DF03 - Dead Secret by Beverly Connor

Author:Beverly Connor [Connor, Beverly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Forensic
Published: 2010-01-31T08:02:02+00:00

The crime lab was on the third floor of the west wing of the building. The room was a warren of glassed-in workspaces outfitted with all the modern forensic equipment for various kinds of microscopic analysis, gas chromatography, spectral analysis, electrostatic detection and computer analysis. The computers held national and international databases for fingerprint and DNA identification, as well as databases for fibers, shoe prints, bullet casings, tire treads, paint, hair, cigarette butts and several others that David had added. In addition, the computers had software that matched, categorized, imaged, mapped and correlated all manner of data. The lab also had bug-rearing chambers. The crime lab was a separate entity from the museum, though Diane often consulted with the museum when she needed an expert on such things as pollen analysis, soil analysis or animal identification.

David, Chief Garnett and Lane Emery, head of security for the crime lab, sat at the round metal table in a corner of the lab.

“I was beginning to wonder where you were,” said Garnett, looking at his watch. He slid his hand over his salt-and-pepper hair.

Diane ignored Garnett’s cross tone. She was rather cross herself. “Tell me what happened,” she asked Emery.

The head of crime lab security looked to Garnett as if for permission. Diane hadn’t hired him—the Rosewood police had—and he looked to Garnett as his boss. Diane didn’t like that, but so far it hadn’t been a battle she wanted to fight. She suspected that that would now change.

“Mr. Emery, tell me what happened,” Diane repeated in a firmer tone.

“Oh, sure. At three sixteen A.M., someone bypassed the security system and broke into the crime lab. They hit Lee Carey, the night receptionist, with a stun gun and chloroformed him. Did the same with one guard, Joe Rich, and stole two microscopes, along with a box of evidence—I’m not sure what was in it.” He looked at David.

“The box contained railroad spikes, the Moon Pie wrappers, the rope and the Mickey Mouse flashlight from the cave. Korey had the clothes, and Jin had the rest of Caver Doe’s stuff locked up in his station. All our other evidence was either in the vault or in the police evidence room downtown.”

“That’s a blessing,” said Diane. “Where were the security guards?”

“Brady was in the elevator-side lobby of the crime lab,” said Emery. “He never saw a thing.”

When the crime lab was put in the west wing on the third floor of the museum, Diane had had an outside elevator and reception room built so the lab could have a separate entrance. In the daytime there was always a guard and a receptionist. The night receptionist stayed in a small glass-walled office on the museum side of the crime lab. The separate entrance had one guard.

“So you think the thief came in through the museum side?”

“Definitely. Joe Rich and Lee Carey were the only people they attacked. Brady never heard or saw a thing.”

“What about the video cameras?” asked Diane.

Emery looked chagrined. “They managed to disable those too—the museum cameras and the crime lab surveillance.

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