Larry Chivers stood beside his truck, sealing the nylon evidence bags with a heat sealer and finishing up his notes and observations. He had recovered from his fainting spell, but not from his sense of furious embarrassment. Such a thing had never happened to him — ever. He imagined that everyone was looking at him, whispering about him.
With a grimace, he finished working on the final evidence bag, careful to make the seal complete. Already, he’d narrated the rest of his observations into the digital recorder while they were still fresh. He had to make absolutely sure he did everything just right. This was going to be a huge case — probably even national.
There was a sound behind him, and he turned to see Chief Morris approaching. The man looked utterly undone.
“Sorry about my reaction back there,” Chivers muttered.
“I knew the family,” the chief told him. “One of the girls worked as an intern in my office.”
Chivers shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
“I’d like to hear your reconstruction of the fire.”
“I can give you my first impressions. The lab results may take a few days.”
“Go ahead.”
Chivers took a deep breath. “Point of origin of the fire, in my view, would be either the second-floor bath or the bedroom above the living room. Both areas were doused heavily with accelerant — so much so that the perp would have had to leave the house fairly quickly. Both areas contained human remains.”
“You mean, the Bakers…the victims…were burned with accelerant?”
“Two of them, yes.”
“Alive?”
What a question. “That’ll have to wait for the M.E. But I doubt it.”
“Thank God.”
“Two more victims were found by the back door — probably where the perp made his exit. There was the body of a dog there, too.”
“Rex,” said the chief to himself, wiping his brow with a trembling hand.
Chivers noted the same man in the black suit he’d seen before, floating in the background, eyes on them. He frowned. Why was the undertaker allowed inside the cordon?
“Motive?” asked the chief.
“Now I’m guessing,” Chivers continued, “but from thirty years of experience I’d say pretty definitely we’re looking at a home invasion and robbery, combined with possible sex crimes. The fact that the entire family was subdued and controlled suggests to me there might have been more than one perp.”
“This was no robbery,” came a soft, drawling voice.
Chivers jerked his head around to find that the man in the black suit had somehow managed to approach without being noticed and was now standing behind them.
Chivers’s scowl deepened. “I’m talking to the chief. Do you mind?”
“Not at all. But if I may, I would like to offer a few observations for the benefit of the investigation. A mere robber would not have gone to the trouble to tie up his victims and then burn them alive.”
“Alive?” the chief said. “How do you know?”
“The sadism and rage evident in the arc of this crime are palpable. A sadist wishes to see his victims suffer. That is how he derives his gratification. To tie someone to a bed, douse that person with gasoline, and light them on fire — where’s the gratification in that, if the person is already dead?”
The chief’s face went as gray as putty. His mouth moved but no sound came out.
“Bullshit,” said Chivers fiercely. “This was a home invasion and robbery. I’ve seen it before. The perps break in, find a couple of pretty girls, have their way with them, load up on jewelry, and then burn down the place thinking they’ll destroy the evidence — particularly the DNA inside the girls.”
“Yet they didn’t take the jewelry, as you yourself noted in your taped observations a few minutes ago, regarding some lumps of gold you discovered.”
“Hold on, here. You were listening to me? Who the hell are you?” Chivers turned to the chief. “Is this guy official?”
The chief passed a sopping handkerchief across his brow. He looked indecisive and frightened. “Please. Enough.”
The man in the black suit regarded him a moment with his silver eyes, and then shrugged nonchalantly. “I have no official role here. I am merely a bystander offering his impressions. I shall leave you gentlemen to your work.”
With that he turned and began to leave. Then he paused to speak over his shoulder. “I should mention, however: there may well be…more.”
And with that he walked off, slipping under the tape and disappearing into the crowd of rubberneckers.