“At least it’s there, and it’s just a matter of digging for it,” she muttered to herself.
“Yep, it is—or it should be.” With that, he settled at his desk.
She picked up her phone and made a call to Dr. Smidge.
When he answered, his voice was as testy as usual. “You know that I just walked in the door.”
She grimaced, then checked the time on her cell phone. “Sorry, Doc. My colleague just came in, so I figured maybe you were at work too.”
“We’re not all night owls, you know?” he growled.
“No, but we pull enough all-nighters in our world,” she noted, “that sometimes it’s hard to determine night from day.”
“What’s happened now?” he asked.
“Two similar cases in Alberta and two in Saskatchewan.”
“How old?”
“All over the last fifteen years.”
“Then your convicted suspect couldn’t have done those, if he was in jail.”
“And yet,” she explained, “he was in those same provinces at the same time those crimes were committed.”
At that, the coroner whistled. “Well, that’s interesting.”
“That’s what I thought,” she stated, “hence the call.”
“What can I do for you?”
“From the files, clearly the injuries look very similar to our cases, but could you take a closer look at these related four and see if there’s anything here that would be different enough to suggest it was a separate killer or a copycat or something like that? I know I’m grasping at straws, but I don’t care because straws are what we need.”
“If nothing else,” the coroner noted, “we need to knock that potential off the list.”
“Exactly,” she agreed.
“Have you got the files?”
“I do,” she replied. “I’m attaching them right now.”
“You could just give me the case numbers,” he reminded her. “I’ve got access.”
“Oh, duh, sorry. I should know that.” She gave him the related case numbers.
“Fine then. I’ll get back to you.” And he hung up.
As she got off the phone, she looked over to find Rodney staring at her.
“Was that Dr. Smidge?”
She nodded. “I figured he should take a look at the other cases.”
“Good idea,” Rodney stated. “I wish some billionaire would provide enough money to make a full-on real-time database across Canada.”
She looked at him, shooting one eyebrow skyward. “Like you? Wouldn’t that be nice,” she joked. “I know it’s something that they’re talking about, and a certain amount is functional, but it’s not complete.”
“It’ll never be complete at this rate, and why the hell can’t we take DNA when kids are born? And I think that job would take deeper pockets than I have.”