(See notes at the end of the chapter)
The black pickup truck was carefully edging around the corner, its driver mindful of two dressers and a couch tied upright in the back.
"You know," Dyson said, checking the rear-view mirror to make sure nothing had shifted after the turn, "I could have gotten you some furniture that's in a much better shape than that." He nodded towards the bed of the pickup.
"I know, but I want this furniture." Bo insisted from the passenger seat. "You're just grouchy because you are worried my furniture will leave scratches on your shiny new pickup."
"We can't all drive a 30 year old Camaro." Dyson huffed.
"I like my car, and 30 years old or not, it still runs great." Bo defended her yellow spitfire.
"I remember the day you got it, it was old and rusty then."
"And I remember your face when you realized I got it without you." Bo couldn't help teasing her friend.
"What did Lauren know about cars? I had 4 in my garage." Dyson refused to let go of the ancient hurt.
"It was your dad's garage, not yours. And I don't know how much she knew, but she said the car was solid, and it was."
"Lucky guess." Dyson grumbled.
"I thought you got on OK with her these days. You took me to her to get treated, you must have known she could." Bo enquired, curious about the relationship those two had. She asked Lauren about it, after she called to apologize for her behavior and to thank the blonde, but the ME was tight-lipped on the subject, mumbling something about doctor-patient confidentiality. They had talked on the phone a few times after that, and although the blonde said she'd forgiven her, Bo still felt as if she was being held at arm's length. Dyson, on the other hand, seemed to have come around quickly, not holding a grudge for her abrupt departure 16 years ago.
"She'd helped me a few times, so I thought you'd be relatively safe in her care." Dyson admitted.
"You?" Bo raised both eyebrows in disbelief. "Trying to save on health insurance premiums?"
"No," Dyson said, irritated. "Just some things I didn't want to chance getting into my official file." He regretted saying the last thing instantly, seeing a familiar glint in Bo's eyes. She would be relentless until she ferreted out the truth.
Sure enough, Bo piped up immediately. "Like what?"
"None of your business." He growled, though he know she would not be intimidated.
A crackle of a police radio interrupted the bickering. "All available officers, report to the corner of Pike and 114th Street. Emergency vehicles are en route…" Dyson turned off the radio when his phone rang, caller ID indicating a call from his office.
"Wolfs…" Dyson listened intently for about a minute before ending the connection and flooring the gas pedal, no longer worried about the furniture as it slammed into the side when he took the next corner at double the recommended speed limit.
"A car crashed into café downtown, just a block away from the capitol building, and exploded. We don't know anything else, but my boss wants to be sure it's not a terrorist act." He said by the way of explanation.
Bo just nodded and settled in for a bumpy ride.
They arrived about 15 minutes later to join in the organized chaos that was visible and audible from blocks away. Police cars, ambulances, fire trucks and a very conspicuous 'Bomb Squad' truck already on the scene, uniformed men and women darting about with purpose.
Dyson jumped out of the truck, flushed his detective badge at the nearest cop and was immediately directed towards the crashed vehicle, Bo following hot on his heels.
The wounded pedestrians have all been carried off to the ambulances and the fire has been extinguished by the time they reached the crash site, so there was nothing obstructing their view. It wasn't the worst scene either of them had witnessed, but it was still jarring.
"Looks like he jumped the curb. The speed limit here is 20, so either he was already going faster or he accelerated just before ramming the building." Dyson observed.
The front end of the Jeep Cherokees was fully inside the café, and the damage from the explosion was clear. The back end was sitting on the sidewalk, which was littered with glass shreds, debris from the building and a few bloodied gauze pads leftover from where the injured were treated by first responders.
A uniformed officer walked over to them and gave Dyson a quick report. The bomb squad don't see any active devices and the driver of the car was left in his seat for the ME to examine. The witness statements were consistent – the Jeep didn't draw any attention prior to the crash; it was not moving erratically or faster than other vehicles on the street at that time. It turned suddenly and without warning, crossing the sidewalk and driving straight through the display window of the café, scattering pedestrians and exploding seconds after impact.
Dyson nodded, then pointed to the rear license plate that was relatively intact. "Do we know who the car belongs to?"
"No," The officer shook his head. "The plates came back as fake, we will try to recover what was left of VIN numbers once the body is removed."
They were interrupted when ME vehicle stopped right next to three of them. Dyson looked up and frowned when he saw Robert, the other ME serving the city, climb down from the car.
"Is Lauren coming?" Dyson asked the older man.
"No, but I'm at your service." Robert retorted tersely, obviously unhappy to be reminded that in the crunch detectives preferred his much younger colleague, who only had a year of forensic experience compared to his 15. The blonde ME was brilliant and had delivered tremendous results, but he was a competent ME. To be relegated to mundane cases for the last year has been grating on his pride.
Dyson didn't acknowledge the dig. Wasting no more time on the other ME, he grabbed his phone and dialed a number from contact list. "Lauren, I need you downtown right now." He listened to her answer for a few moments, then hung up and turned back to Robert, who's been watching the detective with a resigned expression. "She's already on her way, she asked that you remain here, but don't touch the body until she gets here."
"Fine. I'll start on evidence collection from around the vehicle." He moved off to get his equipment and Dyson was left alone with Bo again. He gave her a long look, trying to communicate without words that she should not be at his crime scene, but Bo didn't budge.
