Page 58 of Edge of Steele
She shook her head. “Not yet, anyway. But Russ and his deputies are really just beginning, and we’ll send someone from Sierra’s team over there too. I’m here to get Nick going on this and get a progress update to report at a task force meeting Russ said he would call.”
“You’ll want to talk to Blake for that. He’s been running around here like mad and compiling information from everyone.”
“First, I need to get Nick started on searching for our suspects.” She looked at the building, but didn’t move.
Finn understood her hesitancy. She didn’t want to go in. No one wanted to see such a horrific sight. He was glad to be out of that building for a while and didn’t really want to go back in either, but if it made Ryleigh more comfortable, he would gladly tag along. “I’ll go with you.”
She gave him a tight smile and led the way inside. Nick held a plastic bag and dropped a minuscule item held by tweezers inside. Ainsley was taking pictures nearby as Trent and Grady looked at an item in another plastic bag.
Ryleigh picked her way over to Kelsey, stepping over hunks of debris in her booties.
Kelsey was bent over the victim’s head and spraying something into his mouth. She looked up and held up her bottle. “Spray glue to help stabilize the remains. Sets a virtual cast over the victim’s jaw. It can help prevent damage during transport, perhaps giving us a better chance at dental identification.”
“If you can get dental x-rays for the suspected victim, right?” Ryleigh asked.
“Right,” she said. “Shawn will begin hunting those records down.”
“Were you able to locate Gates’s keys or phone?”
“Definitely no phone, but keys are still a possibility. I didn’t find any keys under the remains. Some of the fabric from his jeans were fused to the bone so they might be caught up in that. I’ll get back to you as soon as I know anything.”
“And I’ll let you know if we find keys here,” Sierra said.
“Thank you.” Ryleigh moved over to Nick. “I have a top-priority job for your team.”
“Spoken like a true law enforcement officer. Everything is priority. Good thing I have a big team.” He chuckled.
She smiled as if she knew he was right, and she deserved to be called out. She told him about Eckles, Nye, and about Dean Keenan and the documents. “Can you try to locate them?”
“Absolutely, but with Carla having just gone underground, she might be hard to find.”
Her expression fell. “You don’t think you’ll find anything?”
“I said hard, but not impossible.” He grinned as he closed the bag in his hand. “I’ll give my team a head’s up and get them moving on it. They’ll get the basics going, then I can tweak what they come up with, and we’ll go from there.”
“Thanks.” She held up her evidence bag. “What do you want me to do with this?”
“Give it to Blake for safekeeping. He can start a log for the other scene, and I can review the documents in a cleaner environment. When I’m done, Sierra can run prints.”
“Thank you.” Ryleigh smiled at the team, her genuine thankfulness evident to all.
“You’ll want to see this.” Grady stood and held his bag up to the light, Trent looking on.
Ryleigh stepped over to them.
Finn followed and got a clear look at the bagged item. “The photoelectric cell?”
“It’s a photoelectric cell all right.” Trent’s dark eyes gleamed with interest. “There’s enough here to ID the make and model. Don’t know if that’ll help us, but a bomber who uses photoelectric cells might have a preference for this brand, and this bit could lead to him or her.”
Ryleigh patted her bag. “The schematics we recovered don’t use a photoelectric cell.”
“We need a look at those,” Grady said. “Trent can get cleaned up to examine them while I keep at it.”
“And here I thought you’d give the newbie all the scut work.” Trent grinned at Grady.
“Hey, I happen to enjoy the scut work.” Grady laughed. “But seriously, man. Don’t expect a break from it all the time.”
“I still don’t get why the bomber chose a photoelectric cell,” Ryleigh said. “We have abundant sunshine this time of year, but he couldn’t predict the weather. And he had to place the cell near the window and account for any temperature difference it might provide too, right?”
