Page 64 of Water's Edge

“Is that what you were talking to Marley about?” Clay asks. “I’ll bet he didn’t like running all of that DNA.” He is looking at me like he is onto what I’ve actually done. I don’t tell them that Marley has no idea who the samples are from.

“Anyway,” I press on, “Marley said he’d do the comparisons quickly. Did the DNA from Margie Benton and Dina Knowles get you anywhere?”

I didn’t see any mention of either in their reports.

Larry hangs his head. “My samples were contaminated.”

“Contaminated?” I ask. I find it hard to imagine a vaginal swab being contaminated in a controlled environment—and there is always a remedy if it is. “Couldn’t you just take a new sample?”

“Not contaminated, exactly,” he says, like he’s confessing something untoward. “My victim led a very active sexual life.”

“Mine, too,” Clay says quickly, “but we got a good sample.”

Larry misreads the disappointed expression on my face as me being peeved by what he’s just said.

“Now, don’t go thinking I’m a sexist or nothing like that,” he says, looking first at me, then at Ronnie. “Hey, anything we say in this room stays in this room. Right?”

I ignore him. I may need some ammunition to use against him someday. I have Ronnie as a witness.

Larry goes on to explain and in doing so shoves his foot deeper in his mouth.

“My victim had maybe as many as twenty ‘samples’ in her on any given day. She worked at a bar during the evening and was a prostitute on the side. Then she gave up the lower-paying job and quit the bar. DNA would be inconclusive at best.”

I assumed that Larry’s and Clay’s DNA evidence matched. I thought that was the reason they were working the cases together. I was wrong. Maybe the DNA isn’t going to be enough to make these cases after all.

It doesn’t really matter if everything else leads to the killer.

“I did some digging into Bohleber’s and Truitt’s past,” I say. “Bohleber told me he has a twin brother, Steve. They moved to Marrowstone from Indiana, where they had a farm. I found Indiana criminal records on Steve Bohleber. He did three years for assaulting a policeman. He’s on parole now. I checked with his PO and they haven’t been able to locate him.”

I have their complete attention and I continue.

“Joe Bohleber was a suspect in Indiana for bank fraud and money laundering, but those charges never stuck. Nothing on record here. Neither of the twins ever show employment as farmers. Joe told me they were co-owners of fishing cabins. Leann Truitt lived in one just off Mystery Bay.”

Larry jumps in. “They probably have a weed farm on Marrowstone. Maybe your little gal got to snooping around and they killed her to keep her quiet?”

Clay puts up his hand. “Hold on, Larry. Marrowstone Island has had legal cultivation and use laws since 2012. They can grow it in their backyards if they want, and it seems a lot of them do. Why would Bohleber worry about being ratted out?”

I’m sure Bohleber isn’t worried about marijuana. I can’t prove it yet, but he was into blackmail. Truitt is a different horse altogether. If he is the father of Leann’s baby, he has motive to kill or hire someone to kill Leann. Maybe he hired one of the Bobbsey Twins.

“You both said the bodies were hard to get to,” I say. “How did you get to them? Who worked the scene?”

Larry lays another picture on the desk. It is a view of the scene from the water. I make out the rail of a boat in the bottom corner of the image.

“Marine Patrol came out,” he says. “They took some of our CSIs and worked the scene together. You need names?”

“Not at the moment,” I say. “I had Marine Patrol come out also. Captain Martin and a deputy named Floyd. They helped the techs work the area. Marine Patrol recovered the body and brought it around to a boat ramp to get it to the coroner.”

“‘Marvelous Martin,’” Clay says with a grin.

“Roy took me out on the boat one time during my rotation,” Ronnie says.

I’m grateful just then that Larry offers no colorful comment concerning Ronnie’s rotation.

“I’ve read your autopsy reports,” I say. “The cause of death for Knowles was strangulation. Benton bled to death. Both had broken necks. Is that right?”

Larry and Clay nod.

“What can you tell me that isn’t in the autopsy reports?”

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