"I won't disturb anything, I'll just stand here and watch." She pointed at the ground where she was standing. "Just here, I promise."
"Fine." Dyson conceded, deciding that trying to get Bo to leave wasn't worth his time and effort. He put on a pair of rubber gloves and took a stack of evidence bags from ME as he passed the man, already bending over to photograph a bloodied shred of glass on the ground. Walking around the car, he looked in to see the charred remains of the driver and did his best to take shallow breaths, the arid smell making him nauseous.
Lauren arrived a few minutes later. She walked towards Dyson, but faltered momentarily when she saw Bo standing a few feet away. "Bo."
"Lauren."
The two women greeted each other somewhat stiffly. Lauren looked like she wanted to ask Bo what she was doing at the scene, but shook her head as if to dispel the nagging thoughts. Trying to put the brunette out of her mind, she continued walking towards Dyson and the vehicle, pulling her hair in a tight ponytail and snapping on a pair of gloves in the process.
"Details, whatever you have." She addressed Dyson, completely in the zone now.
"Not much to tell. Witnesses saw the car seemingly purposely drive into the building. A few seconds later there was an explosion. Because of the proximity to the capital building we are investing this as a potential terrorist attack. That's why I called you – we need to know as soon as possible if this was some nut job or a terrorist." He pointed to the driver seat of the crashed vehicle. "We need to ID this guy right away."
Lauren stuck her head through the passenger side, careful not to touch the still smoldering metal and plastic.
"I need protective masks for everyone and a liter of vegetable oil." She said to no one in particular.
"Why vegetable oil?" Dyson asked from the other side of the car, already putting on his own mask and handing one to Lauren.
"The oil will loosen the burned body parts stuck to the metal." She supplied, walking to stand at the front of the vehicle, her eyes moving from item to item, mentally cataloging the clues.
Bo watched Lauren move around, and wondered at her detached manner and visible lack of emotion. Both Dyson and Robert showed some distress around the badly burned remains, but not her. Either she was really good at disassociating, or the remains weren't the worst she'd ever seen.
"The windshield blew inward, towards the driver. I think we'll find a lot of melted glass in his flesh when we do the autopsy. At first glance, it's inconsistent with a damage we typically see from car bombs." She pointed out.
Dyson, who was just coming back having acquired a jug of vegetable oil from somewhere, reached for his notepad to make a note, when two men in crisp black suits and sunglasses stepped up to the vehicle.
"Feds." Bo hissed under her breath. Sure enough, one of the men flashed his ID at Dyson, FBI clearly visible on the cover. The other approached Lauren and firmly asked her to step away.
Lauren looked at Dyson, but the detective just shook his head. He was being relieved, and though he didn't like it any more than ME, he was powerless to do anything about it.
Lauren's face lost its emotionless mask and turned red with fury. She reached into a pocket of her lab coat for her phone, glaring at the two men in suits.
"Evony," she greeted the chief ME when call connected. "I'm at the scene, but Feds are tacking over." She watched as the feds moved everyone outside of the perimeter and relieved Robert and Dyson of all the evidence they have collected, even going as far as confiscating the memory card from Robert's camera. "They have taken all the evidence, and will be moving the body and the car to their lab. Can you get them to include me in their investigation?" She listened for a few seconds, obviously not liking what she was hearing. "I understand, please do what you can, I want in on this, Evony." She emphasized one more time before disconnecting.
"What is it, Lauren?" Dyson asked, obviously curious at her odd behavior. He knew Evony could pull some strings, but getting Lauren on the Fed's team would be a very tall order.
"She's going to try" Lauren said, as if she didn't really hear the question.
"I know, but why do you want it so bad?" Dyson persisted, clearly still in the detective mode.
"I think the driver may have been Congolese." Lauren answered, as if it explained everything. Perhaps it did.
"Based on what?" Dyson pressed for details.
"His facial epidermis was completely decimated, but his scull structure suggests he's from Central Africa. Also, even obscured by the damage from the fire, there were some visible markings in his face. The design of these marks is consistent with tattoos that both men and women receive to identify which tribe they belong to. It's a practice common in Congo. The tattoos are really more like scars, they are cut into the skin of face and chest."
Dyson nodded. "Maybe Evony can find a way to force them to share the investigation with us." He offered, but did not feel optimistic. Feds didn't like to share, and would only do so if tremendous pressure was applied.
The feds were making quick work of the scene, and a short while later they could see a humongous tow truck backing into the street. Lauren's frustration reached a critical point when she realized the car and its occupant were about to be packed up and loaded on the FBI's truck. She turned to her two companions, desperate for any reprieve.
"What do you need?" Bo asked the blonde woman.
"Tissue samples for DNA, and some fragments for residue analysis." Lauren answered immediately.
"OK, give me a minute." Bo strode towards the two men who were directing a team of techs preparing the car for transport. Dyson and Lauren followed on her heels, curious.
One of the feds intercepted Bo long before she could reach the car. "Ma'am, no one is allowed near the evidence. Please step back." He barked sternly.
Bo stopped her forward movement and held up her hands, palms out.
"Sir," she addressed the suit. "My name is Bo Denis, I'm a freelance PI, but I do some work for the police department on occasion. I was just telling Detective Wolfe that I thought I smelled mustard gas when I examined the remains."
