The Kill Room

useless.
General details: Bullet fired through and shattered floor-to-ceiling window, garden outside, poisonwood tree leaves cut back to 25 feet height. View to sniper’s nest obscured by haze and pollution.
47 fingerprints found; half analyzed, negative results. Others missing.
Candy wrappers recovered.
Cigarette ash recovered.
Bullet lodged behind couch where Moreno’s body was found.
Fatal round.
.420 caliber, made by Walker Defense Systems, NJ.
Spitzer boattail round.
Extremely high quality.
Extremely high velocity and high power.
Rare.
Weapon: custom made.
Trace on bullet: glass dust, fiber from Moreno’s shirt and poisonwood tree leaf.
Crime Scene 2.
Sniper nest of Barry Shales, 2000 yards from Kill Room, New Providence Island, Bahamas.
May 9.
Unable to find spent cartridges or other evidence of location of sniper’s nest.
Crime Scene 2A.
Apartment 3C, 182 Augusta Street, Nassau, Bahamas.
May 15.
Victim: Annette Bodel.
COD: TBD, probably strangulation, asphyxiation.
Suspect: Determined to be Unsub 516.
Victim was probably tortured.
Trace:
Sand associated with sand found at Java Hut.
Docosahexaenoic acid—fish oil. Likely caviar or roe. Ingredient in dish from NY restaurant.
Two-stroke engine fuel.
C 8 H 8 O 3 , vanillin. Ingredient in dish from NY restaurant.
Crime Scene 3.
Java Hut, Mott and Hester Streets.
May 16.
IED explosion, to destroy evidence of whistleblower.
Victims: No fatalities, minor injuries.
Suspect: Determined to be Unsub 516.
Military-style device, anti-personnel, shrapnel. Semtex explosive. Available on arms market.
Located customers in shop when whistleblower was present, canvassing for info, pictures.
Trace:
Sand from tropical region.
Crime Scene 4.
Apartment 230, 1187 Third Avenue.
May 16.
Victim: Lydia Foster.
COD: Blood loss, shock from knife wounds.
Suspect: Determined to be Unsub 516.
Hair, brown and short (from Unsub 516), sent to CODIS for analysis.
Trace:
Glycyrrhiza glabra—licorice. Ingredient in dish from NY restaurant.
Cynarine, chemical component of artichokes. Ingredient in dish from NY restaurant.
Evidence of torture.
All records of interpreting assignment for Robert Moreno on May 1 stolen.
No cell phone or computer.
Receipt for Starbucks where Lydia waited during Moreno’s private meeting on May 1.
Rumors of drug cartels behind the killings. Considered unlikely.
Supplemental Investigation.
Determine identity of Whistleblower.
Unknown subject who leaked the Special Task Order.
Sent via anonymous email.
Traced through Taiwan to Romania to Sweden. Sent from New York area on public Wi-Fi, no government servers used.
Used an old computer, probably from ten years ago, iBook, either clamshell model, two tone with other bright colors (like green or tangerine). Or could be traditional model, graphite color, but much thicker than today’s laptops.
Individual in light-colored sedan following Det. A. Sachs.
Make and model not determined.
    “Some mysteries here,” Rhyme said, musing, as he stared at the whiteboards, losing himself in the facts. Half whispering: “Do we like mysteries, rookie?”
    “I’d say we do, Lincoln.”
    “Ah, right you are. And why?”
    “Because they keep us from being, you know, complacent. They make us wonder and when we wonder we discover.”
    A smile.
    “Now, what do we have, what do we have? First, Unsub Five Sixteen. We’ve got plenty of evidence against him—for the murder of Annette in the Bahamas, the bomb in Java Hut and the murder of Lydia Foster. If—excuse me when —we get his ID we can make a solid case against him for explosives and murder.
    “Now, the conspiracy case against Shales and Metzger. We can link them—they both work together at NIOS—and we’ve got Shales’s code name, Don Bruns, on the kill order. All we need now is the last piece of the puzzle: proof that Barry Shales was in the Bahamas on May 9. Once we do we’ve got both of them for conspiracy.”
    Whispering to himself as he stared at the boards. “Nothing in the physical evidence placing him there. We can prove the unsub was in the South Cove the day before the shooting but not Shales.” He looked toward Sachs. “How’s the datamining coming—is there anything about Shales’s travel history?”
    “I’ll call Information Services.” She picked up her mobile.
    We don’t need much, Rhyme reflected. A connection could be inferred by the jury—that’s what circumstantial evidence was all about. But there had to be some basis for a valid