Reid had put plates and knives on the counter and was now carrying bread and chips from the pantry. She grabbed sodas, and before she could prepare sandwiches, everyone started making their own.
Reid slathered mustard on a thick slice of homemade wheat bread. “So where do we stand?”
Jack reached for a plate. “ERT lifted a few viable prints from your car, and they’re running them now.”
Megan had heard ERT mentioned so many times during Fowler’s trial—the FBI’s Evidence Recovery Team.
Jack put two slices of bread on his plate. “They’re also processing the calendar to see if it has any unusual characteristics. Hopefully they’ll figure out where it was purchased. Or recover DNA and prints.”
Reid set his sandwich piled high with Swiss cheese and roast beef on the plate and grabbed his soda. “It seemed pretty generic to me.”
“It’s a long shot for sure.” Jack grabbed slices of turkey. “We also found a matchbook from PJ’s Sports Bar on the ground ten feet from your vehicle. We’ll run the forensics on that too.”
“Must be from Fowler,” Reid said. “Would be a coincidence if it wasn’t, and I don’t believe in coincidences.”
Jack cut his sandwich in half. “The prints are a better lead. But until we have anything concrete to go on, we’ve put plans in place in anticipation of Fowler’s next move.”
Megan looked at Jack. “How in the world can you predict his moves? It’s not like he’s doing the same thing over and over again.”
Lauren grabbed a handful of chips for her plate. “Based on his pattern of contact so far, it makes sense that he’ll try to contact you tomorrow when you return for Ella’s appointment.”
Reid carried his plate and drink to a spot on the end of the island. “You’ve tapped Megan’s phone in case he tries to call though, right?”
Jack nodded and dropped onto a stool in front of his food. “We also have equipment on the way so we can listen in if a call comes in here at the lodge or on her phone. With everything now in place, we wait.”
Reid blinked at his friend. “And that’s it?”
“You know the drill. What more would you suggest we do?” Jack took a bite of his sandwich.
Reid closed his eyes and took a long breath. He was frustrated but seemed as if he believed everything was being done and he could do nothing else. Oddly that comforted her. If there was anything more to be done, he’d either insist someone do it or he’d do it himself. He was just that kind of man. A man who kept showing he could be counted on.
Reid opened his eyes and faced Jack. “I’m going to make a call to the Veritas Center. See if they might have ideas for forensics we might be missing.”
Jack frowned but didn’t speak.
“You don’t like a private lab butting in,” Reid said. “I get it, but I have to do everything I can to make sure we find this guy.” Reid drew out his phone and stabbed his thumb at the screen, then tapped the counter. “Trent, good. Glad I caught you. The FBI has taken over the Fowler investigation, and I’m putting you on speaker with two of the FBI agents who are working it. Any news on the fake bomb?”
“We’ve processed all items for prints and DNA. Device and Megan’s vehicle. No viable prints on device. Guy likely wore gloves. Vehicle provided several prints but none that matched to AFIS. We did recover DNA samples from the device, as did Andi inside the vehicle. Those are running. Took longer than normal to isolate the DNA, but last I heard it should complete late tomorrow afternoon. We’ll get the results to you then.”
That was something at least, but Reid didn’t seem relieved at all. “Any hits in ViCAP?”
“None, but we have more. Duct tape was used to strap items to the box.”
“I mean no offense, that’s not really a big deal, is it?” Reid asked, surprising Megan.
“No offense taken, but why do you say that?” Trent asked, seeming a bit irritated at the comment.
“Forensics techs have been comparing duct tape recovered at a crime scene to rolls recovered from suspects for years, right? Which means we need to find the roll for this to help us. Besides, I thought the process had come under some scrutiny lately and wasn’t always holding up in court.”
“True, you will have to locate the roll, but thanks to Sierra at our center, the controversy is changing.”
“Explain,” Reid demanded.
“First a bit about the evaluation process,” Trent said. “When a length of duct tape is torn off, it leaves fracture edges. When evaluated and examined we can put the two fracture edges together and demonstrate that they have enough individual characteristics to prove they were once together.”
“Yeah, so how has that changed?” Reid asked, sounding like he was losing patience.
“There hasn’t been a standardized protocol or industry accepted guidelines for the analysis of duct tape. Now there is. The pilot project Sierra has been working on has shown very low error rates. Get me that roll, and I’ll get you court-worthy analysis.”
