Sight Unseen Read Free Page A

Fifth Street. That was the first thing I noticed.” She leaned over the windshield and examined it more closely. “May I borrow an evidence glove?”
    Poole peeled off his right glove and gave it to her. Kendra slipped it on and rubbed her fingers across the cracks, both inside the windshield and outside. She occasionally closed her eyes, letting her sense of touch guide her in a way that was seldom necessary anymore.
    She finally looked up and stepped away. “And, what’s more, the force of impact came from outside this windshield, not the inside.”
    Poole leaned down to look. “Both sides are shattered. How can you tell?”
    “There are two kinds of fractures here. Radial fractures, which jut out like the spokes of a wheel, and concentric fractures, which are like a series of circles radiating outward. The concentric fractures are always on the impact side. It’s difficult to see which side they’re actually on, but you can feel them.” She peeled off the glove and handed it to Poole. “Want to try?”
    “No thanks. I’ll take your word for it.”
    “Anyway, your forensics guys will back me up.” Kendra glanced around. “I take it no one actually saw the accident?”
    “No. The zoo and botanical gardens had been closed for hours. There’s not a lot of traffic here after dark.”
    “So what were the victims doing here?”
    “Don’t know. We’ve just started notifying the next of kin.” He motioned toward the still-circling news’copters.” Although some may have found out already.” Poole turned to Dean. “What about you? Are you with the media? Who are you again?”
    Dean extended his hand. “Dean Halley. History professor. Just along for the ride.”
    Poole looked at Kendra.
    “He doesn’t have anything to do with this,” she added quickly. “Blind date.”
    Poole glanced from one to the other. “Huh. And how’s it going?”
    “Pretty good, I think,” Kendra said.
    Dean nodded. “Except for the dead bodies. Could have done without that.”
    Poole stared at Kendra. “Then why in the hell are you here, Dr. Michaels?”
    “I didn’t want evidence compromised. I’m sure your medical examiner will tell you this later tonight or tomorrow, but these people didn’t die here.”
    Poole gazed at her for another long moment. “What makes you say that?”
    “There would be a lot more blood if they had hit this windshield with enough force to kill them. They both have identical bruising on their necks, as if they were strangled by the same patterned belt or cord.”
    Poole examined the corpses in the BMW more closely. “And how did you know you would find this?”
    “I didn’t. But like I said, I could see this accident wasn’t what it seemed to be.” She pointed to the long skid mark behind the overturned minivan. “This was meant to look like it came from that van, but I don’t think it did. If you skid on antilock brakes, the mark looks like a series of dashes, not an unbroken line. Another thing I spotted from the news helicopter.”
    Pool walked over to the unbroken skid mark and squatted to look at it.
    Kendra followed him. “The van burned quickly. There was a Toluene-based accelerant used.”
    “Toluene?” One of the investigators, whom Kendra had just seen draw a chalk line around a severed hand next to the van, looked up at the word. “As in a solvent for paint?”
    “Or for model-airplane glue.”
    “How do you figure that?”
    Kendra grimaced. “I smell it. It’s a lot like benzene.”
    The investigator, a slender man with short gray hair, stood up and sniffed the air. “I’m smelling a lot of things right now, but that isn’t one of them.”
    “Trust me. Take samples and run your tests. These cars were burned intentionally.”
    The investigator looked at her skeptically. “Trust you? Pardon me for asking, but who the hell are you?”
    “Someone you should listen to, Johnson,” Poole said. He took Kendra by the arm and guided her away. “Look,” he said in a