shut.
If Fletcher was working for Hale, he wouldn’t have to sneak inside the building.
Darby rewound the tape and watched it again.
What were you doing inside the penthouse? What were you looking for?
She watched the tape three more times and, failing to find anything useful, left the conference room.
Coop and Keith Woodbury were working inside a small evidence room. Pieces of Emma Hale’s jewellery sat inside a clear fuming cabinet slowly filling with a cyanoacrylate vapour. Off-white latent fingerprints appeared on the jewellery.
‘How’s the humidity level?’ Coop asked.
Woodbury, tall and sleek, with a shaved head and a runner’s build, examined the gauge. ‘It looks good,’ he said, his voice, as always soft and pleasant. He saw Darby, said hello and then turned his attention back to the gauge.
Coop put down his clipboard. ‘The AFIS results came back – no good news, I’m afraid,’ he told her. ‘The partial thumb we found on the jewellery drawer’s metal handle not only failed to find a corresponding match, it couldn’t even find a probable match. We’ll need a better-quality print.’
‘Any luck with the jewellery?’
‘We’ve only done one tray. So far, all the prints belong to Emma Hale. It’s going to take a few days to get through this.’
Darby nodded. Fuming with cyanoacrylate, the main chemical in superglue, yielded great latent prints but the process was slow. Then there was the additional step of dusting the prints to preserve them so they could be lifted.
‘How did the meeting with the father go?’ Coop asked.
Darby hopped up on the back counter and filled them in on her talk with Hale and the subsequent burglary.
‘Nice timing,’ Coop said. ‘You think Fletcher knows about the missing necklace?’
‘The only way he could know about it is if he had access to our evidence file,’ Darby said. ‘Hale doesn’t have a copy.’
‘So what the hell was Fletcher doing there?’
‘I have no idea. I want to talk about the Virgin Mary statue.’
‘No prints.’
‘I know,’ Darby said. ‘Either our man wiped it clean before he placed it in the pocket or he was wearing gloves. But wearing gloves while holding a sewing needle would be tricky, don’t you think?’
‘Depends on the type of gloves he was wearing. If they were ski gloves or ones made of thick leather then, yeah, it would be hard to hold a sewing needle and thread the pocket. But if he was wearing latex…’ Coop shrugged.
‘What if he wasn’t wearing gloves at all?’ Darby said. ‘What if he sewed the pocket shut with his bare hands?’
‘I see where you’re going. Trying to lift a latent print from clothing… it rarely happens. Fabric doesn’t hold a print’s ridge characteristics.’
‘That’s true. Generally,’ Darby said. ‘Chen’s running pants are made of nylon, and the area around the pocket was spotted with blood. What if he left a print?’
‘Then the question becomes how to lift it without damaging the blood sample for DNA testing.’
‘There are some chemicals we can mix together that won’t damage the core STR loci.’
Woodbury, who had been quietly listening, spoke up. ‘If you go that route, I wouldn’t recommend using a peroxidase-reaction chemical. For one, they’re not easy to use. Second, there’s a toxicity issue.’
‘What about using a solution based on a general protein-staining dye?’ Darby asked.
Woodbury thought it over.
‘That would be safer,’ he said after a moment. ‘I’ll have to do some research and see if I can find the appropriate, ah, recipe.’
‘And we’ll have to wait until the clothes are dry,’ Coop added.
‘I want to examine Chen’s skin,’ Darby said. ‘I want to see if our man touched her with his bare hands.’
‘I’d say the chances of a latent print surviving that long underwater are slim to none.’
‘Coop, what’s the first rule you told me when it comes to fingerprints?’
‘There are no
If Fletcher was working for Hale, he wouldn’t have to sneak inside the building.
Darby rewound the tape and watched it again.
What were you doing inside the penthouse? What were you looking for?
She watched the tape three more times and, failing to find anything useful, left the conference room.
Coop and Keith Woodbury were working inside a small evidence room. Pieces of Emma Hale’s jewellery sat inside a clear fuming cabinet slowly filling with a cyanoacrylate vapour. Off-white latent fingerprints appeared on the jewellery.
‘How’s the humidity level?’ Coop asked.
Woodbury, tall and sleek, with a shaved head and a runner’s build, examined the gauge. ‘It looks good,’ he said, his voice, as always soft and pleasant. He saw Darby, said hello and then turned his attention back to the gauge.
Coop put down his clipboard. ‘The AFIS results came back – no good news, I’m afraid,’ he told her. ‘The partial thumb we found on the jewellery drawer’s metal handle not only failed to find a corresponding match, it couldn’t even find a probable match. We’ll need a better-quality print.’
‘Any luck with the jewellery?’
‘We’ve only done one tray. So far, all the prints belong to Emma Hale. It’s going to take a few days to get through this.’
Darby nodded. Fuming with cyanoacrylate, the main chemical in superglue, yielded great latent prints but the process was slow. Then there was the additional step of dusting the prints to preserve them so they could be lifted.
‘How did the meeting with the father go?’ Coop asked.
Darby hopped up on the back counter and filled them in on her talk with Hale and the subsequent burglary.
‘Nice timing,’ Coop said. ‘You think Fletcher knows about the missing necklace?’
‘The only way he could know about it is if he had access to our evidence file,’ Darby said. ‘Hale doesn’t have a copy.’
‘So what the hell was Fletcher doing there?’
‘I have no idea. I want to talk about the Virgin Mary statue.’
‘No prints.’
‘I know,’ Darby said. ‘Either our man wiped it clean before he placed it in the pocket or he was wearing gloves. But wearing gloves while holding a sewing needle would be tricky, don’t you think?’
‘Depends on the type of gloves he was wearing. If they were ski gloves or ones made of thick leather then, yeah, it would be hard to hold a sewing needle and thread the pocket. But if he was wearing latex…’ Coop shrugged.
‘What if he wasn’t wearing gloves at all?’ Darby said. ‘What if he sewed the pocket shut with his bare hands?’
‘I see where you’re going. Trying to lift a latent print from clothing… it rarely happens. Fabric doesn’t hold a print’s ridge characteristics.’
‘That’s true. Generally,’ Darby said. ‘Chen’s running pants are made of nylon, and the area around the pocket was spotted with blood. What if he left a print?’
‘Then the question becomes how to lift it without damaging the blood sample for DNA testing.’
‘There are some chemicals we can mix together that won’t damage the core STR loci.’
Woodbury, who had been quietly listening, spoke up. ‘If you go that route, I wouldn’t recommend using a peroxidase-reaction chemical. For one, they’re not easy to use. Second, there’s a toxicity issue.’
‘What about using a solution based on a general protein-staining dye?’ Darby asked.
Woodbury thought it over.
‘That would be safer,’ he said after a moment. ‘I’ll have to do some research and see if I can find the appropriate, ah, recipe.’
‘And we’ll have to wait until the clothes are dry,’ Coop added.
‘I want to examine Chen’s skin,’ Darby said. ‘I want to see if our man touched her with his bare hands.’
‘I’d say the chances of a latent print surviving that long underwater are slim to none.’
‘Coop, what’s the first rule you told me when it comes to fingerprints?’
‘There are no
Similar Books
