should have no trouble with them.”
“Assuming there’s a match on file,” Harris said.
Payne grunted. He knew that had been the problem with the first five pop-and-drops. When they ran the prints though IAFIS, nothing came back. It was possible-though hard to fathom, Payne thought, considering the shooter had killed five people-that the doer had never been fingerprinted.
“Well, we should know in a couple hours,” Payne said.
He turned to Rapier and said, “Let’s see what we’ve got on Gartner.” He looked at the second bank of monitors. “Looks like lucky number thirteen.”
Kerry Rapier worked his control panel, and the image from TV monitor number thirteen replaced the main screen’s image of Reggie Jones. It was somewhat similar to Jones’s-a brightly lit shot of the sidewalk outside Francis Fuller’s office building in Old City.
But this image from the medical examiner’s video recording showed two bloodied bodies, with the smaller of the two slightly grayed-out and blurred so it was instantly clear which of the dead was Gartner.
The bottom right-hand corner ID stamp was also slightly different:
Richard Saunders Holdings/Lex Talionis Third amp; Arch 2301 hours, 31 Oct
Payne, Harris, and Rapier read the text box that next appeared:
Name: Daniel O. “Danny” GARTNER
Description: White male, age 55, 5'9", 160 lbs.
L.K.A.: 1834 Callowhill St, Phila. and 1014 Hall St, Phila.
Prior Arrests: None.
Call Received: 31 Oct, 2202 hours.
Cause of Death: GUNSHOT and/or SUFFOCATION.
Case No.: 2010-81-039612-POP-N-DROP
Notes: SNU 2010-56-9280 Gartner was a criminal defense lawyer. Found dead with a client, one John “JC” NGUYEN Case No.: 2010- 81-039611-Pop-n-Drop. Large-bore gunshot to head. clear packing tape wrapped around head, covering mouth and nose. Garbage bag over head sealed with packing tape. Packing tape also bound wrists and ankles. One (1) spent shell casing Glock. 45 caliber found in alleyway behind Gartner’s law office. Also recovered from inside law office were zipper-top bags, one containing cocaine and one with 53 tablets of Rohypnol. And a large volume (possibly in excess of a gallon) of urine, source unknown, poured around office. Body transported to Lex Talionis, Old City.
“Well, no surprise there,” Matt Payne said.
“Why’s that, Matt?” Harris asked.
“Kerry, go ahead and click on his SNU. I think I know where this is going.”
The Colt pistol pointer fired and smoked over the hyperlink. A box headlined “Suspect Name Unknown #2010-56-9280” popped up. It had seven different sets of fingerprints, some with two or three fingers, one with only a finger and thumb. And it had seven case file hyperlinks:
Daniel O. “Danny” GARTNER Case No.: 2010-81-039612-Pop-n-Drop John “JC” NGUYEN Case No.: 2010-81-039611-Pop-n-Drop Jerome WHITEN Case No.: 2010-81-039605-Pop-n-Drop Dion THOMPSON Case No.: 2010-81-039598-Pop-n-Drop Jason “Whitey” WALSH Case No.: 2010-81-039593-Pop-n-Drop Jamaal ROSS Case No.: 2010-81-039589-Pop-n-Drop Juan RIVERA Case No.: 2010-81-039582-Pop-n-Drop
“Holy shit!” Tony Harris said. “The prints are from the same doer.”
“Yeah,” Payne said, his tone frustrated. “I thought I recognized that SNU number when I saw it.”
“And not a single hit with IAFIS?”
“Nope, not one,” Payne said. “The problem is all we get with this guy’s fingerprints is more of his fingerprints. He makes no effort to cover his tracks. It’s incredible.”
“And piss,” Corporal Kerry Rapier said. “Don’t forget the piss.”
“Right,” Payne said. “And the useless piss.”
Payne looked at the list.
“I can damn near recite from memory everything about those first five, mostly because what little we have on them is pretty much the same. Starting with, of course, whoever the hell shot them. All male fugitives-three black, one white, and one Hispanic, an illegal alien-with a history of sex crimes against women or children. All shot either in the head or chest at point-blank range. The only autopsy results we have so far are from them. Rivera”-he gestured at the second bank of monitors-“there on number sixteen, had two full-metal-jacket 9-millimeter rounds in his chest. Whitey Walsh, on number fifteen, the lone white guy, must have had one helluva hard head, because somehow a jacketed hollow-point. 45-caliber round went in at the base of his skull and stayed there after scrambling his brains.”
“Jesus!” Harris said. “That’s the kind of thing that generally happens only with a. 22-caliber round.”
“Yeah,” Payne said. “Which suggests that maybe-just maybe-our doer is loading his own ammo and making light loads for his targeted killings. Or just a bad round. Either way, shot from a Glock. Ballistics, of course, caught the unique scoring made by the rifling in Glock barrels.”
Harris nodded. “There was that Glock. 45-cal shell casing behind Gartner’s office. It’d be a long shot, but wouldn’t surprise me to hear the doer’s prints also came off that brass.”
“Yeah,” Payne said, nodding thoughtfully. Then he went on: “And get this: The autopsies also found that all five had STDs.”
“How nice,” Harris said dryly. “The gift that keeps on giving. Especially when you rape someone. Damned animals.”
Payne said: “Which I’ve come to learn is not that unusual, particularly in certain circles.”
Rapier offered, “The stats are that one out of five people over age twelve in America has herpes.”