The man looked at Bo incredulously.
"Listen, I understand you're skeptical, but I've done some work for US government in the Middle East, and I saw firsthand the victims of chemical attacks. You don't have to take my word for it, just ask our ME, she can confirm this." Bo pointed at Lauren.
Catching on quickly, Lauren stepped up to the man. "The large blisters visible in some places on the skin of the driver are consistent with blisters caused by sulfur mustards, or 'Mustard gas', as it's more commonly known. It has a distinctive smell resembling a mustard plant."
"I just smell burnt flesh." Retorted FBI agent.
"And that's why you are an agent and not a Medical Examiner." Lauren parried. "You should know that Mustard gas is a persistent weapon that remains on any exposed surfaces for days and continue to cause ill effects. Anyone who comes into contact with exposed surfaces or materials will be poisoned."
"You should call in a Hazmat unit for decontamination of this whole site and to clear the vehicle before it's moved, or you may inadvertently contaminate a larger area and cause dispersion of gas where it can sicken your team and bystanders." Bo continued smoothly.
The fed looked between the threesome, trying to make up his mind. Finally deciding, he turned to the crew and yelled for them to stop preparations for towing, then got on a phone with a local CDC and requested a Hazmat team. "We'll take it from here." He told them curtly and turned his back to them.
They took a few steps back, to be out of fed's earshot.
"What did that get us?" Lauren asked Bo when they had some privacy.
"Half-way." Bo smiled. Lauren was looking at her with hope clearly readable in her big brown eyes and Bo relished being able to do something important for her childhood friend to make up for treating her poorly several weeks ago.
Dyson watched the two in silence, not interfering. When Lauren's phone rang a few minutes later, and Lauren identified the caller as Evony, he hoped that the Chief ME would be able to come through with something that would make Bo's plan irrelevant, but when Lauren ended the call it was clearly not the case.
"She says she's tried everything, even the governor. But the FBI had classified this as a terrorist attack and are in complete control of the evidence and investigation." She told the other two.
A moment later Dyson's phone rang, and his chief informed him of about the same. FBI was running this show and he would get no further access to anything. This, more than anything, made him mad. "Lauren, if we get the tissue and some fragments, can you determine conclusively what the explosion was caused by and ID the driver?"
"I will not be able to determine the cause of the explosion, but I may be able to rule out the presence of explosives." Lauren replied. "And DNA from a tissue sample would have to be matched to something, unless it's already in the database."
Dyson nodded in agreement, then turned to Bo. "I am not allowed to investigate this any further, but this is my turf, and we need to know what happened here, we can't rely on feds to share anything with us. Can you investigate and report anything you find to me? I won't be able to pay you officially, but we can work out some kind of deal on the side, some type of barter agreement for services rendered." He was still serious, but his tone changed to somewhat playful on the last sentence.
Lauren looked up sharply at the mention of barter and services rendered, but chose not to interrupt.
Bo, on the other hand, laughed at Dyson's suggestion. "Sure, I can direct you to some places that can benefit from your attention." Only after she said that, she looked over at Lauren, who was staring at her feet and visibly clenching her jaw, clearly uneasy and embarrassed to be near them.
Banter between her and Dyson came easily to Bo, partially because of their shared history, and partially because Dyson has always been easy going and playful. But Bo vowed to not be the cause of 'that' look on Lauren's face again, especially not now, when they were on such shaky ground with each other. So she tried to decode her comments for the blonde woman. "I bought a house last week. A real fixer-upper, and I'm in desperate need of cheap labor to make it livable. I've been asking Dyson to help, but he was finding excuses to say no. Now I have the leverage to put him to work." She watched Lauren's jaw muscles and posture relax incrementally at her words.
"Do you need to borrow some money for repairs?" Lauren asked, making an effort to look into Bo's eyes.
"Nah, I'd rather rope friends into working for beer and pizza. Say, you have steady hands, you can probably paint a straight line without putting on masking tape. Want to come over help me paint?"
"Maybe, I'm really busy these days." Lauren hedged, though Bo could see she was probably more suspicious of the request than opposed to helping out. Well, damn, rebuilding trust will not be easy with this woman. But maybe she'll get a chance while working on this case.
Just then a Hazmat truck arrived, and Bo excused herself.
People (it was impossible to determine the gender of those wearing baggy, full-body Level B protective suits and masks) started to emerge from the truck with various pieces of equipment. Some started to put up a plastic curtain that covered the crash site from all sides, others walked around swabbing surfaces and rushing back inside the truck to analyze them.
Dyson and Lauren watched the proceedings from a safe distance, until one suit-covered figure approached them with a large evidence bag in hand. The person thrust the bag at Lauren. A voice that issued from under full face-piece was unrecognizable due to distortion, but intonations were familiar. It also helped that Bo called Lauren by name.
"Lauren, put this on. I'll start on gathering some car fragments, the tissue samples are all yours." she said from inside her suit.
Lauren spared a second to wonder how the other woman managed to snag two suits with no one noticing, then abandoned the effort and grabbed the bag, hurrying into the cordoned off shop right next to embattled café to don the suit she was given. She emerged a few minutes later, blending in easily with the rest of the unit, each carefully attending to their function. She collected several tissue samples as well as fragments of fabric and bits of glass and metal embedded in the flesh, sealing all items in a new evidence bag, then just as stealthily returned to the shop to remove the suit and stash away her bag. When she entered it, Bo was already there, removing her own suit.
