Episode 20: travaux de laboratoire

Allison Mallory had been in the hospital for the past three days. Her mother had found her there the day after the Cork building had collapsed. Allison had made it out of the building alive but was hit with falling debris when the building started to fall.

"Allison I just got done speaking with your doctor. He said you should be able to leave if your results come back okay."

"Have they found dad yet?" Allison asked.

"He's still on the list of missing. I checked the John does just to be safe."

"I wish they would find him." Allison said.

"I do to. I at least want to be able to put him to rest with grandma and grandpa."

"He'd like that," Allison said. "Mom when I get out of here I think I need to go to the police."

"Why would you think that honey?"

"I saw a bomb in the building. Dad took me to the storage closet where they keep their printer ink and there was a bomb inside. Dad told me to run as he called security."

"Oh dear I'll get the police now if you want to get it over with."

The hospital was busy but many of them where since they were still pulling survivors out of the rubble of the Cork Capital International building. It was unfortunate that some of them didn't survive long outside the rubble.

And the fact that one survivor (though they were not pulled from the rubble) knew something about the collapse of the building had Don Flack's ears burning to hear their story. He brought Lovato with him in case the girl didn't feel comfortable enough to talk with him.

"What room was she in?" Lovato asked.

"Three-thirty-three." Flack replied.

"Are you sure because that's a storage closet." Lovato said.

"Three-twenty-three." Flack said. "Dang two looks like a three."

Lovato knocked on the door when they reached the correct room. It took a while before an older female answered the door.

"Are you Allison Mallory?" Flack asked.

"That would be my daughter. Who are you?"

"I'm detective Flack with the NYPD and this is Detective Lovato."

"Oh come on in." Mrs. Mallory said As she opened the door further.

The two officers stepped in to the room. In the hospital bed lay a rail thin girl with blue eyes and dark brown hair. She was playing with something on an iPad.

"Allison the detectives are here."

The girl looked up and then put the iPad away on the bedside table.

"I've been wondering when NYPD would show up."

"Yes I'm sorry traffic is more than a little hellish right now." Flack said. "We were told that you know something about the Cork Capital building."

"You should close the door. I don't want anyone to over hear."

Lovato stepped back from the bed and closed the door.

"Do you feel comfortable telling us what you know now?" Lovato asked.

Allison took a drink of water before she started to speak.

"I went to see my dad at work because I needed to sign a form for my senior trip." Allison said. "Only he was so distracted by his printer and trying to get it to work. I followed him to the storage closet where they keep the extra ink and thats where the bomb was."

"What did the bomb look like?" Flack asked.

"I don't remember much other than big blue plastic barrels and wires."

"Thank you for your help. This information could help us find out who was behind all of this."

"Please find my dad."

"I can't make promises but I will try." Flack said.

"Jo, Flack called me and said that the witness saw a bomb on the twentieth floor, it consisted of at least a few big barrels made of blue plastic and wires."

"That would explain those chunks of blue plastic I found at the scene."

"Run every single test you can think of on them and have Adam look in to companies that make the barrels and see if we can track down who bought them." Mac said.

"I do my best. Now let me get to work." Jo replied.

Jo went to the evidence locker and pulled out the six pieces of blue plastic she had found at the scene, she had been told more were found but they hadnt been sent to the lab yet. The pieces ranged from as small as six inches to as large as two feet. She started with the largest and worked her way down to the smallest. She printed and took samples of all of them.

It took her over two hours to get all of the work done. She was only eating for the Mass spectrometry to print out its results along with waiting for the Afis program to notify her of any matches.

"Did you get anything?" Mac asked.

"Well the prints did come back to three different people. The first set belong to Carter Mallory. His daughter is the witness that told us about the bomb. The second set belonged to Sirius James. He works at a plant that makes blue plastic barrels But we are not sure if they are the ones use in the creation of the bomb." Jo said. "The last set belonged to Eric Toller a man who was fired from Cork for breaching a non-disclosure agreement."

"Do you have anything else on Toller?" Mac asked.

"He has an eighteen year old daughter that went missing a year ago. I looked into her and she would have been a prime candidate for Carroll's little ring."

"That would give him motive for the bomb but Carroll wasn't in the office yesterday and he slipped his tail last night."

"Just what this place needs. Does the press know yet?" Jo asked.

"As far as they know he's in the rubble so that could be of help but it could hinder our search in finding him."

This is "episode" is dedicated to a friend (who shall remain nameless) who is getting married today. This is the first episode dedicated to her and her husband to be. The second will be posted later.

maye