Page 114 of Forever Dead

Selena nodded toward Eleanor's photograph.

“Any progress on the second break-in at her house?”

“Arnold's still checking it. Nothing we can use yet.”

“And the Linwood payphone?”

“Same story. He's working outward from the bus depot, looking for anything that might identify the caller.”

Selena nodded.

“Someone knew there was a reason to send police to Eleanor's house. We need to find out what they knew and how they knew it.”

Selena pushed herself up using the table and reached for her cane.

Connor handed her the marker.

She crossed toward the board. Between Eleanor and Patricia's photographs, Arnold had pinned a note.

BLACK ORGANIC MATERIAL.

Selena added beneath it:

SIMILAR FRAGMENTS UNDER BOTH VICTIMS' NAILS.

She drew a line toward each photograph.

“Both women appear to have picked up this material during the attacks.”

“Something the killer was wearing?” Connor asked.

“Possibly. Gloves or clothing. I mentioned a mask to Blethan earlier.”

“With Halloween coming up, somebody wearing a mask wouldn't attract much attention.”

Selena considered that. “We still don't know whether the material's human. Or whether it was worn at all.”

She wrote three possibilities beneath the note.

GLOVES? CLOTHING? MASK?

“Foss thinks there's probably a common source,” she said. “But we need to establish what it is and where it came from.”

Her attention returned to the old property records.

Eleanor's farmhouse. The Tully place. Both once owned by the Cutlers.

She thought about Ray standing on his porch, insisting his family had been cheated. The property disputes had given her something concrete to pursue, and she wanted to know how far his anger had gone.

“We should get the full history of those disputes,” she said. “Not just the court filings. I want to know who Ray talked to and what he said.”

Connor made a note.

Selena turned back to the victim photographs.

Two women. Two different methods of murder. Two former Cutler properties.

The similar fragments suggested a connection between the victims, but the property records still offered the clearest explanation she had for why Eleanor's farmhouse had been chosen.