"Did you get everything?" Brunette asked, using her hands to fluff up the hair that was flattened by the hood and the face-piece.
"Yes, thank you!" Lauren replied happily. "What do we do with these?" She handed Bo her suit.
"I'll have to put them back, or they'll notice them missing." Bo answered, apparently confident in her ability to replace them just as easily as she removed them. Lauren didn't ask for details. She grabbed the samples she and Bo collected and headed out. "I'll be in my office," she dropped over her shoulder at the brunette, but didn't stop to see if her comment was heard, focused on the task at hand.
When Bo walked into ME's office an hour later, she found Lauren bent over a counter, fidgeting with some kind of device she couldn't see clearly, since Lauren's body was in the way. The blonde was cursing under her breath. A few moments later she jerked her hand away, hissing in pain, then slammed something shut. She raised her hand to within an inch of her nose to examine the injury, then brought an index finger into her mouth, sucking gently.
"You all right there, Lauren?" Bo enquired from just behind the blonde, startling her. She spun around, removing the finger from her mouth and looking mildly embarrassed at being caught.
"The printer jammed, and I couldn't clear out the paper that's stuck between some gears." She explained her predicament.
"Why don't I take a look while you fill me in on what you found so far?" Bo offered, bending over the printer and opening the same panel Lauren just shut. She could see the tiny jagged edges of the jammed sheet that Lauren tried to clear out.
"There isn't much to tell yet. Mass-spec is still chewing on first sample."
Bo pocked around the gears some more, prickling her finger on something sharp. She smiled when her reaction was to put it in her mouth to soothe the pain, same as Lauren's. "Do you have a pair of tweezers?" She asked, still examining the inner workings of the printer.
"On the counter to your left. Already tried that." Lauren grumbled. She watched the brunette try to extract the stubborn pieces for a few minutes, then realized she didn't have the patience for broken machinery. Pulling a phone out of lab coat, she dialed a familiar number.
"Evony, I need a new printer for my ME office. How soon can you get one?" She said into the phone. Evony's answer was pretty short, but obviously satisfactory. "That works, thank you." The blonde said, ending the connection. Bo had managed to work one of the pieces out in the meantime, and she turned to Lauren, triumphantly holding up her prize clenched by a pair of tweezers. Lauren didn't look very impressed, probably because she knew there were at least 4 other pieces left in the gears. "The new printer will be here in an hour." She told Bo, which deflated brunette's jubilation considerably. She put down the tweezers and walked over to Mass spectrometer, examining the information scrolling through on the screen.
"So, this all is not telling you anything?" She pointed at the element names and numbers scrolling down at an unreadable speed.
"It does, but it's pointless to examine the incomplete data. I need to wait until all components are identified before making any conclusions."
Bo brushed her hands down her jean-clad thighs, clearly impatient.
Relenting, Lauren reached for one of the evidence bags. "We can start on this." She dumped the contents on the examination tray and picked up a pair of glasses with magnifying lenses and a fresh pair of surgical tweezers.
Bo walked closer and bent over the object. "Is that a tooth?" She asked, mildly disgusted by the sight of a molar.
"Yes, we can learn a lot about a person from their teeth." Lauren informed the brunette. "I should be able to infer his country of origin from this, and maybe what he ate for breakfast today, even without his bones or his stomach content." She started by tacking some scrapings from the surface and placing them into another machine to analyze. The results came out almost immediately, and she returned to her desk to continue her examination.
"What can I do?" Bo asked, feeling out of place.
"Isn't this kind of what you do – find people?" Lauren looked up at the other woman, not understanding her question.
"Yes, but I need some parameters to narrow down my search. Is there nothing you can tell me about the crispy critter?"
Lauren flinched at the moniker. "Please don't call him that." She requested gravely.
"Sorry, I guess you have some kind of a personal connection here…" She left room for the other woman to elaborate.
But Lauren did not oblige. "I do." she confirmed succinctly. "I'll tell you about it later."
"OK." Bo accepted her friend's request for time. For now.
She perched on the edge of the table and leveled her gaze with the blonde. "So what can you tell me about him – definitive facts or suppositions, I'll take it all."
Lauren pulled her notes and printouts to her and scanned through some measurements and observations she noted. "I can tell you definitively that he's male, between 25 and 45 years old, 160 to 165 centimeters in height, slim." Bo grabbed a sheet of paper and started scribbling notes while Lauren spoke. The blonde perused the results she just pulled on the tooth. "I still think he's Congolese, but even if he's not, he's definitely from Central Africa. And I think he's come here fairly recently. Less than a year ago, based on the accumulated levels of fluoride in his tooth from tap water." Sighing deeply, she put the papers down. "I wish I had a body to examine. There is so much more I could have gleaned from that."
"This is a good start, Lauren. Let me do some digging around, and if I find some candidates for his family, I'll bring some hairs for DNA match."
"No need to be barbaric and pull people's hair out. Take these." She handed Bo a stack of packets with DNA swab sticks.
