ANGEL BLUE [1]

LEAD 26: nineteen blue balloons

      “Agent Samuel Pingelly, FBI,” Nikita sounds way too happy to be getting under my skin. “We’re here to speak with one of your techs regarding our investigation; they’re processing evidence on our case.”

      “Lieutenant Enzel,” the woman outstretches her hand for me to shake but I decline. I’ve never seen Enzel before, nor am I willing to greet people in my current mood. Enzel clears her throat, “I wasn’t expecting FBI.”

      I can tell from the spark of attraction in Enzel’s eyes, that she finds Nikita’s glamour hot. At this point, Nikita could say anything and he’d have Enzel grovelling at his feet. I roll my eyes and push the glass door open to the Trace department, I came here to forget, not to remember.

      “Akira, hey,” Joseph looks up from the lens and gives a wave. “Happy Birthday by the way.”

      “Thanks,” I say.

      The Analysts in the Trace Evidence section of the lab typically examine small microscopic items of evidence, sometimes no larger than a grain of sand, I walk over to Joseph’s station and see what he’s examining. There’s a slide of epithelial traces, or flakes that look like dandruff. I originally wanted to work in Trace Evidence, comparing paint found on a victim’s body in a hit and run to a suspect’s vehicle; glass from suspect’s clothes compared to broken fragments at a crime scene and so on―but the lure of Detective was more promising.

      “Uh, I suppose you’re here regarding those two FBI women,” Joseph pauses his work at the microscope and waves over one of his colleagues to resume the procedures. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll walk you through the lab.”

      Joseph seems to be a young man of many talents. Not only is he an Analyst but is a proficient Toxicologist and Ballistics specialist. The job of a Toxicologist is to analyse samples of blood and other bodily secretions or absence of, and test for alcohol or other drugs. Various procedures are then completed on the given sample to determine the type of intoxicating chemicals present in the corpse. Joseph does both presumptive and confirmatory testing, which he explains to me and Nikita when we enter the Tox Sector of the lab.

      “There was anti-depressant medication found in Amanda Jane’s bloodstream. I was able to deduce that the meds were part of the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, and she took a mix of Citalopram, Escitalopram and Vortioxetine a few hours before she died,” Joseph says.

      “Sam and I found no prescription medication or scripts for anti-depressants,” but then again, if I was Amanda Jane stalking my ex-bum-chum, I’d be on heavy Prozac too. “The hotel room was bare of anything personal except for clothes.”

      “That leads me to the phone records which you appealed for last night,” Joseph continues to the next glass door, adjusting his white lab coat as he does so.

      We’re now in the Digital Evidence Sector, some genius created it to aid officials investigating crimes involving computers and the Internet―I’m still waiting to see how the DES is able to catch a killer that only uses prepaid phones or sets up his browser to ping off different cell towers within the Dark Web. Killers adapt to the technology, and I suspect that Q and Helena’s contact are no different.

      “Let me guess, Agent Quinn called an unknown number frequently that couldn’t be tracked back to a singular reception source. The emails sent between Agent Quinn and Amanda Jane have been erased not only from memory but the hard-drive itself,” Nikita observes the laptop and phone that are in the middle of being processed. “The notepad and other research is lost and whoever these women kept in contact with eradicated all trace of their presence, DNA included.”