“I don’t know.” He looked at the ME. “Is the DNA sample still available to do additional testing, to see if Mitzi’s DNA or a third party’s had corrupted it? I asked you to check earlier.”
The ME nodded his head. “I did check. And there is some left. I’m having an expert in Cincinnati where they have much better equipment and protocols do sophisticated testing on it. They’ll be able to differentiate between a father’s and daughter’s DNA, and also the presence of any third party. But it will take a little time.”
“Let me know as soon as you have something.”
“You really think his daughter was involved?” said Natty.
“If she were it would explain how the murder weapon came to be found in a panel behind the wall of his closet. I just reread the report of the search team that went over Hawkins’s house. They wrote that Mitzi had drawn their attention to some unevenness of the wall. They didn’t ask her why she knew about it.”
“Areyougoing to ask her about it?” said Natty.
“I think if I go back to that well again, she’s going to lawyer up. Probably already has. Right now, she’s home free, or thinks she is.”
Decker looked back at Susan Richards’s body. He closed his eyes and thought back to something that a witness had told him. He put layer after layer of facts on top of that one, pulling them down from his cloud with ease. Until something did not make sense. It stood out, in fact, like a blinking red light.
Natty said, “So, you don’t think she killed herself?”
Decker opened his eyes. “I’m almost sure she didn’t.”
“How?”
“Because I think she was already dead when she left her house.”