Page 90 of The Deadly Shallows

“No problem.” He was always happy to sit in and watch a master profiler work.

He turned to Mason next. “Where are you at with things?”

“I interviewed the guardsmen who responded to the shooting. Starting with first on-site. There was one who stood out to me as cagey—a Lieutenant Chris Malone. I could be wrong, but I’d like to bring him back in and have Ris take a crack at him.”

“Makes sense. Go for it, Ris,” Noah said. “And, Mason, since Connor Andrews is the only shooter we’ve identified, let’s focus on that. I need you to catch a flight out to Georgia tonight to visit his hometown. See what else we can learn about him. Em’s background check only pulled up a sister—parents deceased—but I’d like you to start with the sister and see if we can discover how he ties to the rest of our ghosts.”

“You got it, boss.” Mason nodded.

“Speaking of ghosts . . .” Noah shifted his gaze to Logan. “Where are you at?”

Logan lowered his glasses on his nose and looked out over them. It always threw Noah off on the rare days Logan wore glasses rather than contacts to work.

Logan exhaled, fully slipping his glasses off. He held the narrow brown frames in his hand. “I’m going through every little thing we know about the shooters—the brand of clothes they were wearing, their choice of weapon—though, as expected, the serial numbers were filed off so well Finn couldn’t retrieve them. I’m continuing layer by layer, but I still have a ton of digging to do. Someone worked very hard to keep their identities hidden. Someone with a level of access that’s frightening.”

“Okay, keep at it.”

“You got it,” Logan said.

“How’s it going on the chemical spill case?” Noah asked, wanting an update on that investigation.

Emmy stood and set her laptop on the stool beside the whiteboard. “I ran tests on the chemical leaking from the barrels and water samples Caleb gathered, then compared them to the sample Austin’s vet provided. While the one from the surface of the water and Austin’s dog were highly diluted, all were a match. It’s a chemical I’ve never seen before and had to track down.”

The entire team leaned forward.

“It’s TCEP, and it’s highly toxic, not just to pets but humans too. Had it leaked into, say, a well system, it could have fatal ramifications.”

“What is TCEP?” Austin asked, her knuckles turning white as she balled her hands into fists. She was a fighter, that one. Noah glanced at everyone in the room. They were all fighters. It’s what made his team so strong and effective.

He prayed her dog, and all the animals affected by the illegal dumping, would heal and that no humans would be affected.

“It’s a flame retardant used in polyurethane foam manufacturing,” Emmy said.

Mason’s brow furrowed. “As in foam fingers?”

Emmy nodded. “That’s one usage. Most foam manufacturers focus on car, airplane, or rocket cushioning, military foam casing for weapon cases, etc.”

“So we’re looking for a foam manufacturer?” Caleb said.

“Yes.” Emmy nodded, then proceeded to write the chemical acronym on the board, the blue marker squeaking with the deliberate motion. “But TCEP was banned two years ago. Apparently, it was a major shock to the industry. If the manufacturers had been stocked up on TCEP, it would have cost them a fortune to properly dispose of it. Depending on the companies’ focus, and how much they had in stock, it was enough to tank a few of them.”

“Wow,” Noah said, steepling his fingers. “So it seems someone took an alternate course of action.”

“Dumping it in the inlet,” Rissi said.

“Exactly,” Emmy agreed.

“Do we know which local companies used TCEP?” Austin asked.

“Yes.” Emmy started writing company names on the whiteboard under the TCEP heading. “There are three foam manufacturers within a two-hour drive. Huntington Foam is in the industrial park just outside of town.” She added the location beside it. “Taylor & Greene Manufacturing is in Jacksonville,” she continued. “And FoamTech is up in Goldsboro.”

“That’s a lot of foam in one area,” Noah said, reclining back and battling the urge to wrap his arm around Brooke’s shoulders.

“I looked into it, and apparently the state’s economic policies make North Carolina very appealing to industries, which in turn brings business to the state.” She handed a sheet to Caleb. “I printed out a list of the three companies with directions.”

Caleb scanned it. His shoulders stiffened as Austin leaned up against him to look.

Noah bit back a smile. There was definitely something going on there, and if he noticed it, no doubt everyone else in the room did too. Those two worked—if they didn’t kill each other.