Chapter 13. Matching Fingerprints

Mary goes to see Maxine on Saturday morning taking the photo from Doc’s desk. She greets Maxine, “Good morning, Maxine, how are you this morning?”

“I’m fine. I’m sorry, I remember you but I don’t remember your name.”

“My name is Mary Anderson, I came to see you with Doc Arra’s appointment books and you helped me by telling me about Lois Taylor and the doctor.”

“Oh yes, I remember now. I enjoyed talking to you. I’m glad you came to see me again.”

“I came this morning because there’s something else you can help me with.”

“I will if I can remember. My memory’s not what it used to be.”

“I have a photograph that was on Doc Arra’s desk and we don’t know the woman in the picture. I hope you may know her.” Taking the photo out of her purse she hands it toward Maxine. Maxine takes the photo and examines the picture carefully.

“I remember this picture. Doc Arra always kept it on his desk. The woman is the doctor’s mother.” Then she hands the photo back to Mary.

“Thank you, Maxine. We didn’t know if it was a relative or an old girlfriend. I’ll put it back on the doctor’s desk so it will be like it was.” Mary carefully handles the photo only by the top of the frame as she returns it to her purse.

“I have another question for you, Maxine. It’s about Lois Taylor’s last visit to Doc Arra. We didn’t find any record of a bill being sent to her parents for that visit or any other information other than the date of her visit. Do you remember making any notes about that last visit or sending a bill?”

“I know we didn’t send any bill. If you didn’t find anything in the appointment book I didn’t record anything else. I never kept any notes other than in the appointment books. With what I suspected about that last visit I didn’t want any record that might get the doctor in trouble.”

“You were a good nurse and receptionist for the doctor, Maxine. He was lucky to have you. Well, thanks for your help again. It’s nice to know that the woman in the picture is the doctor’s mother. I’ll let you get back to your TV show. It was good seeing again.”

“Thanks for coming. I’m glad I could remember the lady in the picture. Goodbye, Mary.”

Pam opens the Wednesday night session with, “I’ve got a busy night ahead working on the fingerprints. First, let’s have reports on your tasks during the week. Sam, did you have a chance to review the museum sign-in sheets?”

“Yes and I found something that may be helpful. I had completely forgotten about Professor Tidwell from Central Michigan University. Seeing his name reminded me that George told me the Professor contacted him and asked for a tour when he was going to be passing through Sturgeonville. George gave the Professor a personal tour and said the professor was particularly interested in both the Civil War letters and the pioneer letters. He told George he planned on returning during the summer to study the letters. That was in May according to the sign-in sheet. I don’t think the professor returned during the summer. At least he didn’t sign in again. Maybe he was just being polite. I have no idea if the professor had an opportunity to take the letters when he was here last May. If he did take them, maybe Brother Thomas got access to them at CMU. Does anyone know when the letters were last seen here?”

Mary offers, “They must have been here last April, the last time Brother Thomas was here working with them. That’s when he and George got into it over Brother Thomas wanting to take the letters home with him. If they were missing since May wouldn’t George have discovered it and mentioned it to us? He used those letters in every tour he gave as far as I know.”

“I believe you’re right, Mary. If Professor Tidwell took them in May George would have soon discovered them missing and had us all hunt for them. Unless he thought he had misplaced them and didn’t want us to know,” replied Peter.

“Why don’t I give the professor a call? Talking with him about the letters may reveal he couldn’t have taken them. Otherwise I think we have to add him to our suspect list,” says Sam.

“Good idea, Sam. It’s worth a call. Peter, did you get George’s coffee mug?” Pam asks.

“Yes, I brought it. Bob was okay with my wanting to take it to George’s mother. I’ve been careful to have my fingers only on the bottom and the rim,” Peter replies as he sets the coffee mug on the table in front of Pam.

“Good, Peter, then we know prints on the handle or sides are George’s. Mary, were you able to get Maxine’s fingerprints?”

“Yes, Pam, her prints are on the sides of the picture frame. I also learned we were right that no bill was sent for Lois Taylor’s last visit to the doctor and Maxine made no notes about the visit other than the brief entry we saw in the appointment book,” Mary replies as she carefully takes the photo out of her purse by the top edge of the frame and places it beside George’s coffee mug.

Pam says, “I’ll dust the coffee mug and the picture frame for prints. While I’m doing that will someone turn on the printer? I’ll take photos of the prints and print them out so it’s easier to compare them. Mary, will you double-check me to make sure I get the prints labeled correctly?”

Joe goes to turn on the printer and Mary says, “Yes, I’ll double-check as you label the photos.”

It takes Pam only a few minutes to dust for prints, take photos of the revealed prints and print them via the Bluetooth connection to the printer. Mary and Pam compare each printed photo with the prints on the cup and picture frame and label each one as George’s or Maxine’s prints. Then Pam says, “Next I’ll print out the photos of Doc Arra’s prints we got from his medical instruments. That will give us a labeled set to compare to the print we found on the file drawer. Let me print out the photo of that print also.”

