“She could have picked that up anywhere at any time.”
“Don’t think so. Look at the tire.”
With the nail removed, itwas already deflating. They could hear air escaping.
“It’s not rusted or anything. And if it had been there a while and she had driven on it, the nail would have worked itself through the surface of the tread and the tire would have started leaking and then gone flat. And this tire looks newer than the others. The inspection sticker on the windshield shows that she had it inspected thismonth. I bet the tire didn’t pass inspection and she had to replace it with this one.”
“Okay, but she still could have picked up the nail anywhere, like the parking lot of a hardware store.”
“Possibly, but these nails are set in a strip carrier, sort of like an ammo belt on a machine gun. They don’t just fall out.”
Jamison took a picture of the tire and nail withher phone. “Anything else?”
“Tanner’s car is here, so that means she got to the house where her body was found another way, unless whoever killed her drove it back here.”
“Maybe she went in her killer’s car?”
“Or did she go separately? Maybe with Toby Babbot?”
“Decker, the police can show no connection between those two.”
“You’re wrong, they haveone very strong connection.”
“What’s that?”
“They died together.”