and had reached out seven or eight times to steady themselves.
Everett went across and examined the stains more closely. ‘If this
is
blood, and not paint, or rust remover, I’d say that something pretty nasty happened here.’ He leaned to one side and peered upward. ‘You check out the roof?’
‘Of course. We checked the
en-
tire building, roof to parking garage. Every guest room, every storeroom, every closet, but this is all we found.’
‘OK. Looks like it’s time to call in the law. But I hope that won’t be a serious error of judgment.’
Luther said, ‘Think about it this way, Mr Everett, sir. If it
ain’t
blood, then we don’t have nothing to worry about. At least we’ll know for sure.’
‘What do
you
think it is? I mean, seriously?’
‘I think it’s blood.’
‘Yeah. Me too, damn it.’
Detective Slim Garrity stood and stared at the crimson-stained rug for over a minute without saying anything, although his jaws kept working on a large wad of Big Red chewing gum. He was a thin, angular man with black slicked-back hair, and the impression he gave of a Southern card sharp was accentuated by his bolo necktie and his shiny, black narrow-shouldered suit.
Beside him, his partner Detective Kevin Mullard was hefty and disheveled. He had sandy hair and sandy eyebrows and freckles and his red rubbery lips seemed to be permanently smirking at some private joke. His green linen three-piece suit looked as if he had bought it from a thrift store and got change out of a twenty, and never pressed it.
‘So . . . your cleaner was the first one to see it?’ asked Detective Garrity. He spoke with an unmistakable Baton Rouge accent, but without any expression in his voice at all, as if he were reading from a teleprompt. ‘And there was nobody else here in the suite when she came in to clean? No guests, no hotel staff? No unauthorized visitors?’
‘Nobody, so far as I know,’ said Everett. ‘You can talk to her in a minute, if you want to.’
‘Very well. OK. But the first thing we have to decide is what this stain is really constituated of. The crime-scene boys’ll be here in a few minutes, and they’ll be doing a presumptive test, which will tell us for certain if it
isn’t
blood.’
‘They can tell if it isn’t, but they can’t tell if it is? How does that work?’
‘The presumptive test can only tell us if it’s probable. It’s not one hundred percent foolproof, because there’s other factors which can give you a similar reaction to human blood. Interferences, we call them. Some plant and animal materials, they can affect a test for human blood, and so can some metals, like copper and iron. That’s why we have to be careful when we’re testing for blood outdoors, where there’s a whole lot of vegetative life, or in any kind of vehicle.’
‘I see. What if it probably
is
blood?’
‘Then they’ll take the rug back to the CSI laboratory and put it through some further tests for human-specific enzymes or human-specific DNA.’
‘My guess is it’s blood,’ put in Detective Mullard, still smirking. ‘It sure
looks
like blood, don’t it? And what else could it be? Red-eye gravy?’
‘Let’s not go leaping to any premature conclusions, Kevin,’ Detective Garrity admonished him, out of the side of his mouth. ‘Quite apart from that, we don’t want to upset these good people here more than we necessarily have to, do we.’
Everett said, ‘I’m not squeamish, Detective. I just want to know for sure that nobody’s been murdered here.’
‘Of course you do, sir, and believe me we’ll be expediting our investigation as quick as conceivably possible.’
Everett led the two detectives to the stairwell, so that they could look at the stains on the steps, and the floor, and the patterns on the wall.
‘Again, it’s hard to tell for sure if that’s blood or not,’ said Detective Garrity. ‘You’d be surprised the number of times we’ve come across suspicious-looking
Everett went across and examined the stains more closely. ‘If this
is
blood, and not paint, or rust remover, I’d say that something pretty nasty happened here.’ He leaned to one side and peered upward. ‘You check out the roof?’
‘Of course. We checked the
en-
tire building, roof to parking garage. Every guest room, every storeroom, every closet, but this is all we found.’
‘OK. Looks like it’s time to call in the law. But I hope that won’t be a serious error of judgment.’
Luther said, ‘Think about it this way, Mr Everett, sir. If it
ain’t
blood, then we don’t have nothing to worry about. At least we’ll know for sure.’
‘What do
you
think it is? I mean, seriously?’
‘I think it’s blood.’
‘Yeah. Me too, damn it.’
Detective Slim Garrity stood and stared at the crimson-stained rug for over a minute without saying anything, although his jaws kept working on a large wad of Big Red chewing gum. He was a thin, angular man with black slicked-back hair, and the impression he gave of a Southern card sharp was accentuated by his bolo necktie and his shiny, black narrow-shouldered suit.
Beside him, his partner Detective Kevin Mullard was hefty and disheveled. He had sandy hair and sandy eyebrows and freckles and his red rubbery lips seemed to be permanently smirking at some private joke. His green linen three-piece suit looked as if he had bought it from a thrift store and got change out of a twenty, and never pressed it.
‘So . . . your cleaner was the first one to see it?’ asked Detective Garrity. He spoke with an unmistakable Baton Rouge accent, but without any expression in his voice at all, as if he were reading from a teleprompt. ‘And there was nobody else here in the suite when she came in to clean? No guests, no hotel staff? No unauthorized visitors?’
‘Nobody, so far as I know,’ said Everett. ‘You can talk to her in a minute, if you want to.’
‘Very well. OK. But the first thing we have to decide is what this stain is really constituated of. The crime-scene boys’ll be here in a few minutes, and they’ll be doing a presumptive test, which will tell us for certain if it
isn’t
blood.’
‘They can tell if it isn’t, but they can’t tell if it is? How does that work?’
‘The presumptive test can only tell us if it’s probable. It’s not one hundred percent foolproof, because there’s other factors which can give you a similar reaction to human blood. Interferences, we call them. Some plant and animal materials, they can affect a test for human blood, and so can some metals, like copper and iron. That’s why we have to be careful when we’re testing for blood outdoors, where there’s a whole lot of vegetative life, or in any kind of vehicle.’
‘I see. What if it probably
is
blood?’
‘Then they’ll take the rug back to the CSI laboratory and put it through some further tests for human-specific enzymes or human-specific DNA.’
‘My guess is it’s blood,’ put in Detective Mullard, still smirking. ‘It sure
looks
like blood, don’t it? And what else could it be? Red-eye gravy?’
‘Let’s not go leaping to any premature conclusions, Kevin,’ Detective Garrity admonished him, out of the side of his mouth. ‘Quite apart from that, we don’t want to upset these good people here more than we necessarily have to, do we.’
Everett said, ‘I’m not squeamish, Detective. I just want to know for sure that nobody’s been murdered here.’
‘Of course you do, sir, and believe me we’ll be expediting our investigation as quick as conceivably possible.’
Everett led the two detectives to the stairwell, so that they could look at the stains on the steps, and the floor, and the patterns on the wall.
‘Again, it’s hard to tell for sure if that’s blood or not,’ said Detective Garrity. ‘You’d be surprised the number of times we’ve come across suspicious-looking
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