Blood Ties Read Online Free PDF Page B

Ellen had her own list of contacts, but it was nothing compared with Sam’s. There was hardly anything in Official San Francisco that Sam either didn’t know or couldn’t find out about. All he needed was to shut himself up in the lieutenant’s deserted office and get on the phone.
    Just shy of an hour later he came back into the duty room, closing the lieutenant’s glass door behind him.
    â€œWord is the mayor’s boy is clear,” he said, falling heavily into his chair. “Sally Wilkes died between four and six yesterday afternoon, and young George spent all day yesterday on a charter boat out on Monterey Bay with about two dozen of his most intimate friends. Afterwards they had a long and boozy dinner together. The party broke up about an hour before Sally was discovered.”
    â€œWell now, isn’t that a relief.”
    â€œNot for us. Her Honor still wants the board cleared with all possible dispatch. She isn’t going to be happy until somebody is sitting in a cage for this, somebody she doesn’t know and never heard of. I don’t suppose I can blame her.”
    â€œWhat else did you find out?”
    â€œYou were right about that drinking glass.”
    â€œThe one from the apartment?”
    Sam nodded. “It was clean of prints.”
    â€œWhat about the saliva?”
    â€œThey won’t know until tomorrow.”
    â€œWhat else? I know that look, Sam. It means you’re saving the best for last.”
    â€œShaw doesn’t think our victim was raped.”
    From the tone of his voice he could have been announcing the weather. Of course, nothing surprised Sam, not even impossibilities.
    â€œYou mean he thinks it was consensual?”
    â€œI mean he thinks there was no sex. At least, nothing that you or I would describe as sex.”
    â€œHow the hell could Shaw know something like that?”
    Sam leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind the back of his neck. Then he raised his shoulders in a theatrical shrug.
    â€œThe guy’s probably done three or four hundred rape murders in his time. God alone knows how many semen samples he’s swabbed up in the last twenty years. I guess he knows the difference. Besides, it was stated as an impression, not a fact. Shaw thinks the semen was introduced into her vagina after death, and by some means other than the customary blunt instrument. In plain English, Our Boy didn’t screw Sally Wilkes.”

 
    3
    The shift ended at four o’clock, and Sam went home to his wife and their three dachshunds in Daly City. It was about a quarter after four by the time Ellen finished her case notes and climbed into the elevator. When the doors opened on the ground floor she almost bumped into the photographer who had worked the crime scene that morning.
    â€œLooks like I nearly missed you,” he said, holding out to her a padded shipping envelope about half an inch thick. “The video, remember? I promised I’d get it to you this afternoon.”
    â€œYes, thanks.” Ellen accepted the package and noticed warily that the man had changed into a pair of clean slacks and a tan sport coat over a blue dress shirt. She also thought she detected a whiff of lime aftershave.
    â€œListen, if you’re off work maybe you’d feel like some dinner…”
    He smiled hopefully, but Ellen shook her head.
    â€œI can’t, sorry. I’ve got my folks coming in. In fact I’m already late.”
    â€œOh, well, another time then.”
    â€œYes, fine. Another time.”
    He went with her as far as the police garage in the basement. His name, as it turned out, was Ken, and he seemed like a nice guy. He even waved to her as she drove off.
    â€œWhy the hell did I do that?” she asked herself, out loud, as she waited in her Toyota for the light to change on Market Street. “Why the hell…?”
    Because her folks weren’t coming in. Her folks were an