Page 40 of Nothing Left

She could only hope that the assistant, seeing he worked on watches, would have an eye for detail and be an observant man.

In a moment, Jose returned with the assistant behind him. He was a young man who had a head of orange bleached hair, a sharp nose, and tattoos on his forearms.

"Good afternoon," he said, staring in consternation at Juliette and Wyatt. He spoke English with an accent that Juliette gauged to be more Italian than Spanish. "I am so sorry. I hope I am not in trouble, but I believe I did something wrong?"

Juliette shook her head. "No, you're not in trouble. We just need your help. The man who came in to sell the pendant, can you describe him for us?"

The young man grimaced. "I wish I had paid more attention to him now. I was more captivated by the jewelry itself and the challenge of pricing it correctly while Jose was not here." He paused thoughtfully. "He was about my height. Older than me, maybe in his thirties? He had dark hair cut short. He was an ordinary-looking guy. I mean, I notice tattoos and things like that, but I didn't notice anything on him. I guess it was more difficult because he was wearing a jacket, long-sleeved and black. And a baseball cap, also black."

"Would you say he was Spanish?"

"Yes. I am from Italy," he said, confirming what Juliette had thought. "Because of that, I do not always pick up on accents, and I couldn't tell you what area of the country he was from, but I think he was Spanish."

"Did you notice if he arrived in a car or left in one?" Wyatt asked.

"He just walked in and out," the assistant said. "I definitely didn't notice a car."

They didn't have much. Juliette acknowledged that with a sinking of her heart. And, as Wyatt probed further, trying to get any finer details of his appearance out of the assistant who had done no more than glance casually at him, things got worse.

Sierra walked back in, shaking her head and looking disappointed.

"It's a fake passport number," she said. "It's been altered, and Ebury also thinks the photo itself has been substituted. So there's no way of tracking it. Not from a photocopy."

Juliette nodded. They'd gotten a lucky break, but it hadn't lasted long. Their luck had been short-lived, and it had now run out. But what they did know was that this thief had stolen the pendant and had sold it. So, this cleared Heather.

If Delgado, the station commander, hadn't listened to her then, he wouldn't listen to her now. He'd already brushed off the importance of the stolen piece of jewelry, saying that it could have gone missing at a different time. He would only do the same if they came back to him with this, especially since all they had was a vague description and a fake passport copy.

They needed more.

She walked out, feeling frustrated beyond words that they were coming up against dead ends every which way they turned. She'd tried so hard. There seemed no more she could do. They’d checked and double-checked every step of the way, and she'd drilled down into every single possible inconsistency. It was desperately unfair that this killer was still so far ahead.

And then, as she climbed into the car, her phone began ringing.

Picking up the call, it took her a moment to realize who was calling. Then, she remembered that assistant in the pathology lab that they'd visited yesterday. It was her voice.

"Agent Hart?" the woman said. "The pathologist who worked on Samantha Cole’s postmortem has picked up a detail on the autopsy after you told him to double-check. Please could you hold for him? Dr. Manuel wants to speak to you urgently."

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

"Agent Hart?" Juliette could hear the excitement, taut and intense, in the pathologist’s voice. Wyatt and Sierra piled into the car alongside her and closed the doors, and she switched the phone onto speaker.

She'd had a feeling that Samantha's body held more secrets. How she hoped that these secrets might lead them to the killer.

"Agent Hart is speaking," she said. "Do you have more information, Dr. Manuel?"

"Yes, I do," the pathologist said. "You mentioned that I should check whether the knife wounds matched up with the apparent murder weapon. Even though I admit I thought that was unnecessary, I requested the weapon from the police evidence room, and we obtained it this afternoon."

"And what are your findings?" Juliette asked. She was holding her breath. She had a feeling that the others were, too. This was going to potentially change the course of the investigation.

"The stab wounds that were inflicted on the victim are deeper and narrower than those that could have been made by the knife in evidence. The knife in evidence has a shorter, wider blade. I have measured the wounds, and the knife in evidence could not have made them."

Juliette felt a surprising emotion as he spoke. Deep relief. She'd known from the start that it was unlikely that Samantha had been murdered by her flatmate. Now the forensic evidence proved this true, once and for all.

"I really appreciate that you've been able to find this," she said.

"I hope it helps you to find the killer," he said, his voice serious.

Juliette hung up and looked at the others.

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