Pesticide: A Linder and Donatelli Mystery by Kim Hays

Author:Kim Hays [Hays, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Pesticide: A Linder and Donatelli Mystery
ISBN: 9781645060475
Publisher: Seventh Street Books
Published: 2021-11-10T00:00:00+00:00

21

Nordring police station,

Wednesday afternoon, June 19

Since the end of the morning staff meeting, Giuliana had been sorting papers, checking records, reading reports, and phoning and rephoning investigators with instructions. At the case-room’s other desk, Sabine was absorbed in similar tasks. A few doors down, in their own room, Noah and Erwin were at it, too, focused on François Schwab’s life and death instead of Simon Etter’s. Teams of investigators throughout the building were on the phone, requesting alibis and checking them against other people’s statements. Some cops were examining traffic footage for signs of Simu’s car traveling to Haldiz. The Hyundai had been found two blocks from his apartment, been searched, and was now being tested. Others were going over Frank’s and Simu’s finances. Lab techs were still comparing the two murder sites, and IT specialists were checking Frank’s computer for hidden files. Meanwhile, face-recognition software was running through thousands of photos, riot films, and CCTV film footage, looking for Frank or Simu during a period of sixty hours before Simu’s body had been found. Whenever the computer found a possible match, the image was flagged and transferred to another file, where human eyes took over. For one full day, at least, the Bern cantonal police was investing as many of its resources as it could spare into solving the two homicides.

Now it was late afternoon, and neither Giuliana nor Noah had heard a word from any of their staff about a breakthrough.

Giuliana stood up, stretched her arms over her head a few times to ease her neck and back, walked over to the window, and stared out at the street. It was raining hard. She’d stopped walking back and forth to the coffeemaker at about two, when she realized she’d lost count of the number of cups she’d drunk. Now she was drinking tap water out of a plastic Coke bottle, guaranteeing frequent trips to the toilet down the hall. The afternoon’s exercise.

Sabine glanced up over the screen of her laptop and sighed. She too stood and joined Giuliana by the window.

“Got a text just now from one of Heinz’s people, who interviewed the last girl on our list,” she said. “Simu wasn’t out with any of them Thursday or Friday night. And none of them can give him an alibi for Friday afternoon.”

“So our last sighting of Simu is still the neighbor who watched him walk into his apartment building early Friday afternoon,” said Giuliana.

“Yep.”

“We’ve got the traces of fungicide in his trunk,” Giuliana said. Sabine already knew this; Giuliana was only comforting herself by repeating it. “Which confirms what Niklaus and Fehr told us.”

“If only we had Simu’s laptop,” Sabine lamented. They’d both taken to calling Etter Simu now, as Erwin and Noah referred to Frank. These were men the detectives were getting to know better than they knew some of their own relatives. “Or his phones.”

“Still,” said Giuliana, “at least you figured out there were two phones.”

Sabine shrugged. Sorting through papers from Simu’s bedroom drawer, she’d

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