"Thanks," Bo said, grateful, but knowing from experience that most people, especially those with a reason to mistrust authority, would never voluntarily submit to a cheek swab. Hairs were easier to obtain, but only their roots had DNA information. So she usually went for a combination of items, whatever she could get her hands on. "Call me if you find anything else."
The blonde nodded distractedly, already consumed by examination of another article she pulled from the evidence bag.
By late evening Bo was on the way back to the lab, exhausted but hopeful that she made substantial progress in the case. She dialed Dyson, knowing the detective was wearing a hole in the rug waiting for her update.
As expected, he picked up on the first ring. "Bo, what do you have?"
"Manners!" Bo chided, but relented almost instantly. "I think I found who the driver was. I'm on my way back to Lauren to confirm his DNA. We should know in little while for sure. If I'm right, though, I can tell you right now that it was likely not a terrorist act."
"What makes you say that?"
"I talked to his family, some of his coworkers. There are no signs of radical beliefs or suicidal behavior. Also, if he were to have explosives in the car, he'd have a pretty small window in which to pick them up. Your hunch about a chop-shop was right on. The car from the incident was fresh off of their re-assembly line, and our victim worked there. He was delivering the car to the buyer on the other side of town when the incident happened. I don't know what it all adds up to yet, but it doesn't seem like terrorism."
"Well, let's confirm his identity first, then try to figure out his motive."
"Yeah. I'll call when we have it confirmed." Bo promised. "Do you have anything for me on that other case?"
"Just what you already knew or suspected." Dyson said, a touch disgruntled. "I ran a check, and there is no record of police report filed for theft at BioEve labs. So either whatever was in those containers was crazy dangerous and they don't want anyone to know it's in the wind, or not worth anything."
"There is a third option." Bo commented. "The stolen materials may not belong to them in the first place. Biochem, big pharma, these are cutthroat establishments with about a billion reasons to engage in industrial espionage. Besides, the people who hired me, they mean business. So at the very least I would discard the theory that what's in those containers is not valuable."
"Point taken. Let me see if Evony knows anything about this." Dyson offered.
"Do you think there is a connection between BioEve and Evony's biolab?"
"I don't, but since my police connections turned up nothing, I thought I'd engage my one and only biolab contact."
Bo felt uneasy about the turn of events. "Dyson, I don't want to owe this woman anything." She said quietly.
"I figured, which is why I'll ask her about it." Dyson assured her, and Bo was monumentally grateful for the thoughtful and kind act. "I'll be in touch." Dyson said, hanging up.
She tapped the finger on the steering wheel. A million thoughts were running through her tired mind, and she desperately needed a 'pick-me-up' before reaching Lauren's lab. The DNA test would take about 2 hours, and the blonde still had a backlog of other tests to run that would likely take all night. If Lauren was going to spend a night at the Lab, Bo wanted to be there too, both to keep her company and to see if she could ferret any more information out of the doctor. Bo knew that when a person was tired, it was similar to where they were inebriated, both providing a perfect opportunity for gentle interrogation. For this plan to work, though, she herself would have to have her wits about her. She saw a sign for a coffee shop just up the street and gratefully pulled into the convenient parking spot, noticing only when she parked the reason the spot was empty – it featured a bright yellow water hydrant. Shrugging her shoulders, she fished out a garbage bag from the back seat and put it over the hydrant, then practically skipped over to the shop, just the smell of espresso sufficient to boost her energy and add a bounce to her step.
When she pushed open the door to the lab with her hip – weighed down as she was by a box of pastries balanced over a six-pack of beer in her hands and an evidence bag under one arm – she realized someone else was already in the room with Lauren. Her smile slipping off her face, she took a deep breath and turned to face the other woman fully. She was easily recognizable from the internet photos Bo have seen of her – exotic, beautiful, statuesque, and, if at all possible, even more striking in person.
Evony turned at the sound of the door opening, and the two brunettes had stood sizing each other up for a moment, until Lauren interrupted them by clearing her throat. That made both women look at the blonde, who had stuffed both hands into the pockets of her lab coat and balled them into fists, clearly uncomfortable in the moment. Nevertheless, she did not forget her manners.
"Bo, this is Evony Morrigan, my boss." She faltered a little bit on the last word and blushed from neck up. "Evony, this is Bo McCorrigan, my friend. She's also helping Dyson with this investigation."
Bo put down her burdens and extended her hand to the other woman. "I actually go by Bo Dennis now. It's a pleasure to meet you, Evony." She said, plastering a fake smile on her face to match the one directed at her.
Evony ran her eyes up and down Bo's figure, evaluating the woman. She kept a smirk on her face, but managed to look attractive none-the-less, even with this implied distain for the newcomer. Bo was mildly impressed, despite herself; but, either way, she was not going to let Evony's attitude affect her in the least.
"Lauren, I have a possible match to our driver." Bo handed Lauren the evidence bag.
Curious, Lauren put on a pair of gloves and extracted several smaller labeled bags. One contained a fork and was labeled 'mother', another a piece of gum and labeled 'son'. "I'll get right on this." She said, happy to have something occupy her attention other than the two brunettes churning up the awkward energy in the room.
"Speaking of the case," Evony addressed Bo, "I was just telling Lauren that I now have a contact on the FBI team. They are nowhere near to being able to ID the suspect, but so far all the tests they've run on the vehicle and at the scene show no explosives."
