Page 11 of Absent Feeling

“Isn’tthat Amber Young, the puzzle expert? Does that mean that the killer has left apuzzle on the scene?”

Simondid his best to ignore the shouted questions, continuing to move forward.Detective Heart had caught up to him and Amber by the time they reached thepolice tape, so the three of them ducked under it and headed into the house.

Simonsaw the streaks of blood on the walls instantly as he stepped inside. He foundhimself looking around at Amber, wanting to make sure that she was all right.There was a brief flicker of discomfort on her face, but it didn’t seem to fazeher though.

Simonfelt a moment of sympathy for the victim as he saw the blood, but he knew thathe couldn’t afford to focus on that. The best thing that he could do forRaymond Werdly was to find the person who had done this.

“Thebody was found in the lounge,” Detective Heart said, showing Simon and Amberthrough.

Thebody was gone by now, of course, because the coroner would have taken it awayfor an autopsy. Simon could still see the dark stain on the hardwood floorwhere the blood had been, though, and the Rorschach card still sat in thatstain, although it was now in an evidence bag to protect it.

“Hasanything new come up from forensics or the coroner since yesterday?” Simonasked.

DetectiveHeart shrugged. “The coroner is confident that the same knife was used in bothmurders. We haven’t been able to find any DNA evidence or fingerprints, and theofficers canvassing the neighborhood haven’t found anyone who saw anything.”

“Didyou find how the killer got in?” Amber asked.

“Wethink he picked the lock on the back door.”

Whichpoints to a certain level of expertise and probably planning, especially sincehe’d gained entry to the house at a point when the victim was alone.

“Haveyou been able to find the spot he surveilled the house from?” Simon asked.

DetectiveHeart frowned at that. “What makes you think he did?”

“Hecaught his victim alone and knew that he would have enough time to enterwithout being spotted. That suggests that he watched the house before hestruck, waiting for the right moment.”

Simonfound himself scanning the room carefully, trying to work out how the attackwould have happened.

“WasRaymond stabbed from the front or behind?” Simon asked.

“Thecoroner says that the first stab wound was from the front,” Detective Heartreplied. “There were defensive wounds to the hands and arms but also stabwounds to his back.”

“Hetried to get away,” Amber said. Simon could hear the pain there in her voice.“He turned to run, and the killer kept stabbing him.”

Shehad moved over to the mantlepiece and was staring at the inkblot card thekiller had left behind. Simon saw her pick it up in its evidence bag, turningit over and examining it from every possible angle. Simon could see the look ofconcentration on her face now, that look she got while she was working on apuzzle. She’d obviously decided that the inkblot was the part that she had thebest chance to help with. If there was any information there in it, Simon hadno doubt that she would be able to find it.

“Isthere any evidence of the killer going into any of the other rooms of thehouse?” Simon asked.

DetectiveHeart shook his head. “Not that we’ve been able to find. We think he came inand went straight for his victim at both scenes.”

Meaningthat they were unlikely to find anything by searching the house. The forensicteam would make a better job of it in any case.

“Tellus if you find anything in the rest of the place,” Simon said. “And have theforensics team sweep the area in the yard to see if you can find the spot hewatched from. If he approached from that direction, then he was probablywaiting somewhere back there for a while.”

“Andwhat will you be doing while I’m doing all that?” Detective Heart asked,obviously not happy at being left with the work of trying to find the killer’shiding spot and searching the house.

“Whereis Raymond Werdly’s family?” Simon asked.

“They’restaying with a neighbor until we’re through here,” the detective said.

“Thenwe’re going to go talk to them. Maybe they’ll be able to give us something thatwill help us find the killer.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Amberstared at the inkblot as she and Simon headed across to the neighbor’s house.It felt as though there was something there that she should spot. It felt asthough it had to be significant, or why had the killer left it behind? It wasstill in its plastic evidence bag, but Amber suspected that she was going tohave to take it out of there soon, just to check if there was any kind oftactile evidence there that didn’t show up to the naked eye.

Amberwas still thinking about it when she saw camera flashes and heard the sound ofreporters rushing forward.

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