This chapter's word length exploded on me, so I split it - next part will be posted shortly! Thanks, everyone, for your comments:).
A Tangled Web (16)
"Ah, DDA Hobbs." Provenza leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms behind his head. "What brings you here on this fine, murder-free morning?"
Considering who it came from, that could be interpreted as a positively warm greeting, really.
"Just making a delivery," Andrea assured him, and, walking up to Sharon, handed the Captain an old, thick folder. "City archives sent this over to my office about an hour ago. I'll admit I got a little curious and took a peek," she said, "but there are about three hundred pages of …stuff, and it's all topography reports this and soil samples that, so it was all just Greek to me. What are you looking for?"
"I'm not sure." Sharon took the file, considering its volume with a mental sigh. Given how none of the extra information they'd dug up so far had led to much progress, she wasn't feeling particularly confident. Still – "Thank you, Andrea. I appreciate you getting this for us."
The blonde smiled. "You let me keep stealing that high quality espresso from your break room, and we'll call it even." She checked her watch, sighed. "I have a meeting with your Assistant Chief at eleven, or else I'd stay and lend a hand. But I hope you find something in there to help you…"
Sharon thanked her again, then, as Hobbs left the murder room, opened the folder to browse its contents. About thirty seconds in she realized that the DDA had been right – most of the information did seem too technical for her to immediately see any threads. She handed the files to Lt. Tao instead.
"At the very least, we might find out more information about what connects the Sixth Street Bridge and the shopping center," he said. "Maybe that'll tell us why James wanted to go to the bridge Saturday night." He opened the folder and, glancing at the thick stack of papers inside, grimaced. "Captain, uh, there's a lot in here, and since it's all printed I can't exactly do a keyword search or anything, so this might take a little while…"
She dipped her head in silent acknowledgment. Time wasn't truly pressing them, was it.
"Good thing today's a paperwork day," said Andy from his desk, "so we've got nothing better to do."
"What are you saying, Flynn, that filing post-case paperwork doesn't deserve our full attention and commitment?" Provenza scolded. "What's another word for 'tempted', seven letters?"
His partner rolled his eyes. "How about h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e?"
"Ah... I see you've been spending time with my ex-wives, again."
"How about 'enticed'?" suggested Amy, and the older lieutenant studied his crossword for a moment, before letting out a satisfied hum.
"Very good, Sykes."
"Captain?"
Sharon glanced over at Julio's call. He was frowning slightly at his computer.
"I went over our notes from the university," he told her. "According to what they told us, the labs in the Geochemistry building take inventory of their supply cabinets once a week."
"That's not unusual," Tao put in, without looking up from the thick archive folder. "If they're working with potentially dangerous substances, they're required to keep pretty close tabs. Some places actually take daily inventories."
"Well these labs did it every Friday," Sanchez resumed. "Which means they did it last Friday, too. And since no one reported missing supplies until we asked them on Sunday, I figured that Donnell took those explosives some time between Friday night and Saturday night…"
He had the attention of everyone else, now, if only because none of them could quite see where he was going with it.
"The doors lock automatically Friday at 5 p.m., and stay locked through the weekend, Ma'am. The Public Safety officer told us that when Sykes and I were there Sunday – he had to swipe his card to let us in. He also gave us the records for the electronic card access doors." Julio frowned at his screen again. "So I just checked to see when Donnell's card was swiped – so we could narrow down when exactly he took the substances from the supply cabinet."
"And…?" Flynn was never the most patient man.
"And," Julio finished, "there's no record of James Donnell using his card to enter the Geochemistry side of the building at all last weekend."
"James Donnell was a young man who by all accounts seemed like an idealist." The case was no longer on the murder board, but Sharon had stared at it enough over the past few days to see his picture in front of her eyes. "No record, no history of violence. His friends and parents say he was interested in making the city better, his blog shows the same, and his tool of choice seemed to be persuasive argumentation."
