Marge nodded. “Is everything OK?”
“I don’t know.” Bree could only hope.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Matt settled in the conference room with a laptop, a stack of photos, and Rory in forensics on speakerphone.
“I’m emailing you the preliminary forensics reports both from the crime scene and from Bernard Crighton’s residence,” Rory said. “Unfortunately, nothing stands out at the crime scene that we haven’t already discussed. Recovered fingerprints belonged to the victims. We found plenty of interesting trace evidence: goat hair, cat fur, chicken feathers, animal feces . . . but the crime scene is a goat farm, so . . .”
The computer dinged. Matt opened the email and downloaded the reports. As he scanned the list of evidence, he compared the items with crime scene photos.
Rory continued. “The search of Bernard’s house was more interesting. We found goat and cat fur on his doormat. Also, traces of chicken feces and feathers on a pair of shoes out in the garage.”
Bernard had already admitted to being at the farm recently, so Matt wasn’t surprised. “No blood other than what we found on the pants?” he asked.
“No, and per the sheriff’s request, we asked for a rush on that DNA test. The lab hopes to have those results in another day or two.” Rory paused. Keys tapped over the connection. “But the lab tested the clothing in Bernard’s hamper for gunshot residue. They didn’t find any.”
“Bernard stated that if he’d killed his sister and nephew, he would have disposed of his clothing. Maybe he did just that.” But if that were true, Matt had no explanation for the bloodstained pants, other than the blood was actually Bernard’s.
“Oh, wait.” Rory hesitated. “Our tech found two dried flower petals in Bernard’s garage that match the three found at the crime scene.”
Matt flipped through the photos of the farm’s exterior. “But we didn’t find a butterfly bush on either property.”
“No. Nor did we find any petals on Bernard Crighton’s shoes or in his vehicle.”
“He could have picked them up anywhere.” Matt stroked his beard. They had no idea when the flower petals had been dropped at the crime scene. But Oscar had visited Bernard’s house just a few days before the murders. He could have tracked the flower petals to both locations. “Did the techs check all of Oscar’s shoes at the crime scene?”
“We did,” Rory said. “We didn’t find any on his shoes or in his vehicle.”
“Anything else?” Matt asked.
“Those are the highlights. I’ll let you know when the DNA analysis comes in.”
“Thanks, Rory.” Matt ended the call. He shuffled more photos and paused on pictures of Oscar’s body in situ.
The flower petals could be irrelevant. Oscar had been at both the crime scene and Bernard’s house. Thinking of the flowers, he picked up his phone and texted Todd, who was checking suspects’ houses for butterfly bushes. ANY LUCK?
A new email popped into Matt’s inbox. It was from the Scarlet Falls PD. He opened it and downloaded the original report from Bernard’s son’s suicide. The boy had hanged himself from the clothing rod in his closet. He’d used his own belt. No one had been in the house that day except Bernard and his three children. The son had been a short, skinny boy. Interviews of his closest friends confirmed he’d stuttered badly and had been bullied and depressed since his mother died. Neither the responding officers nor the medical examiner had found any sign of foul play. The death had been ruled a suicide without much fuss.
As much as Matt didn’t want to empathize with a suspect, his heart broke for Bernard. How could he live in the same house where his son had killed himself? Matt remembered the boy’s room, dusted and kept almost as a shrine for decades.
Then again, how could he leave his only connection with the boy he’d lost?
Matt pulled out a copy of the image of Bernard’s happy young family on the sailboat. He stared at the smiling mother, the innocent boy. Just a few years after this photo was taken, both the mother and son were dead. Now Bernard had also lost his sister and nephew. Matt thought of Bree and the repeated instances of tragedy and violence in her family. Were some people magnets for bad luck? Maybe Bernard was just a victim of senseless loss.
Unless the DNA report of the blood on Bernard’s pants came up as a match for his sister or Oscar, they had no physical evidence linking Bernard to the murders. He had told lies about his whereabouts and contacts with the victims, and he had motive. Matt set the sailing photo aside. Motive wasn’t evidence.