Patricia Tromley's life was no less exciting than Sara imagined it would have been. She had been dancing professionally in New York since she was 15. She never had the lead role in any ballet or musical, but she was in many of the hit shows both on and off Broadway that her resume was impressive. She had, for the past several years, been teaching instead of performing and had a good reputation as an instructor. She did not have her own dance school, but was apparently saving money to start one.
Sara and Danny dug into her life, as they had with Garry Whiteman. Phone records, credit history, banking statements. She had one brother in Philadelphia and her mother lived in Newark. They had each spoke with Patricia, Trish, earlier in the month. She had one niece, who also inspired to be a dancer. All were devastated by the murder.
The detectives interviewed her friends and co-workers about Trish's life. She had a string of boyfriends, some nice, some not so nice. Her latest boyfriend Greg or something similar, was a prince to her and according to her friends, she was in love. They hadn't been dating long, but he made her extremely happy. They were planning on taking a trip in another month.
Several of her friends had mentioned a former boyfriend, Tommy, who would not leave her alone. This Tommy was unanimously characterized as bad news. Danny and Sara took notes and would try to investigate this person further. They hoped that they could find some leads on who this old boyfriend was in her diary or her address book.
***
Halfway through Ms. Tromley's phone records for 2001, Danny and Sara were assigned to another call. The ride to the 5000 block of Morgan was quiet. Danny hated these calls, even more than a bloody murder. A baby found in a dumpster.
He made them sit in the car for a few moments before they went to the scene, hoping to try to make her understand what they would find.
"Sara, this is going to be the hardest thing you've ever done. I want you to know that before we see the baby." Sara just sat in her seat looking straight in front of her. Danny almost felt that he should check her to see if she was breathing.
"The baby will be a bluish gray color and will be stiff and cold to touch. So cold that it will seep through your gloves. Do not pick up the baby until the scene has been photographed. You'll want to pick it up as soon as you see it. I always do." Danny stared at his hands on the steering wheel. He was griping so hard that his knuckles were bleaching out. "Try not to disturb the area, all of the evidence we can gather is crucial. But, Sara, most of these cases go unsolved; and it will break your heart."
Danny reached over and grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. Only then did she turn and look at him. He could already see the beginnings of tears in her eyes. Sara returned the squeeze, blotted her eyes and opened the door. Danny grabbed gloves from the glove compartment and got out of the squad car. Slowly, they both walked to the scene.
Danny instructed her to write down the name and phone number of the waste disposal company who owned the dumpster, partially in hopes of keeping her focused on police work. He had her then get pertinent information from the shopkeeper who found the baby. Danny forced himself to look into the dumpster. The baby was grayish blue, wrapped in a yellow flowered towel inside a black garbage bag that had been ripped open. The baby's mouth was formed in an "O" and it's eyes were closed. One could almost count the blue veins through the porcelain skin. He had to stop himself from picking up the baby.
Sara came over following her discussion with the shopkeeper and stood by his side. He saw her move forward out of the corner of her eye and grabbed he hand and pulled her gently backward. The photographer had arrived and was about to start photographing the scene. They stood side by side, holding hands, as the photographer did his job. Danny could see the silent tears running down Sara's face. Time seemed to slow down as they waited. Sara wiped the tear tracks from her face and began again to move forward as soon as the photographer finished.
"Sara, I need you to write down everything I describe." Danny moved forward with authority as Sara fumbled to reopen her notepad. He began to describe in detail the contents of the dumpster, the garbage bad, the towel and the position of the baby in the dumpster. He, then, moved closer and put on his gloves. Reaching in, he pulled back the edges of the garbage bag and then the towel.
It was a little girl, and part of her umbilical chord was still attached. It had been clamped shut with a plastic hair barrette. Fine yellow hair was visible on the baby's head and blood soaked paper towels were peaking out of the bottom of the garbage bag.
The coroner's van had finally arrived and Danny waved over the technicians. He took off his gloves and nodded at the lead technician, giving him permission to remove the body. Sara stood immobile as the baby was lifted, placed in a miniature body bag and carried to the van. Danny ushered her back to the car and they returned to the precinct. He clocked them both out and had Sara leave her notes on her desk so they could be reviewed tomorrow.
Wordlessly she followed him to his car and they drove silently to his apartment. Only then, there on his couch did she beak down in giant sobs and moans. Danny held her in his arms as she cried, shushing her and rubbing her back.
The only thing she uttered was "Why" over and over again. Danny could give her no answers. Eventually, Sara cried herself to sleep on his couch. He extracted himself from her grasp, covered her with a blanket and went to his bedroom. There in the darkness of his room, and away from Sara, did tears run down his cheek.
***
Doctor Reubens was a welcome distraction the next morning. He had some preliminary findings on Ms. Tromley that he wanted to discuss.
"Under the Ms. Tromley's fingernails, we found skin tissue and traces of fiberglass. Similar to Mr. Whiteman, however, there is no way to determine if the fiberglass found with both victims is the same. Fiberglass is pretty much fiberglass. In the first round of the DNA analysis that Ms. Pezzini requested, we were able to determine with 90 percent certainty that the semen and the skin tissue under the victim's fingernails were from the same person. We were also able to determine that the semen donator was not the father of the fetus. We have about 75 percent accuracy on that test. We are still waiting on the rest of the results."
"Do you have an idea when you might have those results?" asked Danny.
"Probably within the next week or so. When we're working with such small amount, the testing is more precise and the accuracy decreases, because of quality control procedures."
"From you internal investigation, does it appear that Ms. Tromley was raped?" Sara asked quietly.
"No. No evidence of bruising, tearing or other injuries associated with force were found."
"Thanks, Doc. You'll let us know when you get anymore results?" Danny nodded at the Doctor.
"Sure, sure. Now let me get back to work. Shoo, shoo." He waved them out the door.
***
"Shit." Sara exclaimed and began frantically flipping through the stack of papers in front of her. She sorted through the stack, grabbed a handful and practically ran to Danny's desk.
"We have a connection. I found it." She spoke quickly, waving the papers in front of Danny's face. "I found something."
"Well what is it, Sherlock?"
"Patricia Tromley and Gary Whiteman knew each other." She was practically jumping out of her skin.
"What?" Danny's eyebrows raised and he tried to look at the papers in Sara's hand.
"Starting three months ago, they started calling each other. On a fairly regular basis. They knew each other. I bet that Gary was the new boyfriend that the friends had talked about."
"Wait a moment there. Let me see those phone records."
"These are Patricia's records from last month, with Gary's phone number 555-3412. This is Gary's phone bill for the last month and Patricia's phone number 555-6772 is on them. They knew each other."
"Okay, Okay. So they called each other. The next step is to see if any other their acquaintances recognize the other's pictures. Let's start with Patricia's friends."