Page 133 of Everything She Feared

Acker appeared at their desk.

“Good timing, Carl. Okay, we’re set, briefing in my office. Let’s go.”

Grotowski was out canvassing on another case and Tilden was working with the North Precinct. Benton shut the office door and sat next to Pierce. Acker pushed buttons on his phone, activating his speaker feature for a teleconference call with Heidi Wong at the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Kelly Jensen in forensics and Oscar Neale in the North Precinct.

“Everyone’s on the line,” Acker said. “You all have our summary of the unofficial, unscientific aspect of the investigation, indicating that it is more than likely Katie Harmon, a nine-year-old girl, could lift the rock, carry it to the cliff’s edge and drop it on Anna Shaw.”

“You know, Art, none of this is admissible,” Wong said.

“We know. But it helps us,” he said. “And we’ve been working on ruling out other options, removing or diminishing reasonable doubt.”

“Yes, you’ve established that the girl could conceivably lift the rock and use it as a weapon,” Wong said. “But what about the time gap and the two other possible suspects?”

“Yes,” Acker said. “Marilyn Hamilton, and Gilbert Croft, who were in the park, on security camera footage.”

“Hi, this is Jensen in forensics,” she jumped in. “We got clear latent prints for Croft and ran them. Other than being fingerprinted for his job at Boeing, his don’t come up anywhere.”

“And Hamilton?”

Pierce felt another ripple of nagging vagueness about Hamilton that she couldn’t pinpoint.

“In her case,” Jensen said, “we’re still working on lifting something usable. We have a lot of smudging and it’s slowing things.”

“Again, we believe we’re likely going to rule out Croft and Hamilton,” Acker said.

“One more development,” Jensen said. “This just came to us from police in Israel. They’ve had success lifting prints from rocks and indicate that the new technology they’re using, which they’re willing to share with us, could help us get something from our murder weapon.”

“Really?” Wong said. “Wow, okay.”

“I think it’s clear—everything takes us back to Katie Harmon,” Acker said. “How do you want us to move on this, Heidi?”

“Give me a moment. I’m going to mute. Standby.”

Nearly a minute passed before Heidi Wong came back on.

“As we know, the prints you obtained surreptitiously from Croft and Hamilton are inadmissible and used for information, or elimination, at this stage.”

“Right,” Acker said.

“Moving to build a case on the girl remains challenging,” Wong said. “We still have no probable cause for arrest or charges at this point. We need to proceed carefully. We have a narrow window under the Fourth Amendment to collect her fingerprints as part of a criminal investigation, even if there is no probable cause for arrest. Let’s say under the principle of elimination prints.”

“So, our next step is to fingerprint Katie Harmon?” Pierce said.

“Yes. Formally. We do this by the book now, so it doesn’t come back on us. At this stage we’ll use Katie Harmon’s prints as comparison with the evidence, should we obtain a print from the rock.”

“Want us to question her again, go further?” Benton said.

“No, not at this stage,” Wong said. “Mirandize her, obtain her prints, and we’ll see where the science takes us.”

“I’ll get in touch with Sara Harmon and set it up,” Pierce said.

61

Seattle, Washington

Perplexed and numb,Sara stared at the envelopes on her kitchen table.

She hadn’t known that Magda had written to her mom and dad six months before her release.

---