tell you. I have nothing to work with and I am not good at guessing, Detective Gallagher. I’m sorry."
Several cynical remarks were heard throughout the room, "This case is clueless," “The blind leading the blind” and "We have zip here!"
Gallagher stepped up, "Officers, I agree that we seemingly have little to go on and that we have more questions than answers."
"That’s an understatement." roared one of the men, and the sound of chuckling rippled through the room.
It was not amusing to the lead detective.
"Look, I know we are up against it on this one. It may take years, even if we solve it.
In my lifetime, I have never run up against a more baffling scenario, a beautiful young woman disappearing in broad daylight amidst thousands of students without a trace.
No motive suggests a runaway. No motive for her father to harm her. She was well-liked and had no apparent enemies.
Hell, even her dad was respected and well-liked, too. We are dealing with a ghost crime. Damn thing is invisible."
Gallagher turned to Dr. Lowe, "Thank you, doctor, let us know when you find anything!"
The pathologist started to step down and turned to Gallagher, "Well, there is one thing here, it may be unimportant and I cannot justify it scientifically but,"
His statement sent a glimmer of hope through Gallagher, "Yes, doctor?" He replied quickly.
"We found something near the curb next to the library but, it had no scientific match with any of the Allison girl's physical properties so we assume it was dropped by another student."
Gallagher suddenly wanted to strangle his forensic scientist.
Dr. Lowe was so careful that he never went beyond his microscope. At this point anything would have been an oasis in a desert of investigative desperation.
"You found something that day? Why didn't you tell me sooner, doctor?" Gallagher said evenly, trying to control his temper.
"Because we wanted to run tests on it first, to be accurate. I wanted to ascertain any forensic connection with the Taylor girl."
Gallagher was now turning red in the face, "Dr. Lowe, tell us what you found!" His voice was now a bit more strident which took the good pathologist a bit by surprise.
"Well, sir, we found a locket with some kind of a bird on it. But, the fibers did not match up with the potential victim and it appeared it had been outside a lot longer than the day she disappeared
We assumed one of the students had accidentally dropped it."
Gallagher was now marching strongly towards the podium, his manner definitely intense. As he got to the pathologist he stopped inches from his face and announced, "What in God's name were you thinking?
Did it ever occur to you that it might belong to the potential abductor? For crying out loud, man. We don't need a science book to use our basic, brain matter!"
The room suddenly fell silent.
Larsen quickly went to the front and positioned herself between Gallagher and Dr. Lowe.
It reminded her of the combative lacrosse games she relished playing in. "What Mike is trying to say, Dr. Lowe in his, uh, passion to solve this case is could you give us this locket and let us work on it, sir?"
Gallagher was so close to climbing over Elie to get to the doctor he looked like her backpack.
She stiffened her body and continued, "Do you have the article you found so we may place it in our evidence file? Now would be a good time to give it to us."
Her eyes firmly stared at Dr. Lowe and he caught their message.
He reached quickly into his
Several cynical remarks were heard throughout the room, "This case is clueless," “The blind leading the blind” and "We have zip here!"
Gallagher stepped up, "Officers, I agree that we seemingly have little to go on and that we have more questions than answers."
"That’s an understatement." roared one of the men, and the sound of chuckling rippled through the room.
It was not amusing to the lead detective.
"Look, I know we are up against it on this one. It may take years, even if we solve it.
In my lifetime, I have never run up against a more baffling scenario, a beautiful young woman disappearing in broad daylight amidst thousands of students without a trace.
No motive suggests a runaway. No motive for her father to harm her. She was well-liked and had no apparent enemies.
Hell, even her dad was respected and well-liked, too. We are dealing with a ghost crime. Damn thing is invisible."
Gallagher turned to Dr. Lowe, "Thank you, doctor, let us know when you find anything!"
The pathologist started to step down and turned to Gallagher, "Well, there is one thing here, it may be unimportant and I cannot justify it scientifically but,"
His statement sent a glimmer of hope through Gallagher, "Yes, doctor?" He replied quickly.
"We found something near the curb next to the library but, it had no scientific match with any of the Allison girl's physical properties so we assume it was dropped by another student."
Gallagher suddenly wanted to strangle his forensic scientist.
Dr. Lowe was so careful that he never went beyond his microscope. At this point anything would have been an oasis in a desert of investigative desperation.
"You found something that day? Why didn't you tell me sooner, doctor?" Gallagher said evenly, trying to control his temper.
"Because we wanted to run tests on it first, to be accurate. I wanted to ascertain any forensic connection with the Taylor girl."
Gallagher was now turning red in the face, "Dr. Lowe, tell us what you found!" His voice was now a bit more strident which took the good pathologist a bit by surprise.
"Well, sir, we found a locket with some kind of a bird on it. But, the fibers did not match up with the potential victim and it appeared it had been outside a lot longer than the day she disappeared
We assumed one of the students had accidentally dropped it."
Gallagher was now marching strongly towards the podium, his manner definitely intense. As he got to the pathologist he stopped inches from his face and announced, "What in God's name were you thinking?
Did it ever occur to you that it might belong to the potential abductor? For crying out loud, man. We don't need a science book to use our basic, brain matter!"
The room suddenly fell silent.
Larsen quickly went to the front and positioned herself between Gallagher and Dr. Lowe.
It reminded her of the combative lacrosse games she relished playing in. "What Mike is trying to say, Dr. Lowe in his, uh, passion to solve this case is could you give us this locket and let us work on it, sir?"
Gallagher was so close to climbing over Elie to get to the doctor he looked like her backpack.
She stiffened her body and continued, "Do you have the article you found so we may place it in our evidence file? Now would be a good time to give it to us."
Her eyes firmly stared at Dr. Lowe and he caught their message.
He reached quickly into his
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