"That's consistent with my findings so far as well." Lauren noted, not taking her eyes of the object she was examining.
Evony nodded at the blonde, then turned back to Bo. "The FBI are now contemplating the possibility that post-collision explosion was accidental."
"Are they ready to turn the case over to local PD?"
"No, they are still considering it a terrorist act."
"Damn." Bo muttered. She noticed that Lauren, too, seemed upset by that news. "You know, if we could get the onboard computer from the car, we can tell where it's been and prove that he drove straight from the chop shop to the café."
Lauren had perked up at that and turned to Evony. "Can you get that from FBI?"
Evony smiled indulgently at the blonde. "I'll see what I can do, darling."
Bo watched the exchange with some trepidation. She was not prepared to be upstaged by the other woman. "How are you getting this?" She asked, trying to appear nonchalant.
Evony turned her dimpled smiled to Bo. "You have your ways, Ms. Dennis, I have mine." She kissed Lauren on a cheek, a mischievous smile firmly in place, then left without saying goodbye.
Bo watched the scene unfold, and didn't miss the fact that Lauren didn't kiss Evony back.
"So, what's the story with you and Evony? Are you two together?"
Lauren took a deep breath before answering. "In a way."
"Don't tell me 'it's complicated'." Bo teased.
"I was going to say 'it's convenient'." Lauren shrugged.
"Wow, Lauren, that's cold."
Lauren looked up at Bo and met her gaze for the first time since this odd conversation started. "Maybe I'm cold."
"No." Bo was adamant in her reply. "One of my 'special skills' is knowing what kind of lover someone would be after observing them for just a few minutes. And you, my dear Lauren, are not cold."
Lauren smiled shyly. She turned back to the Rapid Identification device that she already prepped and inserted the first scraping from a fork Bo brought.
Bo was glad for a minute for herself. She felt her stomach flip when Lauren smiled and had to smother the urge to step up to the blonde and take her into her arms at that moment.
Lauren cleared her throat, still facing away from Bo. "It will take about 90 minutes to analyze the DNA sample. If it's from the mother of our victim, we'll be able to see it right away."
"I'm pretty sure I've got the right guy. Everything else about him fits to the T."
"How did you find him?" Lauren asked, glad to be talking about the case and turning the attention away from herself.
Bo didn't mind giving the blonde a summary of her efforts, but she held back on some details that had to do with her connections in the criminal organizations and the role they played.
"I started by finding out which of the local businesses hire Central African refugees. People who run these things, they tend to hire 'within a family' so-to-speak. The list wasn't that long, but it would still have taken many days to check them all, but one place stood out. Dyson mentioned at the scene that Jeep may have been re-assembled in a chop shop, so I went there first. Spoke with a few of the workers, and one of them told me that a Jeep was sent out for delivery earlier in the day and the driver didn't come back. I got his name and address and drove over to where he lived with his family. I talked to them for a while and got a chance to acquire the items I brought you to test his DNA against. So here we are."
"The workers at a chop shop just gave you all that information?" Lauren asked, skeptical.
Bo smiled, and this time it looked more rakish and predatory. "I have wit, I have charm, I have legs that go all the way down to the floor, and…" she paused, like an orchestra before grand finale. She sauntered over the blonde until they were within arm-reach and waited for Lauren to face her. Lauren did, and Bo made sure to lock gazes with the younger woman before putting her hands around her breasts and lifting them up, as if presenting them to the blonde. Predictably, the blonde dropped her gaze and focused on the magnificent display in front of her.
"Pardon?" Lauren asked, thinking she may have missed something the brunette said. There was a dull hum in her ears that prevented her from hearing anything for a few seconds.
Bo smiled at Lauren's flustered reaction. Exactly what she hoped for. "They are called breasts, Lauren. Better than detective's badge."
Lauren smirked. "In my experience, any number of things are better than detective's badge." She walked back to her desk and started entering information into a program on her computer.
"What is this mutual animosity you have with Dyson? It's like two dogs snapping at each other over a bone."
Lauren gave Bo a look from under her lashes. "You seriously don't know?"
Riiiight. Bo did know, could feel it in her bones, but knowing and understanding were two different things. And at the moment, Bo didn't understand Lauren.
"Help me out, Lauren." Bo murmured, voice gentle.
Lauren locked eyes with the other woman. Bo could almost see the gears moving in the blonde's head as she considered Bo's request. In the end, though, she turned back to her computer.
"I'm sorry, I need to concentrate on this." Lauren replied just as gently.
Bo nodded, and settled in to wait. About an hour and half later a machine beeped, and Lauren got up to check the results. "Come see this," she called out to Bo excitedly.
Bo walked over and looked at the screen that displayed two sets of results.
"This," Lauren pointed to the left side, "are the DNA results from the victim. And this," she pointed to the right side, "are results from the woman you think is his mother." She turned to face Bo, a beautiful smile stretching her lips wide. "We have confirmed his identity." Impulsively, she threw her arms around the brunette, hugging her tightly.
Bo's breath caught when strong arms encircled her and her own hand inadvertently settled on the blonde's hair. The feel of the body pressed against hers, the heat of the cheek just barely brushing by hers, the smell of shampoo and perfume, the texture of hair – these sensations were dizzying, overwhelming, breathtaking. Bo relished the moment. But it ended as quickly as it started, Lauren stepping back and brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear, looking down and away from Bo, blushing furiously.
