Chapter 3 — The Program

Webb brought her the evidence box from the scene on Wednesday morning, along with a container of coffee that she accepted without looking up."ME called back," he said, dropping into the chair across from her desk. "She's running your expanded tox. Three days minimum, she said, probably five." He looked at the split screen of footage she still had up. "You've been watching that since yesterday.""Since Monday," she said. "Pull up camera eight. Seven-eleven PM."He came around the desk and leaned in. She played the segment: Elise and Conrad in the reception alcove, the program changing hands."The program," Webb said."The program." She let it play. "What do you see?""She gives him the program. He looks at it. Puts it in his pocket." He shrugged. "There are programs everywhere at this thing.""There are programs everywhere. He has a pocket square in that breast pocket that he removes and does not replace. He puts the program in instead." She paused the frame on Conrad's jacket, the slight bulge of the folded program against the interior breast pocket. "Right side of his chest. Against his shirt." She turned to look at Webb. "What's the most absorptive skin on a person's body?"Webb looked at her. Then at the screen. Then back at her. "You're talking about transdermal delivery.""I'm thinking about it.""That's a very specific kind of poison.""Which is why I gave Sandra Kim a very specific list." She opened the evidence box. Fourteen items, bagged and tagged. The champagne glass from the terrace. Conrad's phone. His watch. His wallet. His jacket, in a sealed garment bag.The jacket.She pulled on gloves and lifted the garment bag. Through the plastic she could see the interior breast pocket. She looked at it for a long moment."Where's the program?" she said.Webb looked at the inventory sheet. "Not listed."She looked at the box. Fourteen items. No program."The jacket is here. The program was in the jacket's interior pocket." She held the garment bag up and looked at the breast pocket through the plastic. It was empty. "Where is it?"Webb took the inventory sheet. He looked at it more carefully. "Scene inventory from the first responders — they documented his personal effects. Jacket, yes. Wallet, phone, watch, pocket square. No program.""Because they were inventorying personal effects. A printed program from an event is not a personal effect. It's trash." She put the garment bag back carefully. "Someone collected the programs during the cleanup. The caterer, probably. Or the venue staff.""So it's gone.""Maybe. Find out who handled the cleanup at the Meridian that night. Find out where the programs went." She was already at her coat. "I'm going to the gallery."— ◆ —