Krystalnacht

Chapter 4: Information Gathering

This is the revised version of Chapter 4, which I think is a huge improvement, so thanks out to my Beta Reader, Alice. Better grammar, smoother clearer procedural…all that jazz! I believe in striving to do the best one can and this is definitely stronger thanks to working with a beta. Revised 11/17/2006

"Okay, let's review what we have so far." Don spoke to the assembled techs and his team from next to the blackboard opposite the room's entrance. "It appears Charlie was standing here, based on what Professor Ramajuan told us earlier. He was probably trying to finish these notes on the board, when he was interrupted by at least two people at the door. He would have turned, asked if he could help them or what they were doing here, because it was after his regular office hours. He seems to have taken a step or two away from the board." The agent's hand gestured to the board as he spoke.

Don's mind strained to imagine what Charlie had seen when these intruders violated his sanctuary. What was his brother's first reaction irritation, anger, fear? He yanked his thoughts back to the job and jammed the hand with its slight betraying tremor, into his pocket, with the fervent hope no one had noticed.

Come on, Eppes, focus on the problem. Do not blow this. Keep your cool.

Don mimicked the steps. "He was met at this point by one of the intruders, who hit him, probably in the face, based on the blood spatter we have here." He indicated the stains on the wall nearby, which had already been documented and swabbed to check DNA. The agent struggled to keep the image of his brother's face being smashed hard enough generate the spatter out of his mind.

The lead technician squatted and pointed to a few blood drops near Agent Eppes' feet, continuing the narrative for him. "These blood drops here have a directionality that indicates they are probably from the attacker who probably dropped his hand to his side, for a moment, after he made the hit. He must have torn some skin when he connected."

Sinclair interrupted, hopefully. "Is there enough to check for DNA?"

The tech smiled, as if the question made his day. "Oh, we will get DNA. Let's just hope there will be a match in the system."

Don gestured toward papers scattered on the floor between him and the doorway. He was still closer to the blackboard, than the door. "When and how do you think those papers wound up on the floor?"

The same tech moved over to edge of the papers on the floor, squatted again and considered a moment before he responded. "I think while the one suspect wasassaulting the professor; the other had started messing up the office. Best guess, these papers were pulled down from the shelves just to the left, as we face out, of the entrance. Would I be correct in assuming those shelves hold papers students have handed in before they are recorded received and graded by the professor or one of his TA's?"

Don nodded his affirmation. "That would be correct. I'm sure Professor Ramajuan will be able to verify if these papers would belong up there."

"Well, I notice none of them are graded. See though, they were disturbed quite soon after they were thrown down."

Don walked over, squatted next to the tech, and carefully squinted, as his head swept back and forth, trying to make sense of the evidence in front of him. He craned his head to look more closely at some papers, in particular, that seemed to have been kicked back, hitting the wall. Some were even almost standing upside down, against the wall. He considered a moment. "Check me on this. It looks to me as if, after he was hit, my brother began to move towards the door. Probably wanted to try and go for help. The guy, who was tossing the office, swept his legs out from under him. Charlie went down, about there – on his backside, or, to his knees."

"I got you." David had come closer and caught the flow now. "He must have landed on his rear end, because, he scrambled up and somehow got past guy two. See those papers against the wall slipped out, while he was regaining his feet."

The lead agent nodded. "Right, you're right - the way those pages landed, plus that smudge, that's the pattern from the sneakers he's been wearing lately, so he stepped on it, slipped a little, but kept going so it slid up and aside in the scramble."

Sinclair shook his head. "He almost made it out of here, man. He was that close to getting away." He pointed to a smudge higher on the wall, at the level of Charlie's head. "Somebody caught him right here and forced him back against the wall, an arm's length from the door." His eyes locked with Dons for one moment, conveying regret as he stated. "Some strands of his hair are caught in this paint which is just slightly dented in."

Don had just risen back to his feet. He stepped forward, glanced at the hair, and nodded confirmation. "Yeah." Swallowing hard, he stated flatly to the lead tech. "Map, photo, bag and tag that hair. You can run DNA, but I can tell you now. It is my brother's."

