Rhyme shrugged. “Well, let’s see what else the slug tells us. Mel, friction ridge?”
Fingerprints actually can survive a bullet’s transit through the air, through a body and sometimes even through a wall.
Provided Barry Shales had touched the bullets with his bare fingers. Which wasn’t the case. Sachs, goggled, was blasting the slug with an alternative light source wand. “None.”
“What about trace?”
Cooper was going over the slug now. “Bits of glass dust from the window.” He then used tweezers to remove some minuscule bits of material. He examined the specimens closely under the microscope. “Vegetation,” Rhyme postulated, looking at the monitor.
“Yes, that’s right,” the tech said. He ran a chemical analysis. “It’s urushiol. A skin-irritating allergen.” He looked up. “Poison ivy, sumac?”
“Ah, the poisonwood tree. Outside the window of the Kill Room. The bullet must’ve passed through a leaf before it hit Moreno.”
The tech also found a fiber, identical to those making up Moreno’s shirt, and traces of blood, which matched the activist’s blood in type.
Cooper said, “Aside from that and the ejecta, there’s nothing else on the bullet.”
Rhyme turned his new chair to face the evidence boards. “Ron, if you could update our opus with your fine Catholic school handwriting? I need to optic the big picture,” he added, unable to resist a bit of jargon worthy of their leader in absentia, Captain Bill Myers.
CHAPTER 58
Robert Moreno Homicide
Boldface indicates updated information
Crime Scene 1.
Suite 1200, South Cove Inn, New Providence Island, Bahamas (the “Kill Room”).
May 9.
Victim 1: Robert Moreno.
COD: Single gunshot wound to chest.
Supplemental information: Moreno, 38, U.S. citizen, expatriate, living in Venezuela. Vehemently anti-American. Nickname: “the Messenger of Truth.” Determined that “disappear into thin air” and “blowing them up” NOT terrorism references.
Shoes contained fibers associated with carpet in hotel corridor, dirt from hotel entryway, also crude oil.
Clothing contained traces of breakfast: pastry flakes, jam and bacon, also crude oil.
Spent three days in NYC, April 30–May 2. Purpose?
May 1, used Elite Limousine.
Driver Tash Farada (regular driver Vlad Nikolov was sick. Trying to locate).
Closed accounts at American Independent Bank and Trust, prob. other banks too.
Drove around city with interpreter Lydia Foster (killed by Unsub 516).
Reason for anti-U.S. feelings: best friend killed by U.S. troops in Panama invasion, 1989.
Moreno’s last trip to U.S. Never would return.
Meeting in Wall Street. Purpose? Location?
No record of terrorist investigations in area.
Met with unknown individuals at Russian, UAE (Dubai) charities and Brazilian consulate.
Met with Henry Cross, head of Classrooms for the Americas. Reported that Moreno met with other charities, but doesn’t know which. Man following Moreno, white and “tough looking.” Private jet tailing Moreno? Blue color. Checking for identification.
Victim 2: Eduardo de la Rua.
COD: Loss of blood. Lacerations from flying glass from gunshot, measuring 3–4mm wide, 2–3cm long.
Supplemental information: Journalist, interviewing Moreno. Born Puerto Rico, living in Argentina.
Camera, tape recorder, gold pen, notebooks missing.
Shoes contained fibers associated with carpet in hotel corridor, dirt from hotel entryway.
Clothing contained traces of breakfast: allspice and pepper sauce.
Victim 3: Simon Flores.
COD: Loss of blood. Lacerations from flying glass from gunshot, measuring 3–4mm wide, 2–3cm long.
Supplemental information: Moreno’s bodyguard. Brazilian national, living in Venezuela.
Rolex watch, Oakley sunglasses missing.
Shoes contained fibers associated with carpet in hotel corridor, dirt from hotel entryway, also crude oil.
Clothing contained traces of breakfast: pastry flakes, jam and bacon, also crude oil and cigarette ash.
Chronology of Moreno in Bahamas.
May 7. Arrived Nassau with Flores (guard).
May 8. Meeting out of hotel all day.
May 9. 9 a.m. Meeting two men about forming Local Empowerment Movement in Bahamas. 10:30 a.m. de la Rua arrives. At 11:15 a.m. Moreno shot.
Suspect 1: Shreve Metzger.
Director, National Intelligence and Operations Service.
Mentally unstable? Anger issues.
Manipulated evidence to illegally authorize Special Task Order?
Divorced. Law degree, Yale.
Suspect 2: Unsub 516.
Determined not to be sniper.
Possibly individual at South Cove Inn, May 8. Caucasian, male, mid 30s, short cut light brown hair, American accent, thin but athletic. Appears “military.” Inquiring re: Moreno.
Could be sniper’s partner or hired by Metzger independently for clean-up and to stop investigation.
Determined to be perpetrator of Lydia Foster and Annette Bodel homicides, and IED attack at Java Hut.
Amateur or professional chef or cook of some skill.
Suspect 3: Barry Shales.
Confirmed to be sniper, code name Don Bruns.
39, former Air Force, decorated.
Intelligence specialist at NIOS. Wife is teacher. Have two sons.
Individual who placed a call to the South Cove Inn on May 7 to confirm arrival of Moreno. Call was from phone registered to Don Bruns, through NIOS cover company.
Information Services datamining Shales.
Voiceprint obtained.
Crime scene report, autopsy report, other details.
Crime scene cleaned and contaminated by Unsub 516 and largely 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.