Pratt stood in the doorway to the dead conductor’s office again. In the hall behind him, the ambulance crew was waiting impatiently. It was nearly time to remove the body.
The Scene of Crime team had marked a number of things too small to see on the floor. With numbers beside each one, a team member was busy snapping photos. Two more were dusting the window frames for prints. The gray powder they used completely covered the desk. The team leader was crouched over the body watching the medical examiner do his thing.
Pratt called to the team leader, a man he knew well. “Frank, can you spare a minute?”
Frank Johnson walked to the doorway. “What can I do for you, Pratt?”
“How far have you gotten?”
Pratt braced himself. Johnson, known as a bit of a wiseass, liked to answer questions with song titles. He didn’t disappoint.
“Well, I’ll tell ya, it seems to be a case of ‘Nothing from Nothing Leaves Nothing.’ Whoever did the deed didn’t leave much behind as far as we can see.”
“No fingerprints?”
“Not many. Mr. Conductor Man over there seems to have been a bit of a neatnik. According to that guy Browne, the office would be cleaned at least once a day.”
“Not many? I suppose you’re going to have to fingerprint that whole crew in the basement, aren’t you?”
Pratt sighed. “I suppose it will come to that. How about the body and the murder weapon?”
“We’re not going to get anything out of the murder weapon, if I know my job. I found a few smudges consistent with gloves. Hard to tell what kind. We’ll check for residue, but it will take time.”
“And the body?”
“There’s a bruise in the center of the guy’s back consistent with somebody leaning on him with one knee and pulling back. That metal cable-”
“Cello string,” Pratt added absently.
“Right. Your young assistant told us that’s what it was. Anyway, the cello string dug into the guy’s throat pretty deeply. A lot of bruising there.”
Pratt and Johnson were joined by the medical examiner. “Death would have been pretty quick with that type of ligature,” he told them as he peeled off his latex gloves. “Just the amount of time it took the victim’s lungs to run out of oxygen.”
“And those drum mallets used to secure the ends of the cello string?” Pratt asked both of them.
The medico answered. “It would have been hard to hold a small cable like that really tight with bare or even gloved hands. Quite ingenious to use those sticks, actually. The murderer could make the length of the loop smaller so he could apply more pressure. If your arms are extended out like this”-the doctor held his arms far apart-“you can’t put as much oomph behind it.”
“Are you sure it was a male that did this?”
Both men looked doubtful to Pratt. Great. If they’d both come out strongly that they thought the murderer was male, it might have made things simpler.
“Hard to say,” Johnson finally answered. “The stiff wasn’t a very big guy. Good strong woman might have been able to do the deed.”
“Doc?” Pratt asked, turning to him.
“I’ll know more after the autopsy.”
The usual answer from a medical examiner.
“Can you give me anything to work with?”
Both men looked at Pratt and then at each other.
Johnson said, “Well, there is one thing.”
“What?”
“We found an open fountain pen on the desk. The nib was still wet, so it can’t have been open that long.”
“Can you give me a time.”
“An hour only.”
“And what was he writing?”
“Can’t help you there. There was nothing on the desk, floor, wastebasket or on the body.”
“Maybe he wrote on a pad?” the doctor threw in. “You might get impressions from the paper underneath.”
Johnson shook his head and told him, “That only happens on tv.”
“Gut reaction, Johnson,” Pratt said, changing the subject. “Do you think you’re going to find anything more useful here?”
Johnson sighed heavily. “No. This murderer was smart. So unless he or she was also extremely unlucky, no, we’re not going to find anything. That’s not to say we won’t keep trying though.”
Pratt nodded. “I appreciate that.”
One of the other techs walked up. “We’re ready to move the body now.”
Pratt and the medical examiner stepped farther back in the hall to be out of the way.
“Will I see you at the autopsy?” he asked Pratt.
“Do you expect to find anything interesting?”
He shrugged. “Not really. But we always live in hope, don’t we?”
Both men turned to watch the removal of the body.
“Detective Pratt, Detective Pratt!” Browne shouted as he appeared at the end of the hall. “I have to speak to you!”
The orchestra manager was coming fast. Behind him, looking much more relaxed, was Ellis. His face had a bit of a smirk.
Browne stopped right in front of Pratt, puffing like a bellows. “Your assistant has barred me from using my office! How can I do what you asked me to do if I can’t use my office?”
Ellis shrugged. “I needed an Internet connection for my laptop.”
“You can use the secretary’s desk down the hall.”
Pratt looked at Ellis, whose face was now studiously blank. What was the kid up to?
“We’re all having to put up with a lot today,” Pratt said.
“But I have things I must be doing- right now!”
“I’ll make sure you can get back into your office ASAP. Okay?”
Browne looked as if he wanted to say something else, but Pratt returned his pointed glare. After a few seconds, Browne turned away and stomped off.
Pratt waited until he was well out of earshot before asking Ellis, “What was that all about?”
Now Ellis grinned. “Our friend Browne seemed a tad too eager to get into his office. He was the person who found the body, after all.”
“I like the way you’re thinking, my boy,” Pratt said with a smirk of his own. “Now have you got anything else for me?”
“I went down to the rehearsal hall to look for you. Spadafini’s overcoat was there, so I checked the pockets. His cell phone wasn’t there, but in looking around, I found it on the floor. It appears to have been kicked under the conducting podium.”
“I’m glad one of us is thinking,” Pratt muttered under his breath.
“I checked his call history. There were several recent calls to a number on the other side of the country.”
“And?”
“I did a reverse lookup of it. It’s the phone number of the president of a rival orchestra-one that’s currently looking for a new conductor.”