Page 15 of Astrid
“Doesn’t that make you dizzy?”
Astrid grinned at him as she shrank the screen again. “Why do you think I have it smaller. If there’s a match, it’ll come to the full screen.”
“Is it a good thing or a bad thing if you’re not getting a hit right away? If that’s the correct word for it?”
“I won’t know until it says what it does. The others came up right away, and they all have rap sheets as long as my arm. It either means Neil’s very careful and not wanted, or he’s not a person of interest.”
“You don’t believe that, do you?”
“Not on your life.” She scowled at him as she finished eating. After wiping her hands and mouth on the napkin, and drinking half her water, she asked, “Why would someone that is squeaky clean have all those armed guards? Why would he have all those posted signs, and the fence to keep people out?” At his confused look, she accessed the video she’d taken from her phone earlier to let him watch it.
“Shit, my first impression is that he’s hiding something.”
“Yeah, mine too, but so far, according to his face, there’s nothing.” They both looked up when Alan came down the stairs. Astrid braced herself for the blow back from Morgan yelling at him earlier, instead his words flabbergasted her.
“Hey, Astrid, I was wondering if you needed a set of prints from Neil and Mandi?”
“What? Where did you get their prints from? Yes, it would be great if I had them.”
Alan opened his metal clipboard and pointed. Astrid stood, looked in, then frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“Both Neil and Mandi signed the contract. I only touched it to get it out, then if you recall, Neil was the one to put it back in here. I went out to my workshop to see what materials I needed to buy, then I remembered they touched this. Thought you might want to do what you have to or whatever.”
Astrid grinned as she took his face in her hands, and kissed both his cheeks. She looked at John, and did the same with him, except she didn’t kiss his cheeks, she kissed him full on the mouth. Grinning, she looked around frantically for a pair of gloves, and found a box of them in one of the lower cupboards. “Hold that thought!” Astrid laughed as she tossed the box to John, then took off at a dead run up the stairs. John and Alan looked at each other with raised brows, not daring to touch anything.
Five minutes later, Astrid returned with a small black case, with everyone else on her heels, Joyce leading the way.
“What’s going on?” Joyce asked.
“Is Morgan here?”
“No, she went back to her house, but we can call her if we need to.”
“Not yet,” Astrid said as she donned a pair of gloves, then opened the little black case she’d gone to get.
“Nice,” Ava laughed as she watched. When the others asked what she was doing, Ava explained. “That’s fingerprint powder.” They all observed as she gingerly picked up the top piece of paper in the metal clipboard, then brought it over to the paper towels she’d set up. Quick and efficiently, she dusted the paper, and everyone leaned in to watch as several fingerprints began to appear. At one point Astrid looked at Alan, “I’ll need to take your prints for elimination. Did anyone else touch this paper?”
“No, just me, Neil and Mandi.” As she worked, Alan quietly explained why she was doing what she was. Once the prints were done, she took the paper, put it into the scanner, and then uploaded it to her computer. The entire process took only ten minutes. With a laugh, she leaned back as she removed her gloves, but sighed heavily.
“Now we wait.” She frowned when her computer gave a series of beeps, and she glanced over at it in shock. “Holy hell.” She quickly began tapping keys, and Joyce was next to the printer as the papers started spitting out.
“What the heck?” She demanded and then shook the pages in anger at everyone. “Can you run the name Gus Carter?”
“Babe?” Alex was by her side and read the papers, then sucked in his breath. “Holy crap.”
“Yeah,” Joyce said, then looked at the others. “It says here that the set of male prints came back to a Nelson Carter. That’s not the name he gave you, is it Alan?”
“No, he told me his name was Neil Mason.” Alan dug through his paperwork, and brought up the paper he’d written the information on, and handed it over.
“Why didn’t the name Nelson Carter come up with the facial recognition?” John asked with a frown.
“Because, you can always have work done to change your appearance, but you can’t change your prints. You’re born with them, and they never change,” came a voice from behind them, and all ten of them turned to watch a man dressed in jeans and a tee walk down the steps. Astrid would have been worried when she saw the gun strapped to his side, but when no one seemed alarmed, she shrugged.
He walked directly to Astrid and stuck out his hand, “Carl Miller, BCI.” Before she could question him, he handed her his ID. After reading it, she looked at him with a grin, and pointed to the one empty chair on the other side of her.
“Astrid Montoya, have a seat.”
Before he did that, Morgan arrived with not only Wyatt, but also with Dillon, DJ, and Lucas.
