State Attorney Moran was waiting in the chief's office when Goddard arrived. The chief was checking days off on his desk calendar. "It's Monday and the start of the second full week on this case, gentlemen."
"And this might be the week you somehow stumble across something important," Moran said.
Goddard assumed the sarcasm was directed at him. He closed the door and held up some papers. "I've been waiting for this follow-up on a fingerprint report. An interesting development."
The chief explained to Moran, "Some nine-year-old was rummaging through a dumpster over on Ocean Drive, yesterday afternoon. Found a shiny new box with the picture of a gun on the lid and showed it to his mother. Go ahead and fill us in Chip."
"No gun in the box, but the mother called police anyway, because it looked scary as she put it. We're interested because the box is obviously brand new and once contained a Smithy .38."
"Big deal, an empty box in a dumpster," Moran said.
"The dumpster is behind Tammy Jerrold's condo. We're using the box to try to trace when and where it was bought."
"Same caliber as the murder weapon," the chief said. "Either that box once held the murder weapon or it's an amazing coincidence."
"What does this mean?" Moran was thinking aloud. "Found in Tammy's dumpster? She bought a gun and threw the box away? You might not find her prints on it. It's going to be covered with a hundred prints from the factory, the store, the kid and his mother."
"Well, that's the surprise in this report. The box was recently wiped clean. We found only four sets of prints. The prints belong to the kid, his mother, our jailed suspect and Tammy."
"Evidence found without prints is always suspicious," the chief noted.
Goddard continued, "Doesn't make sense for Tammy to buy a gun, wipe the box clean, then touch it again and toss it in her dumpster. If somebody else placed the box conspicuously to be found in Tammy's dumpster, then how did her prints get on it?"
"In any case, the box connects Reid and Tammy." Moran made a low whistle. "Reid told us in his statement Loraine Dellin showed him a gun box containing a small revolver at the motel. Later he went to meet Tammy. If it's the same box that was at the motel, why didn't we find Loraine's prints on it?"
Goddard answered, "She could have been the one who wiped it clean. Then Reid touched it...then Tammy touched it."
"Talk to Tammy again," Moran ordered. "See how she explains it. Don't wait, I want her in here now."