Anique Pomerleau.
My eyes rose to Rodas. His were still fixed on me. “You can imagine how amped I was. Years of nothing, then I get word they’ve sequenced DNA that isn’t Nellie’s. I told the analyst to shoot the profile through CODIS.”
Like VICAP, the Combined DNA Index System is a database maintained by the FBI. CODIS stores DNA profiles and uses two indexes to generate investigative leads.
The convicted offender index contains profiles of individuals convicted of crimes ranging from misdemeanors to sexual assault and murder. The forensic index contains profiles obtained from crime scene evidence, such as semen, saliva, or blood. When a detective or analyst enters an unknown profile, the CODIS software electronically searches both indexes for a potential match.
A match within the forensic index links crimes to one another, possibly identifying serial offenders. Based on a “forensic hit,” police in multiple jurisdictions can coordinate their investigations and share leads. A match between the forensic index and the convicted offender index provides investigators with an “offender hit.” A suspect. A name.
Anique Pomerleau.
“She’s not American.” Lame, but that’s what I said. What I meant was, how did Rodas get a match to a Canadian citizen? Our neighbors above the forty-ninth use the CODIS software but maintain their own national repository of DNA data.
“We came up blank in the U.S., so I decided to send the profile north. It’s not uncommon. Hardwick is less than an hour’s drive from the border.” Rodas pointed at the report I was holding. “That’s from the Canadian National DNA Data Bank.”
I knew that. In the course of my work at the Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de médicine legale in Montreal, I’d seen dozens of these reports. The pseudoephedrine and oxymetazoline I’d taken for my cold were short-circuiting my ability to articulate clearly. “How did you make the connection to me?” I clarified.
“The hit was in Canada, so it seemed logical to start there. I have a buddy at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He ran the name and found an Anique Pomerleau who fit the identifiers. Pomerleau is wanted by the S?reté du Québec on a warrant dating to 2004.”
“Hold on. You’re saying that five years after the Canadians are looking for this chick, she leaves DNA on a dead kid in Vermont?” Tinker, king of compassion.
“The lead detective still works there, but apparently, he went AWOL recently.” Rodas gave a wry smile. “I got the feeling that was a story in itself.”
I felt a soft pulsing in my wrist. Stared at the delicate blue vein worming under my skin.
“No one remembered much about the perp or the case. But a coroner hooked me up with a pathologist who’s been around forever. Pierre LaManche.
“LaManche told me Pomerleau was a suspect in the deaths of several young girls. Said her accomplice was a guy named Neal Wesley Catts. Back in ’04, Catts either shot himself or Pomerleau killed him. Then she vanished.
“I told LaManche about the DNA found on Nellie Gower’s hand and about the VICAP match to your unsolved here in Charlotte. He advised me to contact Dr. Brennan.”
Anique Pomerleau.
The monster.
The only one who ever got away.
I kept my face blank. My eyes focused on the vessel snaking my flesh.
“You’re thinking Pomerleau did both Gower and the Nance kid.” Tinker, again stating the obvious.
“I think it’s a possibility.”
“Where’s she been all this time?”
“We sent out a BOLO.” Be on the lookout. “So did the SQ, though I didn’t feel a lot of love there. Can’t really blame them. It’s been ten years. Pomerleau’s maybe dead, maybe using an alias, and the only pic they have dates to 1989.”
I remembered. It was the only photo we had. Taken when Pomerleau was around fifteen.