Page 64 of Forged in Steele

Dr. Albertson nodded. “The rigor tells me the max, but don’t hold too fast to the early time as she might not have been brought directly here and was left in a car where her body would have cooled off faster, making the window later. Of course, you already know the lack of blood and spatter means she wasn’t stabbed here.”

“We figured as much,” Jared said.

She took paper bags out of her pocket, slid them on Reya’s hands, and rubber-banded them around her wrists to protect any potential forensics on the hands.

“Wolfe,” a male’s voice sounded from the hallway.

“That’ll be Agent Graham for the electronics,” Jared said. “Dr. Albertson, can you look for a phone in the victim’s pockets?”

“Of course.”

“I’ll get Colin started while you do,” Bristol said. She hurried from the room and found Colin heading down the hallway with long strides and determination in his dark eyes. He carried a black tool kit in one hand and evidence bags in the other. A camera strap was slung around his powerful neck.

“The computer’s in the office.” She stepped into the room, but got out of his way.

Sierra looked up from the chair behind the desk.

“And you are?” he asked, not sounding at all pleased.

“Sierra Rice. Trace evidence expert. Veritas Center.”

“You wake up this machine?” he asked.

“Of course not.”

He turned on Bristol. “You touch it?”

“No,” she said and refrained from pointing out that she’d been a deputy for five years and wouldn’t make such a rookie mistake.

“Good. Good.” He set his kit on the floor. “My best chance at unlocking it is finding it in the After-First-Unlock—AFU—hot state.”

She nodded, pretending to know what he meant but didn’t.

“What about a phone or iPad?” he asked.

“The ME is looking for the phone on the victim now, and I haven’t seen an iPad, but I haven’t searched the house.”

“Give it a quick once over. The computer will work to look at the security files, but it’ll take some time to image. So our best hope is finding her phone or tablet. They can be imaged in a matter of minutes.”

“I’ll check with the ME first and then take a look around,” she said. “You said the computer will take time, but how long?”

He looked at Sierra. “You about done here?”

“I am done.” She pushed to her feet.

Colin turned back to Bristol. “Then I can get straight to work and it only depends on the size of the hard drive, and the amount of data stored. Most home computers take at least three hours. If there are a large number of reallocated sectors or other physical drive damage, it could take upwards of ten hours.”

“Then let’s hope for the three hours or that we find a phone or tablet,” she said as they couldn’t afford to sit for ten hours without getting a look at the security footage that could give them the first good look at Luna’s abductor.

13

Jared stood behind Colin Graham in Reya Isaac’s office. They hadn’t located a phone or tablet, but Jared decided to authorize review of the security footage before the image was taken of the drive. Colin assured Jared that even though a record of accessing the file was kept, it wouldn’t change this type of file and the log was in its own file. Could be problematic in court if they apprehended the kidnapper, but finding Luna trumped that potential issue.

Colin started the video from outside Reya’s garage. “Reya set it up to alert only when a person was detected. Gives us far fewer files to review. The feed started recording at eleven-sixteen a.m. when this guy exits the driver’s seat of her car that he pulled into the driveway.”

Jared watched the man get out of a red Honda Civic that the plates confirmed as belonging to Reya. The man wore a black jacket with a hood over a baseball cap, blue jeans, and hiking boots.

“He fits Holloway’s build.” Jared squinted at the scene. “His hat is pulled pretty low, but also looks like Holloway’s jawline.”

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