"Thank you for finding him so quickly" she said to fill the silence that suddenly felt awkward and stifling. "What was his name?"
"Mobutu Lumumba. He and his family fled the war in Congo after his wife, father and one of his young children were killed. They've lived here for just over a year, undocumented. Mobutu started working at the chop shop 11 months ago as a mechanic to support his mother and two surviving children. He was a good man. Hard working and dependable. No one who knew him would describe him as a radical or suicidal or an extremist. I think if we can help clear up his name before the FBI swoops in with all the subtlety of an African elephant, we'd be doing a good thing."
Lauren nodded, quietly satisfied with the answer. "The FBI will not give on terrorism charge willingly. I agree it's up to us to prove he was a victim."
"We will." Bo assured the younger woman and was reward with another brilliant smile.
"You should let Dyson know we identified the victim." Lauren reminded her.
"Oh, right. Dyson." Bo fished out her phone and dialed Dyson, giving him an update. When she ended the call, she perched at the end of the Lauren's desk, looking at the blonde.
"So Dyson has been stubbornly tight-lipped about anything to do with you, but I'm curious. I can tell he knows a few things about your past. Have you two stayed in touch all these years?"
"We have, though we haven't lived in the same city until about a year ago. After you left, we were not close. I think Dyson blamed me for driving you away back then. But at the end of the school year, before we both left for college, he tracked me down and said he was wrong, and that neither of us was at fault for whatever drove you away, and said we should exchange contact information and stay in touch. So over the years we would touch base with each other periodically." Lauren smiled sadly. "You know, I think each of us thought you may one day contact the other, so we stayed in touch just in case that happened."
"I'm sorry, Lauren." Bo said looking into blonde's eyes, trying to convey her sincerity.
"I know." Lauren nodded and put a hand on Bo's knee, needing to feel a tangible connection in that moment.
"So, tell me something." Bo placed her hand on top of Lauren's that was still resting on her knee. "What were you treating Dyson for? He wouldn't tell me."
Lauren smiled at Bo's not-so-subtle pivot. Was the brunette using her emotional state to dig for information? Tsk-Tsk.
"You know I can't tell you. It's covered by doctor-patient confidentiality." Lauren raised an admonishing eyebrow at the request. Her hand felt pleasantly warm resting on the leggings-covered knee. From time to time, Bo would use her thumb to brush the back of her hand and each time it sent tingles down to Lauren's stomach.
"Common Lauren, tell me." Bo pressed, leaning closer.
"No." It came out as a bit of a squeak, Lauren's systems going into overdrive at the other woman's proximity.
Bo noticed the widening pupils, the blushing cheeks, the pulsing veins. She felt her own heartbeat quickening in response. She didn't know what it was, it was too early for labels written in permanent marker, but there was lust in Lauren's gaze, and she was sure there was an answering one in hers. They needed time to explore this thing happening between them. They needed time to see where it would go. 'I'm in' Bo decided silently. Aloud, she said, "How about a wager? You don't have to say anything. I'll ask you some questions and guess what the correct answer is. If I guess correctly, you'll have dinner at my place once we close this case."
Lauren thought about the offer for a minute. Did she dare accept it? "First of all, let's limit the number of guesses. How about 3?"
"How about 5?" Bo haggled.
"How about 4?" Lauren offered.
"Settled!" Bo agreed immediately.
"Ok. So, what do I get if you are not able to guess correctly?"
"What do you want?" Bo asked, curious about what the blonde would request.
Lauren was silent for a moment. Did she dare do more than dip a toe into shark-infested water that was admitting her growing attraction to Bo? "I don't know what to ask for." She admitted quietly.
"You could ask for 'a favor to be named later', if you'd like." Bo proposed.
"That's a very generous offer, Bo." Lauren whispered, unsure if she was ready to wield that kind of power. Her hand on Bo's knee was burning now.
Bo smiled coyly. "I'm only making it, because I'm pretty sure I'll win the wager."
"Aren't we cocky?" Lauren teased the other woman.
"I can afford to be. I'm that good. To quote one of your heroes, 'I have many skills'."
Lauren was shocked. "You remember that Xena poster I had in my room?"
"Yes, and the galactic crush you had on her. How could I forget?"
Lauren laughed. 'Busted'
"Have you heard of micro expressions?" Bo continued.
Blonde woman nodded. "Yes, these are universal facial indicators…."
"Precisely. And I am a bit of an expert. Let me show you." She stealthily moved the hand still resting on top of Lauren's, until her index finger was directly above the pulse point on Lauren's wrist. She placed the other hand on blonde's chin and turned up her face until they were facing each other squarely. For a minute she said noting, just looked into the fathomless depth of the other woman's eyes. Finally ready, she began the questioning.
"We know it was something he didn't want his work to find out." Bo contemplated aloud. "So it was either something incredibly stupid, or something embarrassing." She watched the blonde for any reaction, but so far Lauren wasn't letting anything show.
"Let's start with stupid," Bo went on. "Did he shoot himself?" Lauren's lack of reaction was an indicator of a miss. "No. OK. Did he run through poison ivy naked? No. Did he take Viagra and got one of those erections lasting more than 4 hours?" Lauren's eyebrow twitched in amusement, not in recognition of the fact. "No."
