Small Sacrifices by Ann Rule

been up since 2:00 a.m. Pex--formally James 0. Pex--was a Criminalist III with the Oregon State Police Crime Detection Laboratory in Eugene, an expert in forensic science. In demand by dozens of departments in Oregon, he was trying to Juggle the forensic work in too many investigations.
    The principle put forth by the great French criminalist Edmund Locard--that the criminal always leaves something of himself (no matter how minute) at the scene of his crime, and always carries something of the scene away with him (again, no matter
    how infinitesimal)--has not changed in seventy-five years; the
    | tools of the criminalist have simply become more sophisticated. With a resume pages thick, Jim Pex posed only one problem asa ^"ess: his skills are so esoteric that jurors sometimes have uhculty understanding him. Few laymen can decipher his language
    without a crash course in forensic science. One of Pex's Icicles appeared in the Journal of Forensic Science: "Phenotyping "osphoglucose Isomerase in West Coast Cervids for Species ^ntification and Individualization." Translated for the man on
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    the street: "How to classify deer out west through factors in their blood."
    Jim Pex can determine the time of death in certain animal species. From animals to humans is not that long a jump. Forensic science has become the backbone of a solid homicide case and Fred Hugi suspected Pex might come up with answers to questions just beginning to form.
    A drop of blood may look like any other drop of blood, and one strand of hair may seem indistinguishable from another. A stain may be saliva or semen or egg white. Threads and tool marks and dried leaves and pebbles and broken buttons seem alike. But not to Jim Pex. He is particularly adept in analyzing firearms and tool marks, and in serology (the study of body fluids). He can discern many things from blood--both from its serological components and from the way it has been shed. Pooled blood is different from dripped blood. Victims who have been shot will lose blood in a "high velocity" manner. There is, indeed, a subscience of forensics that listens to the silent testimony of our life's fluid--bloodspatter pattern interpretation. Not only does Jim Pex understand blood spatter; he teaches the art to lawmen and other criminalists.
    Pex reviewed what he had found during the past several hours with Fred Hugi. Pex and Jon Peckels had processed the Downs car at the Lane County shops, looking for tangible evidence that the killer had left.
    The Arizona plates read BJY-787; the odometer had only
    5,948 miles on it. First, they had observed the exterior. Peckels pointed out the casings he and Tracy had spotted earlier. They found no gunpowder particles visible on or around the doors or windows. There was no damage to the car.
    The interior was upholstered in scarlet plush; it was hard to differentiate the blood from the rich shade of the fabric. The hollow in the console was filled with pennies and nickels; the top of the dash and the carpet was sprinkled with beach sand and seashells.
    There was a large semiliquid pool of blood on the floor below the passenger seat. Cheryl had lain there, covered with the postal ^. | :, sweater. A tube of Avon cuticle conditioner and an empty paper
    Pepsi cup were retained from the floor near the blood.
    Pex had gently loosened the red carpet under the glove compartment. When he reached beneath it, he'd found a chunk of

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    metal--a .22 caliber lead bullet, which would prove to weigh .39
    grains.
    Blood smears and large drops were visible on the inside of the door next to the passenger, probably left--Pex speculated-when medical personnel lifted a child out of the car.
    "How about the driver's side?" Hugi asked.
    Pex shook his head. "No blood at all on the driver's side, no smears on the steering wheel."
    When a gun is fired, some of the smokeless powder fails to ignite, but is blown out the end of the barrel. The criminalists found gunpowder