The crime scene lead frowned as he stepped up. "Sorry my guys missed that, sir."

Don shook his head. "We're all on the same side here. No sweat." He closed his eyes just an instant, gave himself that time to force his feelings deep down inside. He was all pro again, when he asked the head CS tech. "How many different shoe prints have you tentatively identified, so far?"

"Beyond Professor Eppes and dismissing those we eliminated as belonging to you and your people, Agent Eppes, I'd be comfortable saying four, possibly, five individuals were involved."

"Well, he was outnumbered, but he did not go down without a fight." David remarked.

"Unfortunately, he took more than a few knocks for resisting."

"These people were not out to just mess up the office. They came here to grab Doctor Eppes." The lead tech remarked. "Based on the word on the front of the note you found taped to the board, it would seem the attack on the professor was tied to his…well, your, ethnic heritage."

"It's all right to say anti-Semitic. I would say that is pretty well established." Don responded, tersely.

Larry appeared in the doorway. "Don, I don't mean to interrupt, but a colleague heard through the grapevine of the investigation in progress here. She brought me this memory card. She was taking some photos about the grounds late yesterday, trying out her new digital camera. Her name is Professor Tauray. She got photos of some individuals she assumed were dressed for Halloween, in what she felt was a very inappropriate manner. She took pictures of two groups, slightly staggered in time, entering this building, with the thought of lodging a protest with the dean, for their attire."

Don walked over, accepted the memory card and passing it on to the technician who was manning a laptop where all the evidence and photos were being recorded as they processed the scene. He explained to the group. "This is my brother's colleague, Professor Larry Fleinhardt. He has provided us with invaluable assistance, on more than one occasion."

As the pictures uploaded, they displayed on the laptop's screen. The first few were of two men in the math building foyer, by the bottom of the stairwell, which was well lit. One was clothed as a Hitler youth and one as an SS officer. Additional pictures followed of three more males. The time code displayed on the screen by each photo showed only a brief time gap between the two groups arriving. The second group wore more WWII costumes with a Nazi theme.

Don swallowed the gorge that rose in this throat, reflexively. He squinted at one group shot, intently, and leaned forward when he noticed some thing of great interest. "Wait. This second group of guys, can you enlarge this image, here? Get the best view on his hand." When the tech obliged, the image was clear enough to be certain. "I'll be damned. That suspect had a video camera. What, these guys taped this for posterity?"

Megan ventured. "They look pretty young, high school or slightly older, maybe. At that age, they feel invulnerable. It would fit a general profile for them to want to tape their handiwork for bragging rights."

"Clyde," Reeves spoke to the lead tech, "were you able to scan the note through the evidence envelope? Professor Fleinhardt might be able to give us a jump start on decoding the cipher on the note."

"Yes, Agent Reeves. Professor, if you could give me an e-mail address, I could forward you a copy. I don't have a printer with me, but I am online."

Megan took action. "Bring up your e-mail program. I can enter the professor's e-mail over in his office." She bent over the laptop and entered it.

Larry seemed relieved to have something further he could add to the investigation. "I shall certainly see what I can do. If it's okay with you, Don, when Amita is done with her class, I will ask her to work on it with me. Between the two of us, we should have something for you rather quickly, if it is not too difficult a code."

"That would be great, Larry. We would appreciate that."

"Professor Tauray said she noticed that each group went up the stairs to this floor. She told me she saw all five emerge from that stairwell, some time later. By that time, she was across the quad taking other shots, but she saw in her peripheral vision, they seemed to be lugging what she assumed at the time was a dummy. She was unable to actually get that on camera, as they exited towards the parking lot expeditiously. She was simply not in a favorable position to capture it on camera, especially, not being that familiar with the camera."

As the agent in charge, Don made a decision. "Larry, could you take Megan and introduce her to Professor Tauray? She can get a complete statement from her, you, and, Amita when she joins up with you."

