Blake carefully navigated the off ramp from the expressway. "Which way now?" she asked Reid, who was peering at the GPS screen.
"Take a right," he advised. "Then a left at the second light. That should take us directly into the Washtenaw County Offices complex."
"What did we do before GPS?" Blake wondered aloud.
'We used paper maps," Reid replied absentmindedly. "And, sometimes I feel that they are still a better choice."
"You're reviewing the information Garcia sent from the Jane Doe a year ago?" Blake noticed that he had a file open and was examining the contents.
"Yes," Reid confirmed. "Do you know that after all this time they still haven't identified this woman? With all the electronic gizmos and everything else that is out there, they still can't figure out who she is."
"Well, I have faith in Garcia!" Blake declared as she pulled into the parking lot and found a space. "Let's see if we can find some more information for her to work with."
After they had presented their FBI credentials at the front desk, the two agents were quickly escorted down into the basement of the building where the chaotic office of Dr. Pevear, the Washtenaw County Coroner, was located.
"Sorry about the mess," Dr. Pevear apologized when he looked up from his desk to discover the two agents standing in the doorway to his office. "I keep meaning to clean it up, but with all the work around here – "
"You are?" he inquired as an afterthought.
"I know the feeling," Blake commiserated with him. "And, we'll try not to take up too much of your time."
"I'm Dr. Blake and this is Dr. Reid," she continued. "We are from the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit. I believe I spoke with you on the phone earlier."
"Oh, yes," the coroner replied. "If I remember right, you are interested in a Jane Doe case from about a year ago." He dug through a pile of folders and extracted one, which he handed to Reid. "I had my assistant locate the file. I remember the case because we don't get a lot of unidentified bodies here. What exactly do you want to know?"
"First off," Blake began. "The body is still unidentified?"
"That is correct," the coroner replied. "Actually, it is still in our morgue with several other unidentified bodies. It was scheduled to be cremated within the week but, if the FBI is interested in the case, I can put a hold on that."
"We would appreciate your holding onto the body a bit longer," Blake told him.
Reid looked up from studying the pictures in the file. "I would guess, from these pictures and from your report, that she was strangled?" he inquired.
"Yes," Dr. Pevear confirmed. "And, judging from the marks I found around her neck, I would assume that a belt was the weapon used."
"And that she has defensive wounds?" Reid clarified.
"Oh, yes," was the reply. "Quite extensive. My guess is that she put up quite a fight."
Blake had taken the file and was looking through it. "Sexual assault?" she was reading.
"Yes, quite brutal," the coroner confirmed. "And, we did manage to get a partial DNA sample. However, when we ran it we came up empty."
"Did the police have any suspects?" Reid inquired.
"They did have one, but he disappeared before we could get a DNA sample from him, which meant that they couldn't prove anything. I don't think anyone knows where he is now," was the reply.
"I'll need that name," Blake had her cell phone out and was pushing buttons.
"Garcia?" she spoke into the instrument. "We need all the information you can get on a - " she glanced up at the coroner who was paging through another file on his desk.
"Roger Steadman," he spoke up.
"Roger Steadman," Blake repeated into the phone. 'We particularly need to know where he is living at the moment."
"Just a minute," Blake could hear the tech keyboarding. "Okay, do you know how many Roger Steadman's there are throughout the U.S? Of course, that is a strictly rhetorical question. Can you give me something more to work with?"
"He lived in the Washtenaw County area about a year ago," Reid volunteered.
"That helps – That helps." There was more keyboarding.
"Okay, there are still several people who meet your requirements," Garcia reported. "And it appears that at least two of them have gone off the grid – One approximately a year ago and the other about ten months ago. That makes me suspicious. Let me see what I can find out about them. This may take some time."
"Get back to us, then," Blake responded before clicking her phone off.