Page 62 of Edge of Steele
“Yeah,” Colin said. “They don’t take responsibility for their work. At least not in so many words, but if you read between the lines, it’s clear people who claim group membership are behind a lot of the violent events.”
“Are you looking into other members?” Finn asked.
Colin nodded. “I’ve got searches running on everyone I found. After it completes, I’ll cull down the list to people who could be related to this incident.”
Ryleigh looked at the other details for Sovereign Earth. “I see Pauline Eckles still shows up on the group’s Alabama roster.”
“Yeah,” Colin said. “That’s where she first started appearing. Then she moved to Atlanta. From what I can tell, she was trying to move away from Keenan after a contentious breakup. She still continued to work with the group but later moved to Oregon, and then she disappears from any of their other details.”
“Any reason given for her Oregon move?” Ryleigh asked to try to confirm her statement.
Colin nodded. “Her uncle died, and he left his property in Shadow Lake to her. Good timing as it appears as if Keenan was still bothering her. Shadow Lake Logging had a contract to log her uncle’s property, and that’s when she met Eckles.”
“That matches her statement to us.” Russ looked around the table. “Any other comments on the background reports?”
“Nothing for me, except I’m eager to see Carla Nye’s report.” Ryleigh looked at Colin. “Especially to see if you can track her down.”
“I’ll make sure you know anything the minute I find something.” Colin smiled.
Ryleigh tapped her stack of papers. “With your ecoterrorism background and these reports, what’s your gut telling you?”
His smile wavered. “Sovereign Earth could be behind the bombing. Not sure I buy it yet though. Not when I haven’t gotten any hits on a photoelectric cell bomb.”
“Looks like they keep changing their MO over time,” Ryan said. “Could be why they haven’t been caught. If you don’t leave patterns, investigators can’t link the dots.”
“It could also explain why they might’ve used a photoelectric cell on this bomb,” Finn said.
There had to be something they were missing, and Ryleigh wished they had more data right now. “Still doesn’t explain why Keenan had schematics that didn’t show the cell, though.”
“Hopefully, Colin’s additional research will give us more to go on.” Russ tapped his marker on the board. “Let’s run down the To Do List and get caught up.”
He swiped his marker through getting a warrant for Tobias’s office and tapped the words deep dives on Gates, Tobias, and Eckles. “We have preliminary reports, but let’s leave this open for now. Colin, you mentioned photoelectric cells? Have you struck out only on Sovereign Earth or a wider search?”
“Countrywide and nothing’s come up.” Colin frowned. “But the algorithm continues to run.”
“Nick at Veritas is also searching,” Ryleigh said. “Sounds as if it’s not common. Grady and Trent said they’ve never seen one used.”
“My search of ViCAP bears that out too,” Russ said. “We struck out in Oregon. My deputy is searching other states now. Unless that turns something up, we might not be able to connect the method to the suspect unless we can pin it down through the Veritas team’s evidence recovery.” Russ listed Grady as the responsible party for getting more information on the actual photoelectric cell.
“Sierra was confident she could fingerprint it too,” Finn said.
Russ put it on the board and added hotel guests. “My team is working on looking for anyone from out of town who is involved in ecoterrorism. We collected guest lists from local motels and hotels, and they’re clearing the guest’s names now.” He fixed his gaze on his brother. “What have you learned about competitors?”
Ryan snapped his chair forward and it squealed. “My research doesn’t point to anyone who might want to hurt Tobias’s operation. None of the other businesses are in dire financial straits. One of them is closing next month because he couldn’t make a go of it anymore and is getting out before he goes into the red. Still not a red flag as he’s calling it quits. I also did some asking around. Sounds like the other loggers think of Tobias as the grandfather of the logging industry in the area and respect him.”
“I could dig deeper online on the owners if you want,” Colin said.
“I doubt you’ll find anything but it would be good to be thorough,” Ryan said.
“It’s all yours, Colin.” Russ added it to the board. “Okay, let’s move on to new items, starting with forensics. Anyone have any questions about these items I just added?”
He tapped the top item he’d jotted down.
Nick Thorn - Deep dive on Carla Nye and Dean Keenan and try to trace emails
Sierra Rice - Process forensics located at Gates’s house, especially fingerprints, the Roomba, and particulates
Sierra Rice - Process DNA and fingerprints on photoelectric cell and Nye’s documents
