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Kara. That was the only explanation, but Matt confirmed by asking Bobby how the woman was dressed. He didn’t remember. “Just casual? I think she was wearing jeans. A long sweater.”
Matt let Bobby go after giving him his business card and asking him to contact him about anything suspicious.
“What do you think?” he asked Catherine.
“While sociopaths can lie smoothly, I didn’t sense he was being deceptive in any way.”
“I need to confirm his statement, but since Kara already has a relationship with Ashley Dunlap, I’ll have her do it.”
He sent her a message.
Michael Harris walked in. He was usually impeccably dressed in a suit and tie, but with his work at the docks, he was dressed in khaki pants and a black T-shirt that matched his skin. He smiled widely. “Good, two birds.”
Matt motioned for Michael to follow. “Let’s head to the conference room so Ryder can hear what you have to say.”
“I know Jim’s on the mainland assisting in the autopsy; where’s Kara?”
Matt didn’t know. “In the field.” She was, he was certain. He just wished she had shared her plans with him.
Once they were settled in the large conference room with Ryder, Michael shared the details about the bombs.
“Preliminary tests show both bombs used the same material—in fact, chemically, the same C-4. This means the C-4 not only came from the same manufacturer, but the same batch. The mechanism, however, was different.” Michael used a blank area of the whiteboard to illustrate. “TheWater Lilydevice used a motion trigger. A weight was extended through a small hole in the bow, attached to a fishing line. When the boat reached twenty knots, the weight pulled down enough to cause a spark here—” he drew “—to ignite the C-4 and create the explosion. It was simple and effective. The device was encased in a simple metal box—ATF and I are leaning toward a small toolbox and we may be able to narrow the brand with additional tests.”
“A toolbox could have easily been overlooked during an inspection,” Catherine said.
Michael concurred.
“So you don’t know when it was placed on the boat,” Matt said.
“No, but based on the maintenance records and trip records, it had to have been setafterthe boat docked Wednesday night. TheWater Lilydidn’t go out Thursday night, so that gives us less than a forty-eight-hour window.”
“And how does the first bomb differ from the boathouse bomb?” Catherine asked.
“The second bomb wasnotmotion-triggered, but set on a timer for six thirty a.m. We recovered a significant portion of the device, and ATF is taking it to their lab as we speak. We’re guessing half a block or less of explosive, but they’re going to run through a simulation to confirm. Our guess is that the two bombs used in total one brick of C-4 that was from the same batch and most likely was split in half to make these two bombs.”
“Bombers rarely deviate from their established MO,” Catherine said. “Unless,” she added, “they are improving their bombs. Is a timer more effective than a motion trigger?”
“Not necessarily. Each bomb was set, in my opinion, for the best outcome for the situation. Motion for the boat, timer for the boathouse. Both practical devices.”
“Why not a timer for theWater Lily?” Matt asked.
“It depends on his goal. If he wanted to make a statement but not kill anyone, he would set it for the middle of the night—use a timer. But the motion trigger guaranteed that not only would the boat have one or more people on it, but that it wouldn’t detonateuntilit was going a specific speed—a speed which guaranteed it would be away from the shore and other boats.”
Matt looked at Catherine. “The boat—apersonwas a target. If West End was the target, he would have set a timer. And the second bomb was a clear de-escalation.”
Catherine was thinking. She said, “You may be correct. If the bombs were in the other order, I would assume the first was a test run, the second bigger and more violent. But this second bomb was almost an afterthought.”
“Why?”
“Perhaps to steer us away from a specific target,” Catherine said.
“Shift the entire investigation to West End?” Michael asked.
“Two West End targets, that would be logical,” Catherine said. “And it’s still a possibility, especially if the killer thought Ted Colfax or someone in the family would be in the boathouse at six thirty.”
Matt shook his head. “Ted gets into his office between seven and seven thirty most mornings, which I confirmed with his secretary. His brother and sister don’t come in until eight thirty. The guard who was killed was off duty, but he passes the boathouse on his way home.”
“So he saw or heard something and went to investigate,” Michael surmised.
