Detective by Arthur Hailey Page B
Authors: Arthur Hailey
though whether from the
killer or killers, or the dead
couple, or belonging to hotel
employees on legitimate business
would be determined later. For now
the next step was to "lift" each
print onto a transparent tape that
was placed on a "latent lift card."
The card, dated, signed, and the
print's location noted, would then
become evidence.
Julio Verona asked Ainslie, "Did
you hear about our zoo experiment?"
Ainslie shook his head. ''Tell me."
"We got permission from MetroZoo
and took fingerprints and toeprints
of their chimpanzees and apes, then
82 Arthur Halley
studied them." He gestured to
Walden. "Tell him the rest. "
"Everything was exactly the same
as with human prints," she finished.
"The same characteristics ridges,
whorls, loops, arches, identical
points, no basic difference."
"Darwin was right," Verona added.
"We've all got monkeys in our family
tree, eh, Malcolm?" The comment was
pointed. Verona knew of Ainslie's
priestly past.
There was a time when
Ainslie though never a fun-
damentalist accepted the Catholic
skepticism of Darwin's Origin of
Species. Darwin had, after all,
scoffed at divine intervention and
denied mankind's superiority to the
rest of the animal world. But that
was long ago and Ainslie answered
now, "Yes, I believe we came that
route."
What they were all doing, he
knew Walden, Verona, Ceballos,
Quinn, even he himself was
distracting themselves, however
briefly, from the ghastly horror
that faced them. Outsiders might
have viewed their behavior as cold-
blooded; in fact, it was the
reverse. The human psyche even a
conditioned Homicide crew's had
limits on how much sustained
revulsion it could handle.
Another male technician had
appeared and was working on blood
samples. Using small test tubes, he
collected sarnples of the pooled
blood around each victim. Later
these would be compared with blood
taken at autopsy. If the blood
groups differed, some of the pooled
blood might be from the attacker or
attackers. From appearances, though,
it seemed unlikely.
The technicians took fingernail
scrapings from the Frosts, in case
one of them had scratched an
assailant, causing minuscule
fragments of skin, hair, cloth
fibers, or other materials to lodge
under their nails. The scrapings
were placed in containers for lab
technicians to examine
DETECTIVE 83
later. Then the victims' hands were
bagged for preservation, so that
before autopsy they could be
fingerprinted, and the bodies
examined, too, for alien
fingerprints.
The Frosts' clothing was inspected
carefully, though it would remain in
place until their bodies reached the
morgue. Then, before autopsy, it
would be removed, with each item
sealed in a plastic bag.
By now, with the additional people,
a buzz of conversations, and
continuous phone calls, room 805 had
become crowded, noisy, and even more
malodorous.
Ainslie glanced at his watch. It
was 9:45 A.M., and he suddenly thought
of Jason, who, at that moment, would
be in the school auditorium with the
rest of his third-grade class,
waiting for a spelling bee to begin.
Karen would be in the audience with
other parents, feeling anxious and
proud. Ainslie had hoped to join her
briefly, but it hadn't worked out. It
so seldom did.
He turned his mind back to the
homicide scene, wondering if the case
would be solved quickly, hoping the
answer was yes. But as the hours wore
on, the biggest impediment emerged:
despite a multitude of people moving
within the hotel, no one had even
glimpsed a possible suspect. Somehow
the murderer or murderers had managed
to get in and out of the room, and
probably the hotel, without any
attention being paid. Ainslie had
police officers question all the
guests on the eighth floor, as well
as on the two floors above and below.
No one had seen a thing.
During the seventeen hours Ainslie
was at the murder scene that first
day, he and Quinn considered motives.
Robbery was possible; no money
whatever was found among the victims'
possessions. On the other hand, the
jewelry
killer or killers, or the dead
couple, or belonging to hotel
employees on legitimate business
would be determined later. For now
the next step was to "lift" each
print onto a transparent tape that
was placed on a "latent lift card."
The card, dated, signed, and the
print's location noted, would then
become evidence.
Julio Verona asked Ainslie, "Did
you hear about our zoo experiment?"
Ainslie shook his head. ''Tell me."
"We got permission from MetroZoo
and took fingerprints and toeprints
of their chimpanzees and apes, then
82 Arthur Halley
studied them." He gestured to
Walden. "Tell him the rest. "
"Everything was exactly the same
as with human prints," she finished.
"The same characteristics ridges,
whorls, loops, arches, identical
points, no basic difference."
"Darwin was right," Verona added.
"We've all got monkeys in our family
tree, eh, Malcolm?" The comment was
pointed. Verona knew of Ainslie's
priestly past.
There was a time when
Ainslie though never a fun-
damentalist accepted the Catholic
skepticism of Darwin's Origin of
Species. Darwin had, after all,
scoffed at divine intervention and
denied mankind's superiority to the
rest of the animal world. But that
was long ago and Ainslie answered
now, "Yes, I believe we came that
route."
What they were all doing, he
knew Walden, Verona, Ceballos,
Quinn, even he himself was
distracting themselves, however
briefly, from the ghastly horror
that faced them. Outsiders might
have viewed their behavior as cold-
blooded; in fact, it was the
reverse. The human psyche even a
conditioned Homicide crew's had
limits on how much sustained
revulsion it could handle.
Another male technician had
appeared and was working on blood
samples. Using small test tubes, he
collected sarnples of the pooled
blood around each victim. Later
these would be compared with blood
taken at autopsy. If the blood
groups differed, some of the pooled
blood might be from the attacker or
attackers. From appearances, though,
it seemed unlikely.
The technicians took fingernail
scrapings from the Frosts, in case
one of them had scratched an
assailant, causing minuscule
fragments of skin, hair, cloth
fibers, or other materials to lodge
under their nails. The scrapings
were placed in containers for lab
technicians to examine
DETECTIVE 83
later. Then the victims' hands were
bagged for preservation, so that
before autopsy they could be
fingerprinted, and the bodies
examined, too, for alien
fingerprints.
The Frosts' clothing was inspected
carefully, though it would remain in
place until their bodies reached the
morgue. Then, before autopsy, it
would be removed, with each item
sealed in a plastic bag.
By now, with the additional people,
a buzz of conversations, and
continuous phone calls, room 805 had
become crowded, noisy, and even more
malodorous.
Ainslie glanced at his watch. It
was 9:45 A.M., and he suddenly thought
of Jason, who, at that moment, would
be in the school auditorium with the
rest of his third-grade class,
waiting for a spelling bee to begin.
Karen would be in the audience with
other parents, feeling anxious and
proud. Ainslie had hoped to join her
briefly, but it hadn't worked out. It
so seldom did.
He turned his mind back to the
homicide scene, wondering if the case
would be solved quickly, hoping the
answer was yes. But as the hours wore
on, the biggest impediment emerged:
despite a multitude of people moving
within the hotel, no one had even
glimpsed a possible suspect. Somehow
the murderer or murderers had managed
to get in and out of the room, and
probably the hotel, without any
attention being paid. Ainslie had
police officers question all the
guests on the eighth floor, as well
as on the two floors above and below.
No one had seen a thing.
During the seventeen hours Ainslie
was at the murder scene that first
day, he and Quinn considered motives.
Robbery was possible; no money
whatever was found among the victims'
possessions. On the other hand, the
jewelry