Aurora, Illinois

I Demand Precision

The sheriff and the deputy decided to meet Agent Sanchez at The Nordic in the morning. Agent Sanchez believed in having big meals but not snacking in between them. He ordered an omelet, hash browns, a short stack of pancakes, a slice of cherry pie, and coffee. He added cream to his coffee until it turned tan. It was all above average, but the pie and coffee were stellar. The pie had little gold flakes falling all around it. The coffee had a puff of steam rising from it.

"You must have the metabolism of a hummingbird," said the sheriff.

"Mhmm. Tell me what you know for sure about the Lopez case," said Sanchez.

The sheriff paused, "The victim is Adelina Lopez, daughter of Rosa Lopez and an unknown father. She was a senior at Aurora High School."

"Where was the body found?" asked Sanchez.

"A wheat farmer, Mike Dugan, found the body while driving a tractor through his field. It's in the Southeast corner of town, north of the Joliet River. Two of the molars were cracked," said the sheriff.

"What else? Anything else? Forensic testing?" asked Sanchez.

 "Oh yeah. We know she slept with two guys around the time of death," said the deputy.

"Do you mean there are two foreign samples of DNA in her body? Two samples that do not match each other?" asked Sanchez.

"Right," said the deputy.

"I don't mean to be harsh and I don't mean to tell you how to be a cop, but I demand precision. We must be in the habit of saying exactly what we mean - no more and no less. If she slept with two guys but these used condoms, there might not be a transfer of DNA. But if you're telling me there was a transfer of two foreign samples of DNA, then that's a different matter," said Sanchez.

"Diego, I saw the gels. There were three kinds of DNA on Adelina's body. One was hers. There were two others. We later learned that the two others had Y chromosomes so there is a 99% chance of them being males," said the sheriff, trying to deflect attention from the deputy, who after all was just trying to be useful.

"Ah. A picture is starting to form in my mind. Adelina is young and beautiful. She has many admirers in town. She has a steady boyfriend, maybe the jock type, strong and stubborn. Here comes another suitor who thinks he can steal her away. She likes the attention and plays along. Boyfriend finds out and flies into a rage. He kills Adelina and buries her unceremoniously in the wheatfield," said Sanchez, almost bowing at the end.

"Whoa!" exclaimed both the sheriff and the deputy.