Acre Under a Green Sky

There were fingerprints on the handle of the hoe that struck Janet down. One set of partial prints –– the murderer's. Janet always wore those dirty old brown gloves, and apparently Irene had a matching pair. The prints weren't perfect, but they had enough to make a match when and if they found a suitable suspect. For now, they had none.

There was a killer loose in Waterstop, and everyone knew that the same killer murdered Luka's family. There was no doubt about it. Matt Bradley and Will Mosko denied it saying there was no evidence to suggest that one man committed both murders. There were cries to release poor Luka, and editorials appeared in the paper stating that Luka could not be fairly tried as long as this murder remained unsolved. Luka's trial was scheduled to begin in just weeks, and already Matt Bradley was doing all he could to delay the start of trial. One delaying tactic was to call in psychiatrists from as far away as Chicago to examine Luka. My father said the prosecution could hold off a trial almost indefinitely waiting for a psychiatrist's report if the court allowed it. But this court saw through Bradley's ploy and held fast to its docket.

Janet's murder was a gold mine for Luka and my father. Every prospective juror in the State knew about the unsolved murder, and doubt hung like a pall over all of Righteous County.

Will Mosko continued to report back to my father. The Janet Banner McConnell murder was their top priority. Matt Bradley wanted the killer found before trial date. Failing that, he was prepared to drop the charges altogether until Janet's murderer was found. He said he would wait as long as it took to try Luka for the murders of his family. And so, the war game called justice goes on, and winning is losing and losing is winning.

But were the murders related? Of course, they were. Two murders in little more than a month on the same street within three doors of each other? They had to be related. It was Will Mosko's job to draw all the parallels. He actually used graphs to link people in common, times, dates, means, everything. And one night around suppertime working over his desk at home, he drew a line that made his skin crawl. He phoned my father immediately and then rushed over to our house. I bolted down my food and joined them in the living room.

"Tell me it's just a coincidence," my father said, never taking his eyes off that line connecting the Luka murders with Janet's murder.

"I don't know. There it is."

"But what does it mean?"

"We're still interviewing jewelers, but there it is –– the only solid connection."

The line connected an ID bracelet inscribed, "February 17, 1955. And ever after. Love J." with Janet's initial, J.

"Maybe Janet gave the bracelet to Irene, and Marilyn stole it from them and hid it in the baton," Will said.

"Or maybe Janet gave the bracelet to Gwen."