What the Wax Held

The black-wax comparison came back with no name attached to it. Imogen found the report on her desk before the coffee, its final page stamped with the examiner’s warning that the result could not identify a source.

Ferro had already read it. He stood at her filing cabinet with the report folded once in his hand. “The wax on the ring is consistent with the wax on the cord.”

“Consistent isn’t the same as the same.”

“It gives the prosecutor something.”

“It gives him a material found in several places in this case. The examiner won’t say where it came from.”

Ferro set the report on her desk. “He’ll say Sera had access to the cord.”

“She did. So did Quill.” Imogen opened the report. “So did anyone who entered that house.”

The examiner had compared samples from beneath the ring’s setting, the waxed black filament associated with the study bolt, and the material on the bodkin packet. The waxes shared a broad resin-and-pigment composition common to commercial sealing wax. No distinctive additive separated one from another. The ring sample held no filament fibers.

The last observation was in a supplemental note. The examiner had found a shallow, smooth compression along the edge of the wax beneath the setting. It could have formed when the ring had been pressed against softened wax. The finding could not establish when, or by whom.

“Was the wax on the cord softened?” Imogen asked.

“Probably.” Ferro’s gaze stayed on the page. “That’s why it’s there.”

“I mean when it touched the ring.”

“You’re asking the examiner to tell us a sequence he can’t establish.”

“I’m asking whether the shape points to contact or pressure.” She tapped the supplemental note. “He’s already said pressure.”

Ferro took the page back and read it again. His thumb covered the line about the absence of fibers. “This is thin.”

“It’s what the evidence supports.”

“And the rest?”

“The wax could have been used to take an impression. Or it could have been pressed there during some other handling. We can’t attach it to the cord.”

Ferro put the report down. “The prosecutor’s filing goes out today. If you’re going to object, do it in writing. I won’t have you stopping a charge over a sentence that says ‘could have.’”

He left the report where it was. Imogen read the examiner’s note twice more. A ring dragged across a length of waxed cord might pick up residue. A smooth compression beneath the setting suggested the ring had been set against wax while it was soft. Neither explanation excluded the other. The report had narrowed nothing to a person, but it had changed the physical question.