Sinclair's cell phone rang and he answered it softly, but almost immediately said, out loud. "Colby, hang on a second. Ask Don directly." To Don, he explained quickly. "He says that Charlie's car is not at his house. He wants to know if you want him to enter the premises."

Eppes took the phone. "Colby? Yeah, go on in. Do you need me to tell you where the spare key is? Already found it, huh? Well, I keep telling him that is too obvious a place to hide it, but Charlie can be damn stubborn when he thinks he's right about something. Last time I brought it up he started spewing numbers about how few house burglaries actually make use of hidden keys per annum, per capita. He always relies on his numbers over any wisdom I try to impart. What's the use arguing with a genius, you know? No. I'll hold on. Go on in." After several moments of waiting, Don sighed. "I didn't figure we would have any luck with that, but I had to be sure. It doesn't look like there were any uninvited guests though, right? That's a good thing. Look, get an agent over there to sit on the house for me. Tell whoever get, I want him to make sure my dad stays safe as well once he gets home, but to do so subtly. I have to be the one to explain what has happened to my dad. No, I think we are wrapping up here. Campus security will keep a presence on the office to make sure the perps don't return to the scene of the crime. We'll meet up at the office in about…" he glanced at Megan and Sinclair who both shrugged, indicating it was up to him, "an hour to ninety minutes tops. Sound good? Catch you there. Let me give you back to Sinclair." He handed the phone back.

David stepped aside and had a few more words with his partner, before he shut the phone.

Don spoke to the technical unit as a whole. "Everyone stay here until you have all the pictures you need and evidence gathered. As soon as possible, please make copies of all the papers; I need to turn the copies to Professor Ramajuan. She can sort those out to see what can be done in their teacher's absence to keep his students current. Doctor Eppes has a security clearance that makes getting him back a matter of national security. This is to be handled with the highest priority."

Clyde Bowens, the lead CSU tech, handed the memory card back to Larry Fleinhardt. "There you are, Professor. All the images are captured. Duplicates of them and the images of the note have been e-mailed to your account."

"Thank you." The professor accepted the items return in his usual, rather reserved, manner.

"No, Larry," Don responded, firmly, "thank you and thank Professor Tauray for us. Once we get the pictures of those guys back to the office, we will try running facial recognition to see if any of them have a record. Please, tell her we really appreciate her help."

"Shall I go with Professor Fleinhardt now, Don? I'll come back to the office once I have those statements." Megan offered.

"That would be great, Megan. The sooner the better, okay? David and I will finish trying to establish a basic timeline here and head on out to the office to compare notes and officially get this investigation going."

Reeves nodded, as she firmly took Larry's arm. "If you don't have anything else to add at this point, Professor Fleinhardt, shall we?"

Once they had left, Don turned back to David and the techs. "Okay, where were we? We have solid evidence confirming five perps assaulted Professor Eppes, tossed his office, and took him away. His laptop, suit jacket – hey, are his car keys in his pocket?"

David quickly checked and shook his head no.

"So they may have taken his car, as Colby already told us, it isn't at the house. I didn't see it in the lot when we came in – did you, Sinclair?"

The younger agent answered promptly. "No. I did look around as we came in and again when I went down to see where CSU was, Don."

"We will hold off putting out a BOLO until we check one more time on the way out. His backpack and laptop bag are both still here, too. Given the fact those are still here, I don't think they wanted information from him and they weren't here to steal anything. The place is a mess, but I am pretty sure nothing is missing."

Sinclair commented. "They didn't damage the laptop either. It's just here."

"I guess that wasn't on their agenda." Don replied. "They seemed to have been intent on disrupting the office and taking the professor away." He rubbed at the ache just above his eyebrows a moment before saying in a steady voice. "CSU Bowens, everyone, thanks for all your hard work. When you are finished here, get your initial reports to me at the office as soon as you can. David, let's check the parking lot again on the way out and get back to the bullpen. Are there any questions? No. Okay. Let's get to it." The two agents headed out, stopping at the door to make sure campus security would lock up after the techs finished inside and that they would maintain the integrity of the scene until it was officially released.