Chapter 16
Gabe wanted to punch the wall outside the meeting room. He wasn’t eager to go inside and tell them they hadn’t come up with anything helpful this morning, but he had to. Even if El had gone to the restroom and wasn’t at his side.
He stepped inside the large conference room and searched for an open spot at the table.
Mina sat at the head, Ulrich on her left, her admin on her right, and Jude next to her, his hands on the table, twiddling his thumbs.
Deputy Ewing and Massey from the crime scene had taken places at the other end of the table.
Everyone had helped themselves to the box lunches and water bottles on a long table at the head of the room.
El marched in. “Grab some lunch before we sit.”
He followed her to the table, where they both picked up a box and a drink. She took the open seat by Ulrich and pointed for Gabe to take the chair next to her. He’d planned to sit by Jude, but leaned across the table and bumped fists with him, and then sat next to Deputy Ewing on his other side.
“Hey, man,” Gabe greeted, and nodded at Massey.
He gave him an agreeable nod while chewing. Gabe had expected them not to like an outsider, a PI nonetheless, attending a law enforcement meeting, but maybe it didn’t bother them.
Sierra breezed into the room. She held a tall cup of coffee in one hand and a laptop along with papers under her arm. “Sorry I’m late. All-nighter, and I had to stop for coffee.”
“No worries,” Mina said. “We appreciate your willingness to come in person to update us. There are sandwiches on the table if you’d like one.”
“Thank you, but I plan to have lunch during an update meeting with my staff.” Sierra sat next to Mina’s assistant and set her items on the table.
Mina stood and introduced everyone. “Sierra still has a big job ahead of her so we’ll start with her update.”
“Oh, thanks.” She took a long pull on her coffee then passed a report down the table. “This investigation has an unusually large number of evidence pieces, and it’s growing. So I’ve created a list of the items we’re processing.”
Mina glanced at the report, then looked up. “This is most helpful, thank you.”
Sierra gave a sharp nod. “In an effort to save time, I’ll power through this list and review the evidence by the crime scene where we located it. If you have any questions, please stop me.”
“Don’t worry.” Jude picked up a sandwich thickly stuffed with roast beef. “I don’t think anyone in this room is too shy to interrupt.”
She chuckled. “I know you’re all dying to get the information from Kenna’s phone so I’ll begin there. The good news is our electronics expert is confident he can retrieve the data. Bad news, the phone has to dry out. Could take seventy-two hours or so before he can access it.”
“You’re right,” Mina said. “We do want that information, like yesterday. What about fingerprints or DNA on the phone?”
“We only recovered one person’s fingerprints. Kenna’s.”
“How do you know they’re hers?” Deputy Massey asked.
“All daycare workers in a licensed facility in Oregon are required to be printed. We also recovered DNA from the phone, but it would only be an assumption to say it’s hers.” She picked up her coffee cup again and drank as if her life depended on it.
She cleared her throat. “Now to other DNA. Most of the samples we recovered will complete at around four o’clock today. That would be for items where the samples were easy to extract DNA. For samples where it’s more difficult to extract, we’ll have results tomorrow at the soonest.”
Deputy Ewing groaned.
“Hey, don’t knock it,” Ulrich said. “It’d take the state lab weeks to finish, and we all should be thankful for Sierra taking on our investigation.”
Red crept up Sierra’s neck. “No thanks needed. Fortunately, we have Lucy’s DNA from her ID kit for comparison. Any sample with a Mitochondrial DNA match to Lucy would mean the sample very likely belongs to Kenna. We’re also testing the adult toothbrush from Kenna’s suitcase found in her van.”
She picked up a copy of the report she’d handed out. “On to fingerprints. In addition to Kenna’s from the daycare, we have Lucy’s, thanks to her ID kit.”
Gabe put down his turkey sandwich and leaned forward. “Were you able to match any to them yet?”
“Yes, several. The only prints on the unicorn and bracelet belonged to Lucy. The shoes held prints from three people. Lucy, Kenna, and unidentified, i.e., not in the databases. The car seat had four unique prints for Lucy, Kenna, unidentified again, and the third one matched your prints, Gabe.”
“That makes sense. I’ve moved her seat plenty of times and as a former state trooper, my prints are in the system.
Sierra nodded. “We’ve also recovered DNA for these items along with the pink sweatshirt found in the car seat.
Processing will complete today for all of them.
None of the blood evidence will be ready until tomorrow.
In the meantime, we ran blood types so we can compare to Lucy’s ID kit.
For reference, Lucy is type O. The blood on the car seat is type A. ”
Jude dropped his bag of potato chips on the table and brushed off his fingers. “If I remember my high school biology, type A blood is compatible with type O and the blood could belong to Kenna, as it means Kenna could be Lucy’s mother.”
“Correct,” Sierra said. “All depends on the father’s blood type. Blood found on Kenna’s shirt and hand was type B, likely her killer’s.”
“But not Lucy’s father,” Jude said. “Parents with types B and O could not have a child with type O unless the father carried an O gene as well.”
“Correct again.” Sierra smiled at Jude.
He leaned back and preened. “All in all, the typing is something to go on now, but we still have to wait for the DNA for any certainty.”
“That’s right, but it might give the investigation a headstart,” Sierra said.
“Next, the footprints cast on the beach. The small footprint matched the brand for the recovered child’s shoe, but the soles didn’t have a distinctive wear impression and could belong to another child with the same brand of shoes.
The larger footprints are a men’s size eleven athletic shoe.
