Danny and Sara proceeded to show a picture of Patricia to several of Garry's friends and co-workers, however none of them could positively identify her. Garry had yet to introduce his new girlfriend to his acquaintances. A picture of Garry shown to Patricia's friends and co-workers did not fare much better. However, several of them did acknowledge that the picture of Garry did match the way Patricia had described her new boyfriend. This paired with the collaboration of the phone records weakly established the relationship.
Meanwhile, the detectives chased other leads, particularly the "Warren H" matchbook cover and the former boyfriend, Tommy.
Sara had begun an extensive list of people, locations and businesses that had "Warren H" in the name in the greater metropolitan area. She started with a search on the Internet. She had requests in at the various city permit offices, as well as slowly working her way through census and city directories. This was grunt work and she hated it. Danny would lend a hand when his paperwork load became light, but Sara dreamed of the day she's have some lower level cop to do this tedious work for her.
Trying to locate the former boyfriend proved to be even more tedious. This search involved extensive reading through Patricia's phone records, address books and diaries. Patricia hadn't been very consistent in her journal writing, so information found was sketchy at best. According to her friends and family, Sara and Danny were able to narrow down the time period during which she socialized with Tommy. This still left months and months of phone records to go through line-by-line and this was driving Sara crazy.
"Hey partner, my eyes are going cross-eyed. How about we go out for dinner and shoot some pool tonight?" Sara slowly rubbed her temples, hoping to ward off the oncoming headache.
"Sure, let me give Leigh a call and let her know the game plan." Danny picked up the phone and gave Leigh a call.
"Tell her to meet us if she wants." Sara got up and went to freshen her coffee. She really wasn't in the mood to over hear the sweet talk between the two. Ever since they got engaged, the talk between the two had got syrupy sweet.
By the time Sara returned, Danny wrapped up the phone call. "Leigh said hello and that she'd pass on the evening with us. She said she hears enough cop talk with me, and that the two of us would drive her crazy."
"Well, she's probably right," Sara said with a shrug of the shoulders.
***
When Sara and Danny got in the next morning, late as it was, they had a message from Doctor Reubens waiting for them.
"Well kids, sit down because I have a story to tell you." Doc Reubens motioned them both to sit as he grabbed several file folders from the stack on his desk. Danny and Sara both opened their notebooks and sat poised to take notes.
"First of all, the final report on the fibers found on Mr. Whiteman. Wood, fiberglass, clothing and carpet fibers were all found, along with minute traces of asbestos and lead paint. Fiber tests for Ms. Tromley indicated similar constituents, including the asbestos and lead paint. I had the technicians compare the clothing, carpet and asbestos fibers between the two victims. They are similar. Based on this suite of results, I would say that Mr. Whiteman and Ms. Tromley were at one point, shortly before their deaths, in the same area or building.
Danny spoke up, "We've already loosely proved that these two knew each other. What makes you so sure that they were in the same location near the times of their deaths?"
"Both asbestos and lead paint were found. These materials are rarely found in normal day-to-day activities, except on construction projects where older buildings are being renovated. These materials are also not airborne unless disturbed, which tends to suggest renovations."
Sara made notes to herself, indicating to limit the search of Warren H to buildings under renovation. She lifted her pad and Danny glanced over, read the note and nodded. Doc Reubens flipped through pages until this exchange was complete.
"Secondly, the DNA analyses that Detective Pezzini requested. As I indicated before, the skin samples found under Ms. Tromley's fingernails did match the semen found. We also received final confirmation that the semen donator was not the father of the fetus with an accuracy of 85%. On Pez's hunch, Mr. Whiteman's DNA was compared to the fingernail scrapings, the semen and the fetus. There was only one match. Mr. Whiteman was the father of the baby, within 90% accuracy. That's as good as we're going to get on that test. So Ms. Pezzini, I congratulate you on your hunch."
"Based on the times of death between the two, I would say that Mr. Whiteman was killed approximately 2 days before Ms. Tromley. Also, based on the blood work, Ms. Tromley had used cocaine at some point between the time of Mr. Whiteman death and her own. She had sex within 6 hours of her death, based on the degradation of the semen and spermicide."
"Well score one for Pez. She had a hunch that they knew each other and I guess she was right. Based on the crime scene similarities and the fingernail scrapings, we can assume at this point that they were killed by the same person." Danny concluded with a nod of his head. Sara dropped eyes and became very interested in her notebook.
"Don't be embarrassed Pez, that was a great hunch you had. I doubt we would have ever been successful at tying these two victims together without it. Phone records and shaky identifications by family and friends will only go so far. This is good solid evidence that they had a relationship," Doc leaned forward for emphasis and patted her knee.
"I've got a copy here of all the results for you to take with you," and he passed the folder to Sara.
"Thanks Doc." Sara said quietly, still slightly embarrassed by all the praise both men were giving her.
As Danny and Sara left the Doc's office, he asked "Keep me up to date on this one? I'd like to know how this turns out."
Both detectives nodded and headed up the stairs with a wave.
***
With the new information, Sara was able to narrow down the location of "Warren H" to 5 buildings throughout the metropolitan area. She put in requests to get the most recent tax auditors reports for all five properties, as well as chains-of-title for all the buildings. Maybe she'd get lucky and find the owners, which could help narrow down the search even more.
"Hey Pez, I'm sick of all this paper pushing. What do you say we run by these buildings you have listed? Maybe we'll see something that will help the case."
"Sure. Let me grab a fresh cup of coffee while you sign out a car. Do you want some too?" She held up a travel mug with Wise Asian Master printed in black; her Christmas gift to him.
"Yeah, sure. Just make sure the pot is fresh. I don't want anything that's been sitting around for hours."
"You and me both." She picked up her mug and headed for the break room.
The first three locations showed no promise of being what they were looking for, mainly an older building currently or recently under renovation. These three were either a new building, a large industrial facility or burned out shell of a building. The fourth location showed much more promise. It was a large apartment building, The Warren Holding Building, which was recently converted to a nightclub. Sara and Danny agreed that this location was worth spending more time to investigate.
As they were checking a map against the last address, Danny perked up as someone exited the building. It was a large man, bodybuilder possibly. Danny stared at the man with creased brow.
"I know that guy. I'm sure I know that guy." He pointed out the bodybuilder to Sara.
"How?" She asked while trying to jot down any distinguishing features.
"I don't know how, but I know that I know him." The mystery man turned and headed down the block, seemingly unaware of the two befuddled cops staring at him.
"Well, let's head over to the last location and maybe something will jog your brain before we get back to the precinct." Sara then began to point out the directions to the new location.
The last building also had possibilities, The Warren Hotel. It was a pay-by-the-hour hotel that was in a neighborhood that looked like it was beginning rejuvenation. They could not observe any outward signs of renovations, so they decided to head back to the precinct to check to see if any information about the owners and pulled permits were available on the last two addresses.