"All his blog posts were really well-written," Tao agreed, having momentarily set aside the archive files he'd been studying. "He did good research and had reasonable ideas about how to reduce our footprint and improve the city, especially the low-income parts…"
"That doesn't seem the type of person who'd decide to blow up a shopping center on its opening day, killing hundreds of people," Sharon continued. "Unless…"
"Unless someone else persuaded him," the lieutenant finished her thought.
They gone through the a similar, if less detailed, discussion on Tuesday; Sharon had shared her views that perhaps there was someone else involved. Someone who maybe did want to make a violent statement.
However, it wasn't until Julio's discovery of the inconsistency in the card access records that they'd found the first hint of real evidence for her theory. It was as good a time as any to give it another run.
"Young kid in an inferior position, trying to get his ideas out there, to make a difference…" Sykes gave a lopsided nod, "sounds like he'd be easy to manipulate by someone with their own agenda."
Flynn frowned. "Except we didn't find any evidence of anyone else being involved – and we were looking for it pretty hard back when we had no idea what Donnell was gonna do about that bomb," he reminded them. "We could barely track down his two idiot buddies, there was no one else connected to him in any way."
"It's true, but that was before we knew that someone at the university had been talking to him about letting him help with research," Sharon pointed out. "And before we knew that he didn't use his card to access those supply cabinets. Det. Sanchez – did anyone access the Geochemistry building in the time frame we're interested in?"
"Yes, Ma'am. I counted nine different people, at the three doors that can lead to the lab with the missing supplies. But the records don't give names," he anticipated her next question, "just university ID numbers. We'll have to match them to the names."
She nodded. "Call the university and ask them to give us that information, please. And…" she paused. "Did the Public Safety officer give you card access records for the Animal Care Facilities building, as well?"
"No, Ma'am. Just the three buildings on Donnell's route."
"Let's get last weekend's records for that, too, then," she requested. "I want a list of everyone who accessed that young man's workplace, and could've gained access to his locker. Then check to see if any of the nine people who accessed the Geochemistry building are on that list…"
Provenza had abandoned his crossword puzzle. "You think someone planted those explosives in his locker?"
"Or maybe helped him get them," Sharon amended. "Either way, between this and the indications that someone on the research staff had approached or even befriended James Donnell, I think we should consider that there was someone else involved. If that's true, and we find them, we might get the answers we're missing."
"You do realize," Provenza told her a few moments later, in a lower tone of voice, "that if we go forward with this accomplice angle, someone's gonna have to tell Taylor eventually. May I suggest having a bomb squad standing by for that?"
Sharon's lips curled into a wry smirk. The complications of their new promising leads weren't lost on her. "Let's wait until we actually have something tangible, first," she replied. "Then we'll worry about what to tell Chief Taylor."
As it turned out, that worry could wait, because getting their tangible evidence was proving challenging.
"The university won't give us the names that correspond to those ID numbers, Ma'am." Sanchez was wearing his displeased expression – had the person on the other end of the phone actually seen him, Sharon assumed that they might have been more accommodating. "Or the records from the Animal Care building for last weekend. I spoke to one of their deans, who says he wants a warrant."
"They were pretty unhappy about the publicity they got the first time around," Sykes remembered. "I'm not surprised they're not cooperating now."
Surprising, no. Irritating? Very.
"We could try to get a warrant," Flynn suggested doubtfully, "find a sympathetic judge…"
"At one p.m. on a Friday, for a closed case, with no evidence and the threat of the Mayor's disapproval hanging over this?" Tao cringed, glancing over from between two piles of papers. "It'll have to be a really sympathetic judge…"
That was, unfortunately, true. "Let's see if we can get the information on… unofficial channels, first," Sharon suggested. "Julio, do you have the contact information of that Public Safety officer who gave you the first set of records?"
"Yes, Ma'am." Sanchez began to look around his desk for the contact card. "I'll reach out to him directly, see if he can help us."
