Expecting to Die

Now you’re sounding like Pescoli. You need proof, not gut feelings.
Somehow, some way, she was going to get it, she thought as she drove out of
town. Her muscles were tight, her frustration level in the stratosphere, and to top
it all off, she got stuck behind a tractor pulling along the road at fifteen miles an
hour.
“Really?” she said and after a sharp curve, spied a straightaway and hit the
gas. She flew around the farmer, who, in a ball cap, eyes on the road ahead, took
the time to wave as she sped past.
Once the farmer was in her rearview, she hit the button to open the sun roof,
rolled down the windows, and ripped off the band holding her hair away from
her face so that the wind could rip through it.
She considered the case, all the angles, all the suspects. She had circled
around over everything again and had just arrived at the outskirts of town when
her phone rang. With a glance at the screen, she saw it was Sage Zoller and
answered.

---

“Alvarez.”
“It’s Zoller,” the junior detective said. “The lab did an analysis on the bit of
rubber found under the victim’s fingernails. Latex. Most likely from a glove, the
type used in hospitals.”
“That’s what we thought.”
“No DNA could be found on it.”
“Damn.” That had been the hope, a slim one, but a hope.
“I’ve been checking around. The glove is pretty common and its usage
widespread. The gloves can be found in hospitals and just about anywhere else
you’d want to look. Stores in town sell them and we’re checking that, but along
with the hospitals, they’re used in clinics and vet clinics and are sold
commercially to anyone who wants to keep their hands sterile. Farmers for
examining animals, or people who clean houses or whatever. And, of course, you
can get them online. We’re checking local outlets to see if any were purchased
recently, but that’s probably not going to be all that effective. Anyone who
visited a hospital room or a clinic where they were having an exam could have
snagged a pair.”
“So no good news?”
“Only that the company that makes them color codes them by size. This