“Hit those room lights,” said Mick. “Let’s see how dark we can get it in here.”

Korsak flipped the switch, and the room dropped into darkness. Starlight shone in faintly through the large uncurtained windows, but there was no moon and the backyard’s thick trees blocked out the lights of neighboring houses.

“Not bad,” said Mick. “I can work with this. Better than some crime scenes, where I’ve had to crawl around under a blanket. You know, they’re developing imaging systems that can be used in daylight. One of these days, we won’t have to stumble around like blind men in the dark.”

“Can we cut to the chase and get started?” Korsak snapped.

“I just thought you’d be interested in some of this technology.”

“Some other time, okay?”

“Whatever,” said Mick, unruffled.

Rizzoli slipped on her goggles as the Crimescope’s blue light came on. The eerie glow of fluorescing shapes appeared like ghosts in the dark room, the rug and the couch bouncing back light as Mick had predicted. The blue light moved toward the opposite wall, where Dr. Yeager’s corpse had been sitting, and bright slivers glowed on the wall.

“Kind of pretty, isn’t it?” said Mick.

“What is that?” asked Korsak.

“Strands of hair, adhering to the blood.”

“Oh, yeah. That’s real pretty.”

“Shine it on the floor,” said Rizzoli. “That’s where it’ll be.”

Mick aimed the UV lens downward, and a new universe of revealed fibers and hairs glowed at their feet.

Trace evidence that the initial vacuuming by the CSU had left behind.

“The more intense the light source, the more intense the fluorescence,” said Mick as he scanned the floor. “That’s why this unit is so great. At four hundred watts, it’s bright enough to pick up everything. The FBI bought seventy-one of these babies. It’s so compact, you can bring it on a plane as a carry-on.”