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“They’re leaning accident, but they’re doing a full investigation, and the fire department has an arson investigator who has experience with all manner of gas leaks. We’ll have more answers tomorrow.”
Matt continued, “Where’s Kara and Jim?”
Ryder said, “I texted them—they’re coming. Jim is on a call in the sheriff’s private office.”
Matt nodded toward a box on the table. “Is that from Neil’s house?”
“Yes, sir. The FBI file is there, and all Agent Devereaux’s notes on the Mowich Lake drownings. But his desk was nearly empty—this was everything there, and so far, nothing that points to what he thinks happened, why he thinks the college students were murdered. I’ll go through his computer tonight and tomorrow.”
“Good. Two agents are talking to Brandon Fielding as we speak. I should be getting their report shortly. Zack reported that Fielding is broke, he doesn’t have any expenditures that point to hiring the bomber, but we’ll cross him out once we can verify his alibi and background.”
Jim and Kara walked in together. Jim was laughing at something Kara had said, and she had a grin on her face. She sat down next to Ryder. “I’m starving,” she said. “Can we make this fast?”
Jim pulled out a chair across from Kara. “I heard about this pub not far from here.”
“The Fish & Brew,” Kara said. “I was there earlier, interviewing our teenage witnesses—I’ve been starving ever since.”
Matt said, “Business first, then we’ll head over there. I haven’t had good pub fish in a long time. First—I talked to Michael and he’ll be here tomorrow morning. He’s at the ATF lab and they have confirmed that one-half a brick of C-4 was used in the explosion. No other accelerant was detected, and it was the fuel from the boat which caused the second explosion. They believe the bomb was motion activated, based on the speed of the boat, and are running a series of tests to determine exactly how it detonated. This is Michael’s area of expertise, and I’m pleased that the ATF has pulled him in. We’ll get answers faster with Michael running point.”
Ryder said, “I booked him on a direct flight from Seattle that arrives at eight tomorrow morning.”
The airport was tiny and supported only small planes, but they had regular routes from both Bellingham and Seattle, a half dozen flights a day. The sheriff’s department had three helicopters and John said Matt could use one if they needed to get to the mainland quickly.
Matt told the group what he’d learned from the Colfax family and Donna Bell. To start off, he wanted to rule out IP. “I won’t say that they’re the number one suspect—as a group or any of the individuals—but unless we find a personal motive against one of the victims, they are our most logical suspects.” He nodded toward the whiteboard, where Catherine had laid out her theories. “I see you agree, Catherine?”
“Yes, based on the actions of other radical environmental groups, it’s not implausible, though I don’t think it’s the group specifically. They are an organization known to the FBI but are not on any watch list. There have been no reported warning signs. It’s more plausible that an individual within IP could have used their cause as a justification to act on his darker impulses. All that said, I haven’t ruled out other motives.”
“Tomorrow morning I’ll be speaking with the two individuals on probation for vandalism against West End,” Matt said.
“A formal interview?” asked Catherine.
“I pitched it as routine.” He looked at her whiteboard notes, had more questions, but turned to his forensics expert. “Jim? You’ve been chatting with the ME.”
“Yes, as well as the head crime scene investigator that Snohomish County sent over on Friday since San Juan Islands County doesn’t have a dedicated crime scene unit. ATF is handling the boat and all evidence from the explosion; Snohomish County has collected a wide spectrum of potential evidence from the docks. So far, nothing pointing to a suspect. I went over the autopsy reports with the ME and, as expected, there are no red flags with any of the victims. Three victims were killed by being, essentially, blown up; the other six victims all died by drowning with a secondary cause of blunt force trauma from the blast.”
Kara immediately thought about what Ashley and Whitney told her, that they’d wanted to help when they saw a body floating in the water. She asked Jim, “Does that mean if the rescue crew got to the boat faster, they could have saved those victims?”
“No. At least, not in my professional judgment. Blunt force trauma was severe, rendered the victims unconscious, and most would have died from their injuries within minutes to hours, but they drowned first. One victim, for example, had a broken neck. This was a violent explosion and the explosion is the ultimate cause of all the deaths, but for medical record purposes, we have to list the exact cause.
“All remains have been identified, everyone is accounted for,” Jim continued. “We confirmed that Agent Devereaux was not intoxicated, no common drugs in his system, nothing that would even hint that he was at fault. Same for the deckhand, Kyle Richards. They’ve sent a panel to the state lab for a more thorough screening, just to cover their bases.”
Of course, they hadn’t believed Neil was drunk, but every investigation like this required a full tox screening of the pilot.
“I don’t feel the need to go to the mainland and double-check the ME,” Jim said. “He’s done as much as I would have in the same situation and he’s been transparent from the beginning. Yet I feel I don’t have much else to do here.”
Matt disagreed. “You’re more than a forensics expert, Jim—you’re also a cop. I need you to review all the security footage. The sheriff’s department collected disks from every business within a two-block radius of the dock and they looked at it, but it’s a lot of data and I need fresh eyes. If there’s an anomaly, anything out of place, I need to know. And I want you to work with the gas company to confirm their initial assessment, and assist in any investigation if the carbon monoxide leak was intentional. If someone tampered with Neil’s heating system, we need to know that as well. It will help us narrow the focus of our investigation. If you need help with the security disks, Ryder will be here analyzing Neil’s data.”
Jim nodded. “I can do that.”
“Sir,” Ryder said, “I asked Kara to help because Neil wrote a few vague cryptic questions I can’t find answers to. I hope I didn’t overstep.”
Matt thought it was odd but didn’t comment. Ryder was sharp as a tack—he shouldn’t need anyone’s help. “We’re a team, we use all our resources, so if you need a second set of eyes, you got it. Kara—your witness interviews.”
“Nothing was said that wasn’t in the initial police report, other than learning Ashley Dunlap had been taking pictures that day. Maybe Jim can go through that as well—she was taking pictures just before the explosion.”
“Excellent. Where’s the camera?”
Kara gestured to the table, which had a collection of evidence bags. “Her dad dropped off the memory chip this afternoon. I told him we’d return or replace it. I’d still like to talk to Ashley without her dad, Pete, around.”
