vaguely.
He nodded and continued staring out over the ocean. âThe important thing is, keep at it. Somebody intentionally killed that little kid, somebody bigger and stronger. He put somethingâa cord or a ropeâaround his neck and watched him as he died. Thatâs no way to treat a kid.â He gestured with his hands as he spoke. âThereâs nobody to speak up for that boy now, nobody but you to bring him justice. Itâs a sacred trust, you know? Donât let anything get in your way.â
6
K IT STOOD IN THE GREAT ROOM OF HER COTTAGE, STARING OUT OVER THE channel. A group of five or six gulls were fighting over some crab shells someone had thrown out, swooping and diving, picking up bits of crab and stealing them from one another.
The house was quiet, too quiet, and loneliness had settled like an ache in her bones. David was right. It was best not to mix law enforcement and marriage.
But what about children?
The call from the forensic botanist from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington distracted her. âI did some initial testing on that material you sent me,â the professor said. âYou have time to talk about it?â
âSure!â Kit slid a pad of paper in front of her on the table and picked up a pen.
âWhat is it you were hoping to learn?â
Kit filled him in on the details of the case. âSo Iâm wondering: is there a way to use the seeds or the acorns to figure out where the boy was before he died?â
Kit waited during a long pause. The botanist, Dr. Timothy Hill, was one of a tiny handful of people in his specialty who applied his science to criminal investigations. âUnfortunately,âDr. Hill said, âtomatoes of this kind are ubiquitous. Now if theyâd been heirloom tomatoes, those we could do something with. But these are just simple, common tomatoes grown commercially all over Delmarva, and their DNA would not be traceable.â
Kitâs hope sank. âI thought that we could link DNA to individual plants.â
âItâs true, we have done that. Actually, weâve been doing it since the early â90s. The first case involved a murder in which the body was found near a palo verde tree out in Arizona. The investigating officer picked up some seed pods. Then, they identified a suspect, and found similar seed pods in the back of his truck. A DNA scan showed that all the pods came from the same plant, thus putting him at the place of the crime.â
âAnd that wonât work for tomatoes?â
âNot with these tomatoes. Besides, in the Arizona case, there were two samples to compare: one from the crime scene, one from the suspectâs truck. You only have one. But hereâs something else to consider,â Dr. Hill said. âThat little boy had been eating tomatoes out the wazoo. According to the medical examinerâs report of the number of seeds found in his gut, Iâd say heâd ingested a dozen or more in the twelve hours before his death. Either this kidâs mother had a heck of a kitchen garden, or his parents are ag workers with lots of access to free tomatoes.â
âWhich still doesnât answer why heâd be out on the ocean in a boat.â
âThatâs a question outside the field of botany,â Dr. Hill said, chuckling.
âSo you canât trace the tomatoes . . .â Kit said, pensively.
âThe acorns now . . . theyâre more distinctive. We might be able to work with that. We can often trace those to an individual tree.â
âWhat kind of tree are we talking about?â
â
Quercus virginiana
. Southern live oak. Common from Norfolk south, in sandy-soiled coastal areas.â
âNorfolk south? What about the Delmarva Peninsula?â
âTheyâre not native to the Eastern Shore. If theyâre there, someone planted them.â Dr. Hill paused. âThen again, that could work to