Jeffery Deaver - The Kill Room

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.

COD: TBD, probably strangulation, asphyxiation.

Suspect: Determined to be Unsub 516.

Victim was probably tortured.

Trace:

Sand associated with sand found at Java Hut.

Docosahexaenoic acid—fish oil. Likely caviar or roe. Ingredient in dish from NY restaurant.

Two-stroke engine fuel.

C 8H 8O 3, vanillin. Ingredient in dish from NY restaurant.

Crime Scene 3.

Java Hut, Mott and Hester Streets.

May 16.

IED explosion, to destroy evidence of whistleblower.

Victims: No fatalities, minor injuries.

Suspect: Determined to be Unsub 516.

Military-style device, anti-personnel, shrapnel. Semtex explosive. Available on arms market.

Located customers in shop when whistleblower was present, canvassing for info, pictures.

Trace:

Sand from tropical region.

Crime Scene 4.

Apartment 230, 1187 Third Avenue.

May 16.

Victim: Lydia Foster.

COD: Blood loss, shock from knife wounds.

Suspect: Determined to be Unsub 516.

Hair, brown and short (from Unsub 516), sent to CODIS for analysis.

Trace:

Glycyrrhiza glabra—licorice. Ingredient in dish from NY restaurant.

Cynarine, chemical component of artichokes. Ingredient in dish from NY restaurant.

Evidence of torture.

All records of interpreting assignment for Robert Moreno on May 1 stolen.

No cell phone or computer.

Receipt for Starbucks where Lydia waited during Moreno’s private meeting on May 1.

Rumors of drug cartels behind the killings. Considered unlikely.

Supplemental Investigation.

Determine identity of Whistleblower.

Unknown subject who leaked the Special Task Order.

Sent via anonymous email.

Traced through Taiwan to Romania to Sweden. Sent from New York area on public Wi-Fi, no government servers used.

Used an old computer, probably from ten years ago, iBook, either clamshell model, two tone with other bright colors (like green or tangerine). Or could be traditional model, graphite color, but much thicker than today’s laptops.

Individual in light-colored sedan following Det. A. Sachs.

Make and model not determined.

“Some mysteries here,” Rhyme said, musing, as he stared at the whiteboards, losing himself in the facts. Half whispering: “Do we like mysteries, rookie?”

“I’d say we do, Lincoln.”

“Ah, right you are. And why?”

“Because they keep us from being, you know, complacent. They make us wonder and when we wonder we discover.”

A smile.

“Now, what do we have, what do we have? First, Unsub Five Sixteen. We’ve got plenty of evidence against him—for the murder of Annette in the Bahamas, the bomb in Java Hut and the murder of Lydia Foster. If—excuse me when —we get his ID we can make a solid case against him for explosives and murder.

“Now, the conspiracy case against Shales and Metzger. We can link them—they both work together at NIOS—and we’ve got Shales’s code name, Don Bruns, on the kill order. All we need now is the last piece of the puzzle: proof that Barry Shales was in the Bahamas on May 9. Once we do we’ve got both of them for conspiracy.”