Aftermath (a BH6 crossover)

Chapter Fifty Eight: Established

The night had definitely not gone as Jack had intended, but it was too late to really regret it. Morning had come and it was time to get back to work. He entered the precinct what he thought was bright and early but noticed Ella was already hard at work in her lab. Shaking his head, he headed to his temporary command post in the conference room.

A report lay on his desk, the final toxicology report on Rachel Amesbury, if he wasn't mistaken. He wasn't surprised at the presence of poison. That was a given. It was just the kind of poison that made him wonder. It wasn't typical, hard to come by. But then again, if they were dealing with terrorists, it wasn't hugely surprising. One could buy anything on the black market if they had enough money.

Ella let out a loud exclamation, causing even Jack to jump. The man looked over as she started to do some kind of happy dance. More than a little curious, he decided to head over and see just what had gotten her so excited.

The moment the lab door opened, Ella stopped her gleeful posturing. She quickly schooled her face, hoping no one had actually seen her display. "Can I help you?" she asked, trying to sound gruff, only registering that Jack was the one to intrude in her space after she'd spoken. She'd had to turn around to actually see him.

Jack out a bemused chuckled. "I thought I'd come over and see what's got you so excited," he explained, hands on his hips. "Looked like you'd made some kind of breakthrough or something."

"I did," Ella admitted, decidedly looking more sober than she had a few minutes ago. "I managed to trace the fuel batch to the airport, along with the grease. That, of course, confirms that its linked to the airport bombing."

A bit of a frown replaced Jack's smile. "I thought we'd already established that."

Ella shrugged. "It was the working theory but now I've proven it. Chances are good it came from a mechanic or someone in a similar capacity. Could even have come from a fuel truck." She moved back towards her computer, calling up another report. "But the part that totally makes things interesting is the fact that the dirt is more consistent with soil samples on the east coast. There's a distinct concentration of trace elements that indicate an area inside the northern part of New York. That and the other traces are definitely a match to the bombs from earlier."

"Ah," Jack nodded. "Confirmation that this bit of evidence that Dirk Gently gave you is indeed connected. "Though why there'd be traces of New York soil in there is beyond me."

The shrug Ella gave wasn't as large as it could have been, but she didn't look put out by the question. "I mean, in a way, it does make sense. If this Rachel Amesbury made our bombs, and she'd from New York, wouldn't at least one other member of this bomb crew be from there too? What really makes it interesting, though, is even though there's that big that confirms they were in the airport, there's really nothing else that solidly says it. I mean the dirt is pretty much not from around here, which is nearly impossible to do unless the person who carried it didn't actually touch anything out here until after he or she left that smudge at the arena."

Jack thought about that for a moment. "Or," he hazarded, "the clothing they wore was just reused from out there, donned here, and possibly discarded to throw us off."

"I mean, it's possible," Ella shrugged again. "But what do I know? I'm not the detective. That's you and Chloe's job."

Reminded of that little tidbit, Jack had to nod. "You wouldn't happen to have a printout of all this would you?" he asked, indicating the whole with a wave of his hand.

Ella smiled a bit with a nod. "Consider it done."

.....................................

Wasabi woke to a poker-faced Fred staring at him from across the room. He'd managed to find enough pillows to prop himself up at night, thus making it easier to get out of bed. But seeing Fred just staring at him caused an almost chain reaction in him. His body jolted with the surprise, which made his muscles tightened painfully. That caused him to gasp out and have to hunch over to control his breathing.