Our staff is searching national shoe databases to find a match to the sole to try to identify the shoe’s brand and model. ”
“But it won’t help if you don’t have a suspect to match it to, right?” Massey asked.
She smiled at the young deputy. “Very important point to keep in mind. We also lifted fingerprints and DNA from the boat cushion—uncommon underwater, but conditions helped. DNA results will take longer.”
She paused for a moment as if expecting more questions, then continued. “The dock is public, and we recovered an overabundance of fingerprints. We had to prioritize resources and delay the dock prints, but a dedicated tech will be assigned to them tomorrow.”
El wrapped up the remaining half of her sandwich. “It’s surprising you found techs to work on the weekend at all.”
“We have amazing staff.” Sierra smiled. “One last thing about the dock. We also located a small sample of type O blood by a protruding nail. Likely a minor prick, not a significant loss. But it’s enough for DNA and we typed it as O, a potential match to Lucy.
If DNA matches too, we could confirm as soon as tomorrow that not only were her shoe and bracelet on scene, but she was too. ”
Mina let out a slow breath. “With the bracelet and shoe present, we’re working with the assumption she was there, but it would be good to have official confirmation.”
Sierra nodded then glanced around the room. “That’s the end of the beach evidence. Any other questions before I move on?”
“Pretty straightforward,” Mina said.
“Okay, then on to the ravine. The screwdriver is first on your list. Multiple latent prints from the same person belonged to Kenna. We found two distinct DNA samples, both of which will complete tomorrow. We typed the blood from the tip, and it’s type B, likely the attacker.”
She took another draw of the coffee. “Moving on to the van. My team used the FBI’s automotive paint database to narrow down the paint sample to a Ford Transit 350 Passenger Van.”
“Perfect,” Gabe said. “Having the make and model should help us narrow down suspect vehicles. If we hadn’t already discovered Ryker was incarcerated, he owns a Chevy Express, so this information rules him out.”
El slipped her chocolate chip cookie out of its sleeve. “Rules out any of his buddies who might be driving it too.”
“Forensic evidence can both help and hinder,” Sierra said. “Next is the blood near Kenna’s van and on her hand. Unfortunately, we don’t have the DNA yet, but the blood is type B.”
“It’s not Lucy’s.” Relief rushed through Gabe like an out-of-control river in a flash flood. At least she wasn’t out there bleeding or badly injured. One less worry.
El shared a relieved look with him then let out a long breath and slumped in her chair as if deflating. Gabe completely understood. He wanted to do the same thing, but he hung in there for her sake.
Sierra looked around the attendees. “That’s all we’ve recovered so far at that scene.
On to Howard Mason’s property. You already have the camera photos.
Let me know if you need Nick to enhance them.
The Zippo lighter had unknown prints, and the prints don’t match the coffee mug from the house.
However, those matched former police officer, Howard Mason as we expected. ”
El sat forward, her gaze fixed on Sierra. “The lighter might not be his and could belong to the killer.”
“I hate to burst your bubble,” Jude said. “But the water churned up by a boat’s wake could’ve carried the lighter into the boathouse, and it could belong to anyone.”
“You’re right. That’s a possibility we have to keep in mind.” Gabe usually appreciated Jude’s take on things, but in this case, he hoped his buddy was wrong.
“We’ve only started processing his property, and more may turn up,” Sierra said.
“DNA in progress for the mug should return today. Lighter tomorrow or later. Now, the boat. We lifted prints for Kenna and Lucy, and several unknown prints. We also recovered a good quantity of type B blood. DNA is running for that and samples from several additional areas. We’ll have it to you tomorrow. ”
“Confirms Kenna and Lucy were in the boat,” Gabe said. “And gives credence to our theory that the boat was used to transport them from the ravine.”
El met his gaze. “And if you believe the type B blood we recovered is the killers, then that likely puts him in the boat.”
Gabe shuddered at the thought of Kenna and Lucy in a small boat with the killer, but had to let it go.
“Next are items found at Kenna’s place. The pregnancy test held only one clear-cut set of fingerprints that belonged to Kenna, but we recovered multiple DNA samples and should have the results after four.
The news on the jacket isn’t as good. Despite several hairs on the fabric, it’s proving to be difficult.
We need hair with follicles attached to determine DNA.
None of the samples qualify. We’ll continue to process the jacket for touch DNA, but a date for those results is unknown.
We’ll also check for prints, though fabric doesn’t yield as many liftable prints. ”
“You haven’t mentioned the fetal tissue sample,” El said, her expression tight.
Sierra took a long breath. “DNA is very straightforward in this situation. Hopefully, we’ll have results by four o’clock today. The blood is type O.”
“Does this help us figure out the blood type for the father?” Gabe asked.
“Unfortunately, no.”
Gabe gritted his teeth. He’d hoped to find out the father’s identity by now, but they would have to wait for the DNA results.
Sierra closed her computer. “Of course, once we complete the work, you’ll receive a detailed written report, but that’s all I have for now.”
No one spoke up.
Mina stood and held out her hand. “Thank you, Sierra, for the thorough update and for handling our evidence so quickly. I know you have a lot of priorities.”
“Nothing more important than finding this little girl.”
The others mumbled their thanks, including Gabe, but his thoughts soon turned to what they’d learned today that could help them other than that Lucy hadn’t suffered a life-threatening injury at the crime scene. That was news for sure. Big news. News that encouraged him.
But one fact hadn’t changed. They still had no idea where she was being held captive, and with every lead that didn’t pan out, time in which to find her alive ticked by faster and faster.