Cody McFadyen - Shadow Man

Evidence or its absence tells this tale.

"Hey," Alan says, pointing. "I think that's it."

I see a package delivery van moving toward us. The van pulls up in front of the building and stops. I can see the driver, a young man with blond hair and a peach-fuzz beard, looking at all of us with more than just a little bit of worry. I don't blame him. He's probably not used to seeing a contingent of serious-faced, somewhat scary-looking people waiting for him to arrive. I walk over to his side of the van, motioning for him to roll down his window.

"FBI," I say, holding up my Bureau ID. "You have a package for this address?"

"Uh, yeah. It's in the back. What's this about?"

"The package is evidence, sir. Mister . . . ?"

"Huh? Oh, Jed. Jedediah Patterson."

"I need you to step out of the van, Mr. Patterson. That package was sent by a criminal we're pursuing."

His mouth drops open. "Really?"

"Yes. We need to fingerprint you, sir. Can you please step out of the van?"

"Fingerprint me? Why?"

I force myself to remain patient. "We're going to be looking for prints on the package. We need to know which ones are yours and not the criminal's."

Light dawns. "Oh . . . yeah, I get it."

"Can you please step out of the van?" My patience is waning. Rapidly. Perhaps he senses this, as now he opens the door and gets out.

"Thank you, Mr. Patterson. Please see Agent Washington; he'll print you."

I point to Alan as I say this and watch as Jed Patterson gives him a wary look. "Don't worry," I say, amused. "I know he's big, but he's only dangerous to the bad guys."

He licks his lips, still looking at the man-mountain. "If you say so."

He walks over to Alan, who takes him inside for fingerprinting. Now I can focus on the package. Reggie Gantz is already standing near the delivery van, carrying his equipment. He still looks bored.

"Ready to roll?" he asks.

"Go ahead," I tell him.

He moves toward the back of the van, opening the doors. We're in luck; there are only three packages back there. He finds the one we want immediately. It's addressed to me.

I watch as he starts up his laptop and powers up the mobile x-ray device. Moments later, we are looking at the contents of the package on his laptop screen.

"Looks like a bottle of something . . . and maybe a letter . . . and something else, flat and round. Could be a CD. And that's it. I need to fire up the Sniffer. Make sure that liquid isn't anything dangerous."

"Is that likely?"

"Nah. Just about all liquid explosives are unstable. The package would probably have blown up on its way here." He shrugs. "But we don't assume anything in bomb tech."

I'm glad Reggie is here, but I think he's crazy to do the job he does.

"Do it," I tell him.

He pulls out a swatch of cotton cloth and proceeds to swipe the package with it. I watch as he feeds it into the Sniffer. Once inside, the spectrometry goes to work. Within minutes, he looks up at me. "Looks all clear to me. I'd say it's safe to open."

"Thanks, Reggie."

"No problem." He yawns. I shake my head as I watch him wander back to his van with his equipment. It takes all kinds. Now I'm alone with the package. I look at it. It's not that big. Just big enough for what it holds: something the size of a jelly jar, a letter, and a CD. Probably a CD. I want to look inside. Burn to. I walk back around the front of the van. Alan is returning with Jed Patterson, whose fingertips are now black with ink. I motion to Alan.

"The package is clear," I tell him. "Let's get it to the lab."

"No shit," Callie agrees.

Everyone's chafing at the bit on this one.

Gene Sykes runs the crime lab, and when he sees us walk through the door a look of resignation settles onto his face.

"Hey, Smoky. So how long do I have for this one?"

I grin at him. "Come on, Gene. It hasn't been that long."

"Uh-huh. So we're talking yesterday, then?"

"Yep."

He sighs. "Tell me about it."

"Package delivered through a parcel service, definitely from our guy. We had a bomb tech check it out, which means that the outer part of the box got wiped. We also got prints from the delivery driver for elimination."

"Do you know what's in it?"

"The tech did an on-the-spot x-ray. Looks like the box contains a jar of some kind, a letter, and maybe a CD. Not a hundred percent sure of anything since we haven't opened the box up."

"How do you know it's from your unsub?"

"Because he told us he'd be sending it."

"That was considerate of him." He ruminates on all of this information for a moment. "You've already run one crime scene related to this unsub?"

"Yeah."

"Anything show up?"

I tell him about the prints we'd found on Annie's bed. Gene is scratching his head, thinking. Beginning to lose himself in the problem.

"I need this one really scrutinized, Gene. But I need it as fast as you can do it."

"Sure. I'm going to take it layer by layer. I'll remove the box, the contents, and address each separately. You say he's careful, so I doubt we'll get any plastic or visible prints. But sometimes they surprise us."

There are three types of prints at a crime scene: plastic prints, visible prints, and latent prints. Plastic and visible prints are our favorites. Plastic prints are created when the perpetrator leaves a print in a soft surface, like wax, putty, or soap. Visible prints are created when the perp has touched something--such as blood--and then touched another surface. Leaving, literally, a print you can see with the naked eye. The most common are latent, or invisible, prints. These are the ones you really have to look for, and the technology of getting them can be an art form at times.

Gene is an artiste. If something's there, he'll get it.

"It goes without saying, Gene, if it is a CD in there, I need the contents of it before you do anything that would damage it." Getting latent prints can involve the use of chemicals and heat. Either of these could damage the CD, making it unreadable.

He shoots me a look of injured scorn. "Please, Smoky. Who do you think you're dealing with here?"

I grin. "Sorry." I hand over two other plastic evidence bags, each containing the recent deliveries and correspondence from Jack Jr. "Check these out after. They're from the same unsub."

He scowls. "Anything else?" Sarcastic.

"You'll be getting the benefit of my assistance and expertise, honeylove," Callie says. Gene gives her a sour look. "We're on a timetable here, Gene. He's let us know that he's going to kill again."

His face grows sober. "You got it."

I walk into the office and find Alan on the phone. He's talking fast. Something has him excited. He's holding Annie's case file in one hand.

"I need to confirm it, Jenny. I want to be a hundred percent sure. Right."

He taps his foot impatiently, waiting. "Really? Okay, thanks." He hangs up the phone, jumps out of the chair, and comes over to me. "Remember when I told you something was bothering me?"

"Yeah."

"It was in the inventory of things taken from her apartment." He opens the file, finds a page, and points to it. "A receipt for an exterminator service inspection of her apartment five days before she was killed."

"So?"

"So--most places like the one where she was living handle extermination for the building as a whole."

"That's not exactly conclusive. But keep going."

"Yeah, I might have dismissed it too. But I saw the actual receipt while we were there, and something about it has been nagging me ever since."

"Come on, Alan."

"Sorry--it was a notation on the receipt." He grabs a notepad from his desk and reads from it. " Did Shoe Write-up. I mean--what the fuck is that? And then the guy signed it Armouried Murrey. "