Amy had more bad news. "I've contacted the forensics lab to ask them to re-check the two containers we found in Donnell's locker for prints. Unfortunately, since there were dangerous substances involved, they're not in regular evidence storage – after the lab analyzed the samples, I think the chemicals were discarded, but they don't know exactly what happened to the containers." She sighed. "They'll look and let me know."
"Should've just dusted them for prints in the first place," Flynn grumbled, and the detective just grimaced:
"Not standard procedure for the bomb squad. The priority was minimizing the danger. Then, identifying the chemicals – and we never actually asked for prints, either," she admitted. "The explosives were found in Donnell's locker, and we were trying to figure out where he got them and if there were more…"
She gave Sharon an apologetic look, but the Captain just waved a hand. "It's a small likelihood that we'd find any usable prints on the containers, anyway," she reasoned, "especially after they've been handled by the bomb squad. We'll just have to look elsewhere." She thought for a moment, glancing at the murder board by reflex, though there was nothing on it. "Donnell's parents didn't know anything about the researcher who may have formed a connection with their son – but Danny Murray mentioned something to that effect, as well."
"He said 'some professor dude' had told Jimmy that he was really smart," Julio confirmed.
"So it was a professor," said Andy. "That should narrow it down."
"Not necessarily." Sharon shook her head, "Danny wasn't a particularly coherent source of information. But he might know more details that could help us." She sighed, "Let's have a squad car pick him up. I'd like to ask him a few more questions."
Another hour ticked by.
Rusty would be out of school soon. Would he come by the station? Unlikely, Sharon thought. Things were still tense between them. She made up her mind to bring up Dr. Joe again that evening; they needed more help than she knew how to provide, herself.
"The university still won't give us the names to match those ID numbers," Julio spoke up from his desk, drawing everyone's attention again, "and our Public Safety contact doesn't have that information available. But he agreed to send over last weekend's card access records from the Animal Care facilities. We just got them a few minutes ago."
"But we still don't have a way to connect the card ID numbers to actual university employees?" This was ridiculous. Was she really going to have to try for a warrant?
"No, Ma'am – but I checked those records he sent against the nine people who accessed the Geochemistry building last weekend." He gave her a grave look. "There was one match – and it definitely wasn't Donnell's ID. Someone else went through the door that led to those supply cabinets, and then later accessed the building where Donnell's locker was."
Sharon leaned back slightly, crossing her arms.
This was it, then? How strong was this evidence? She felt that she'd completely lost objectivity, so convinced had she been that there was something more to the story – now that it seemed that she'd been right, it was hard to tell how much weight to put on this new finding. She glanced at Lt. Provenza, a silent question in her eyes.
"Alright, so it looks like our Captain Planet might've had a sidekick," the lieutenant confirmed his agreement. "As I suspected all along, really," he finished wisely.
Flynn snickered, "Really."
"Of course. But, I suggest we hold off on informing Taylor until we have a name to match to that ID number," he told the Captain in a more serious tone, "and we're sure that that name doesn't belong to a janitor or a security officer, or someone else with plausible reasons to be touring those buildings."
She nodded. "Agreed." What the Chief didn't know, couldn't hurt him. Or them.
"Now that we only have one ID number to identify," said Sykes, while Provenza was writing the nine digits on the murder board under the heading 'Prof. Sidekick (?)', "I can try to see if I can get the name from the USC's Human Resources. We're not asking for their entire ID database anymore, they might be more willing to share."
"Let's try that," Sharon approved. "It might also be worth going there in person. I assume their staff offices are open until four… if Human Resources won't give you the information in the next fifteen minutes over the phone," she instructed, "take two uniforms and pay them a visit in person. I imagine they'll find that sufficiently… persuasive."
"Yes, Captain."
And they were back to waiting, every second inching toward more answers. Would there be a new break in the case?
Sharon bit her lips, wondering at her strange anxiety.
Thank you for reading! Next part will be up soon (or that's the hope, although with this story, "best laid plans" etc.).