along the way because of the weather. She pulled the Land Rover into
the garage and shut the door. She unloaded it and carried the items up
the interior stairs leading from the garage to the house.
She had no way of knowing that the heavy snow had covered up very recent
tire tracks in her parent’s yard. Nor did she venture into the back
bedroom, where numerous pieces of luggage were neatly stacked. As she
entered the kitchen, she couldn’t see the car passing slowly by the
house and then continuing on.
The interior of the FBI testing facility was going full steam. The
white-coated FBI technician walked around the exterior of the limo,
motioning Sawyer and Jackson to follow her. The left-side rear
passenger door was open. Fortunately, the limo’s recent occupants had
been since transported to the morgue. Set up next to the limo was a PC
with a screen a full twenty-one inches across. The tech stepped in
front of it and began keying in commands as she was speaking.
Wide of hip, with lovely olive skin and a mouth that showed many smile
lines, Liz Martin was one of the bureau’s best and hardest-working lab
rats.
“Before we physically removed any trace, we hit the entire interior,
both front and back, with the Luma-lite, as you requested, Lee.
We found some things of interest. We also videotaped the interior of
the vehicle while we were conducting the exam and fed that video into
the system. Makes it a lot easier for you to follow along.” She handed
each of the two agents a pair of goggles while she donned a pair
herself. “Welcome to the theater; these are for your viewing pleasure.”
She smiled. “Actually, they block out different wavelengths that may
have occurred during the exam and which may otherwise obscure what was
captured on the film.” As she spoke, the screen came alive. They were
looking at the inside of the limo. It was very dark, the conditions
under which a Luma-lite exam was conducted.
Using a powerful laser of particularly high wattage, the test was
designed to make a wide range of otherwise invisible items lurking at a
crime scene visible.
Liz manipulated a mouse connected to the PC and the two agents watched
as a large white arrow made its way across the screen. “We started out
using a single light source, no chemicals applied. We were looking for
inherent fluorescence, then we moved on to a series of dyes and
powders.”
“You said you found some items of interest, Liz?” Sawyer’s tone was a
touch impatient, his eyes glued to the screen even as he asked the
question.
“Hard not to in such a contained space as that, considering what
happened there.” Her eyes flickered briefly over at the limo. As her
fingers expertly manipulated the mouse, the white arrow came to rest on
what looked to be the rear seat of the limo. Liz hit some additional
keys and the area was blocked off on a series of grids appearing on the
screen and magnified until it was readily visible.
However, being readily discernible to the human eye and being readily
identifiable were not the same thing.
Sawyer turned to Liz. “What the hell is that?” It looked like a string
of some kind, but magnified and enlarged as it was, it had taken on the
thickness of a pencil.
“Simply speaking, a fiber.” Liz pressed another key on the computer and
the fiber took on a three-dimensional shape. “From the looks of it, I’d
say wool, animal, the real thing, not synthetic, gray in color. Sound
familiar to either of you?”
Jackson snapped his fingers. “Sidney Archer was wearing a blazer that
morning. It was gray.”
Sawyer was already nodding. “That’s right.”
Liz looked back at the screen and nodded thoughtfully. “Wool blazer.
That would fit the bill.”
“Where exactly did you find it, Liz?” Sawyer asked.
“Left rear seat, more towards the middle really.” Using the mouse, Liz
drew a line across the screen measuring from the spot the fiber was
found to the far left side of the rear seat. “Twenty-seven inches from
the end of the left-side rear seat, seven inches up from the seat.