Pam notices that Joe, Sam and Peter are hovering over Mary and her as they carefully label and double-check the printed photos. “She says, “You guys can go do something else if you want. This is going to take a while.”

The three men shake their heads and Sam says, “No, this is fascinating. If you don’t mind, Pam, I’d like to watch. The suspense of maybe finding an important clue is too great.”

“Okay, but be patient. This is important and I don’t want to rush it.”

“We’ll try,” Peter replies.

“You can help, Peter. Get me the magnifying glass from Doc’s desk. It’ll help me do accurate comparisons,” Pam asks.

Pam puts the unidentified print from the file drawer in front of her and compares it with each of the three known prints while Peter is getting the magnifying glass. She says, “I’m sure this print isn’t George’s or Doc’s. I want to compare it with Maxine’s print using the magnifying glass to be sure, but it doesn’t look like it’s Maxine’s.”

Peter returns and hands Pam the magnifying glass. She examines the unknown print carefully, then Maxine’s print. Finally she reports, “It’s not Maxine’s print. While we have no way of knowing for certain it could be the killer’s print.”

Sam offers, “With all the things suggesting Lois Taylor had a strong motive it’s too bad we can’t get her prints to compare with this print from the file drawer.”

“I think I can get her prints,” Mary exclaims excitedly. “Her prints should be in the State database. When she was elected as our representative to the State Legislature I’m sure she would have had to have a criminal background check. The State wouldn’t want the embarrassment of having someone with a bad criminal background in the State House. She would have been fingerprinted for the background check. I can access that database from my computer in the Court House.”

“Can you do it without drawing attention to what you are doing?” asks Pam.

“Yes, I don’t think anyone will notice and I doubt the State even keeps a log of who accesses the database because it’s used by all of the police departments in the state.”

“Good. Now it’s time I checked the medical file folders for prints. I brought the stuff I need to make iodine vapor. It'll take a few minutes to set it up. Joe, can you bring me those folders without adding any more prints to them?”

“Sure. I’ll be right back with them.”

By the time Joe returns with the folders Pam has her iodine vapor apparatus set up. She props the folders up so the vapor can flow over the surface of the folders. Then she blows through the tube holding the iodine crystals.

“Wow! Look at that,” Peter exclaims as they all watch fingerprints slowly emerge on the folders.

As soon as the prints are clearly visible Mary takes photos with her cell phone. They repeat the process with both sides of all three file folders. When they are finished Pam puts the iodine vapor apparatus away while Mary prints out the set of photos.

When the printing is complete Pam begins comparing the prints on the folders with the three known prints of George, Maxine and the doctor.

Pam soon says, “Maxine’s prints are all over these folders as they should be. That’s good news because it means the folders weren’t wiped clean by whoever took Lois’s file.”

Pam uses a felt-tipped pen to put a black dot on each of the fingerprints she identified as Maxine’s. Even though this took more than a half-hour the others watched her every move with interest. When she finished all the prints on four of the six photos had black dots. There were just three prints on the two sides of Buddy Ericsson’s folder without black dots. Next Pam compared these three prints with Doc Arra’s prints and said, “It doesn't look like the doctor handled these files. I imagine he had Maxine do all the filing after he filled out the paperwork for the files.”

After another ten minutes of comparing the prints Pam says with a big sigh, “This is helpful. Two of these prints are George’s so now we are certain George looked at these files, at least he handled Buddy’s file. That makes sense because he was asked to get Buddy’s file. The one remaining print matches the unknown print that was on the file drawer. Not surprising but that doesn’t help tell us who it is.”

Sam then says, “Okay, detective Pam. Please sum up what we have learned tonight for us.”

Pam says, “Let’s see. We have confirmed that George looked at the Ericsson medical files as he was asked to by the sheriff. We didn’t learn any more about whether he read Lois’s file or if he is the one who removed her file. We learned that the print on the file drawer that wasn’t wiped off was not George’s, not Maxine’s and not the doctor’s. We also now know that whoever left the print on the file drawer also handled the Ericsson files, at least Buddy’s file. But unfortunately we don’t know if that person is the one who took Lois’s file. Maybe we’ll be able to match that unknown print to Lois’s prints. If we can it will add to our suspicions that Lois took the file to cover up her having an abortion when she was young. But even then all we will have is suspicions. We don't have facts that will stand up in court. We didn’t learn any more about the possibility of Brother Thomas’s involvement in the missing letters and we have a new person, Professor Tidwell that we added to our possible suspect list.”

Peter says, “Well that’s a little progress. What do we need to be doing before our next work session?”

Pam replies, “Sam is going to call Professor Tidwell and Mary is going to try to get Lois Taylor’s fingerprints. The rest of us can wait for our next session. I’m ready to call it a day. Examining fingerprints is stressful and I’m tired.”

“Let’s lock up and leave then. I’m ready to be home for the evening,” answers Joe.