Julie paced around the break room at the lab like she had done on so many occasions when a case had frustrated her. She couldn't help but steal glances at her cell phone waiting for Russell to call her but she knew it was too early. All she could do now was grab the closest laptop from across the hall, sit down with it, bring up all the case files on The Gig Harbor Killer and comb them meticulously for any clues she may have missed.
Sara, Greg and Morgan finished with the warehouse scene and took all the evidence back to the lab. Everything was scoured for prints, fibers, DNA, any type of trace of the copy cat. The blood was swabbed and given to Henry for analysis but the spatter patterns and drops were still difficult to discern. After several hours, they still couldn't make sense of the drops.
"I hate to say it," Morgan said somberly "but we really need Finn to help us."
"She shouldn't have to process evidence on a case that targets her," Greg said disgusted at the thought.
"Maybe the copycat wanted it that way?" Sara thought out loud.
"Very good," a soft voice spoke from the doorway.
They turned to see Russell with Agent Avery Ryan at the door.
"Hey guys," Russell said "I figured it would be good to loop Avery in."
"We could use the help," Sara said.
"This blood is all over the map," Morgan said "D.B, we really need Finn."
Russell sighed and said "I figured."
With reluctance, Russell told Sara, Greg and Morgan to focus on the other evidence while he gathered up the photos of the blood from the scene and searched for Julie. He found her in the break room surrounded by case files, and a laptop.
"Whoa, keeping busy I see," he praised her.
"I had to," she said tapping the pen in her hand anxiously on her notebook "any leads?"
"No," Russell said "we uh- got stuck- it's blood Jules, it's all we have."
"Just like before," she said sadly.
"Listen," Russell continued "I hate doing this to you, but could you just look over the photos, give us a preliminary run down."
He watched her for any signs of distress at his request.
"Sure," she said reaching out for the pile of photos Russell handed her.
She was silent as she began to examine the photos. Russell lingered to watch her work, wanting to keep an eye on her in case this task proved to be too much for her but at the same time unable to tear his eyes away from her as she focused on the photos. When he finally felt the stabbing pang of annoyance at this case, did he leave her to her work and return to help Avery and the others.
Julie combed over each photo meticulously, turning them upside down, sideways, even tearing one in half just to see if it fit with another image. The patterns of blood covered so much of the warehouse floor but each one looked too perfect to be part of a struggle. They were droplets, no velocity to them when they were placed there and she had to conclude that this was a staged part of the scene. The blood from Larson's head wound told a different story. That looked as if it had not been staged but had occurred as someone hit him with something hard. She would have to follow up with Doc Robbins to see what cause of death was officially but she had a feeling he probably wouldn't let her near the morgue since she was so close to this case.
By six o'clock that night, she knew what happened. Someone had killed Larson somewhere else, dragged his body to the warehouse, staged the scene and planted the blood for them to find. Once she had reached this conclusion, she leaned back in her chair, stretching, sore from sitting all day. Her eyes burned with exhaustion but she knew sleep would not be an option until this would be resolved. Instead, she gathered up her notes and the most important photos and roamed the lab in search of Russell.
She found him with Avery, Sara, Greg and Morgan in the layout room. They too had made a mess of their investigation, laying out notes and photos all across the table, using laptops to bring up more information. They all looked exhausted and they were all doing this for her. She felt a slight pang of guilt for her friends having to sacrifice their time in order to chase down someone targeting her.
"Guys," she called out quietly to them from the doorway. "I know what happened."
"That's great," Russell said happy to finally have made some progress.
"The blood was staged, as was most of the scene," Julie explained, her voice groggy from staying quiet so long "Larson was killed somewhere else, we need to find that scene."
"Just like we thought," Russell said glancing at Sara, "well done."
He praised both Julie and Sara since Sara noticed the blood discrepancies at the scene.
"So we need to look for a primary scene," Russell repeated "maybe another empty warehouse somewhere close by?"
"What about suspects?" Julie said "we can find all this stuff but it's useless if we can't find a person behind it"
No one spoke because they knew it was true. This was just like the conference shooting. And with Larson dead, who else knew of the secrets of The Gig Harbor Killer? The answer could be anyone after the publishing of Larson's book. As they stood there, wondering what angle to work next, Henry shuffled into the room.
"So I have DNA results," he said clutching the file looking somber. "All the blood at the scene belongs to Larson except for one sample collected near the door."
He paused to look at the paper again.
"I ran it twice and compared it like ten times," Henry said "but it's the same every time, I can't explain it."
When no one spoke, he continued.
"The blood sample from the entry way is female and a familial match to Paul Winthrop and Jared Briscoe." Henry concluded.