"That's 3 question, you have one left." Lauren reminded her friend.
"I know, and I can tell I'm getting closer. Let's switch to 'embarrassing'. Did he have a sexually transmitted infection?" She felt Lauren's pulse quicken and saw the pupils expand. "Bingo!"
She raised her hands in triumph, realizing too late that the gesture broke the tangible link she had with Lauren. The blonde withdrew the hand she kept on Bo's knee, and Bo felt a pang of disappointment until she realized Lauren didn't remove her hand just because it was no longer trapped in place by Bo's. She was reaching for the cellphone in her packet and accepting a call when she saw it was from Evony.
"Do you have any news?" She asked into the phone. Evony must have responded in the affirmative, because a moment later Lauren put the phone face up on the desk between them. "Hold on a second, let me put you on speaker, I want Bo to hear this."
"Yes," Evony's voice issued from the phone. "I'm talking to one of the investigators on FBI's team. They won't hand over the onboard computer, but they can run the tests here and give us the results. What do you want to look into?"
Bo thought for a second, before responding. "Let's see if deviated from course somewhere."
Evony spoke to someone in the room with her, then back into the phone. "They can run it, but they don't have the starting point or the intended destination, assuming it wasn't the café."
Bo and Lauren looked at each other, both feeling a little smug that they were still ahead of FBI on this. Bo reached into her pocket for a notebook, and read off the chop shop address and the address of Jeep's buyer into the phone.
"Give us a minute." Evony requested, then spoke with her contact. Bo and Lauren couldn't hear most of it, but it was clear that Evony was negotiating, using the information Bo provided for some kind of leverage.
"She's good at that." Lauren said to Bo. "Making connections, trading favors, there is no one better at that."
"To what end?" Bo inquired.
"She's going to run for a Senate seat in the next election, and she's going to win. She's getting a lot of on-air time due to her position as Chief ME, and she's gaining a lot of favors with influential people thanks to one of the projects we are working on at the biolab, not to mention the money."
Bo noted that Lauren was speaking matter-of-factly. There was no pride in her voice, but also no scorn. Just information.
"So what's in it for you?" She asked, but Lauren didn't have a chance to answer, because Evony was back on the line.
"The techs compared Jeep's course from the onboard computer with a most optimal route from the sop to the buyer and saw no deviations until about 20 seconds before the crash. The car went straight instead of turning right at the light on Pike, and crashing into café. Do you have any other ideas?"
"Are we still assuming he was a victim in this?" Lauren asked Bo. When brunette nodded in agreement, she turned to her computer. "I remember reading something about how hackers are able to break into devices with wireless connections. I think Jeeps were singled out as especially vulnerable to this type of attack for some reason. Here it is," she said after finding the right site. "Security industry calls it a zero-day exploit - software that lets hackers send commands through the Jeep' entertainment system to its dashboard functions, steering, brakes, and transmission, all from a laptop that may be across the country."
"We are checking now." Evony answered for the faceless FBI investigator who was running the tests. A few minutes passed, until finally there was an audible 'whoop' from the line. "I think it's safe to say the results were positive." Evony informed them calmly.
"Evony, if they can verify the car was wirelessly carjacked, they can turn the investigation back to Dyson, right?" Lauren inquired.
"No, darling, it just proves the driver was not at fault here." Evony responded gently.
"But Evony," Lauren complained.
"Lauren, this was never about jurisdiction. You wanted to prove this man wasn't responsible, and you did that. The FBI will continue to investigate, but they will treat his family as victims, not terrorists." Evony asserted.
Lauren hung her head. "You're right, thank you."
"All in a day's work, darling. I'll see you at home soon?"
"Yeah, I'll just finish typing up my notes on this case. Shouldn't be long." Lauren confirmed.
"Drive safe, you've been up for more than 36 hours."
Bo looked at her watch and was surprised it was indeed the morning. She waited until Lauren finished the call, thinking glumly that whatever convenient relationship the two women had, Evony obviously cared a great deal for the blonde. "I should be going too." She told the younger woman. "I'll call you about dinner at my place?" She reminded Lauren of their little wager from earlier.
Lauren seemed startled for a minute, but then she nodded her agreement. When Bo closed the door to ME's office behind her, she was thinking of the parting smile that lit up Lauren's face.
x
A/N #1: Read about wireless carjacking in the article in Wired magazine: www dot wired dot com /2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/
A/N #2: so, we are not in high-school anymore. Now that you've had a few 'grownup' chapters, do you still feel as if it's one coherent story? I really wanted to explore Lauren's formative years (or months, as was the case with this story), before dealing with them as adults. Was it wrong? Should I have divided the story into two, with the grown-up chapters as a sequel? The story has been envisioned as one, but it doesn't mean it had to be presented as such… Curious to know your thoughts. Also, what do you think about the second part/the direction we're taking?
A/N #3: These last couple of updates were harder to write and took longer. A lot of moving parts to juggle, a lot of research to make the story seem authentic. Also, I must admit I've been cheating on this story with another Docubus story. I've been splitting my time between the two, and will be posting the first chapter shortly. The working title is "All is fair in Love and Business Ventures." Hope you will forgive me for this selfish act of indiscretion.