Page 44 of Flash and Bang
“That the coroner has ruled it a homicide due to blunt force trauma. She thinks Mason was hit with a hammer. He definitely died from a blow to the temple and it was done with such force that it drove a piece of his skull right into his brain. The burns he suffered were inflicted after the blow to his head but he would have died from the skull fracture regardless.”
“Ouch.”
“Exactly,” Jarrett said. “Anyway, back to the grind.” He turned to Thayne. “Have I ever mentioned how much I hate desk work? Ain’t this somethin’ the investigators are supposed to do?”
Thayne smiled at him. “Bitch bitch bitch.” He waved his hand. “Just make your calls, Jarrett. The sooner we get this done the sooner you can go out and shoot something. If we get this done, I might even take you to the rifle range after dinner.”
Jarrett sat forward. “Really?”
Thayne chuckled. “God, you’re so easy.”
Jarrett frowned at him and then picked up thephone to call Ada. He glanced at the clock on his computer. It read 9:30 a.m.Jeez. It’s gonna be a long day.
****
Jarrett’s call to Ada wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. She was very nice to him and told him that she’d sent the crime scene investigators back out to the base to have them collect the field strips to test them for DNA. She’d already made calls to the lab to see if the bomb fragments from Jarrett’s Wrangler matched anything in their system. It turned out that they had received the reports back and as Jarrett had suspected, the style of the bomb exactly matched a bomb maker known to be operating in the Middle East, but he hadn’t left the signature he usually left. She’d been able to get very little off the report, and she made the suggestion that perhaps Jarrett or Thayne should follow up on it and see if either of them could get a less redacted version. The fact that it confirmed what Jarrett already suspected didn’t make him feel any better. If he hadn’t already suspected that someone was trying to kill him, at least now he was certain of it.
Ada had also just received the lab report from the trace analysis of the explosives in the fireworksand she’d forwarded it on to Jarrett. He hung up the phone with a hearty thanks. She’d done a lot of work in the last day or so and he was grateful. Jarrett opened the email Ada sent and began reading over the report before turning to Thayne who had just hung up with the crime lab in San Diego.
“So, what did you find out?” Jarrett asked.
Thayne shook his head. “Unfortunately, not a lot. The crime lab down in San Diego wasn’t able to pull any DNA off the note sent to the base.”
Jarrett frowned. “And the other one?”
“The same. I spoke with the LA crime lab just before that. No prints or DNA there either.”
“How about you?” Thayne asked.
Jarrett explained what Ada had found out about the bomb fragments having the signature of a bomb maker suspected of operating in the Middle East.
“You think that’s the guy Dayan’s been chasing?” Thayne asked.
“It’s possible,” Jarrett said, hedging just a little bit. He certainly couldn’t tell Thayne what he suspected about someone from his past wanting to kill him suddenly or his suspicions that they had ties to the CIA and his covert missions… at least until he had proof. Then, he’d have no choice but to tell Thayne everything he knew, unless he never wanted Thayne to trust him again. Thayne was a smart man. Jarrett knew he was probably already wondering whether the bomb in his Jeep had something to do with his past but he wasn’t about to bring that up until he was certain.
As if he’d read Jarrett’s mind, Thayne frowned at him. “What else could it be, Jarrett?”
Jarrett paused for a few seconds before looking back at Thayne. “I think that I’ll make some calls to my government contacts. The reports Ada was able to get were so redacted, she could only read a word or two.”
Thayne nodded. “That’s a good idea. Even if I called and tried to get a non-redacted report, I doubt I’d have the success you would, regardless of our security clearances being identical.”
“It’s possible I’d have a better chance but most of them missions are need to know, Thayne. I might hit the same stone wall you’d hit but we’ll have to see. So, look at this.” Jarrett pointed to the report on his screen and Thayne rolled his chair over so he could look. “Ada just emailed me the lab results from the explosives the Mason crew used for the fireworks show that went awry. They ran a trace analysis onthe explosives and the report clearly shows two different types of explosives were used.” He used the mouse to flip to the next page. “These are the chemicals in the fireworks listed on the HAZMAT manifest for the shipment delivered to the base to be used in the show. These chemicals showed up in the samples collected after the blast but”—he paused for full effect—“there are entirely different ones that aren’t on the manifest. See?” He tapped the monitor.
Thayne read over the report and then took the mouse and flipped back to the first page. “I’ll be damned. It looks like therewereillegal fireworks used for the show along with the legal ones,” Thayne said. “Mason was dirty. I just wonder whether they match the stuff the militia was trying to buy. It would make tying them to the case down there easier and maybe we could actually make an arrest in this shitty case.”
“I know I’d feel better if I got that fuckin’ militia off the streets,” Jarrett said.
“Me too.”
“What’s next?” Jarrett asked.
Thayne looked at his watch. It was nearly three. He stood up. “I don’t know about you but I need to get out of the office for a little while. Besides, I’m starving.”
Jarrett grinned, staying right where he was. “Or, I could make a couple of calls to my friends in high places and follow up with Suki Chang on the name of the lantern maker. We can ask Connor and Darcy to help us run background checks on the Mason crew and the FBI regarding the guns they have in evidence, and you could call the satellite office in Mexico. It would probably only take a couple more hours and then afterward…” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “I could buy you dinner, take you home, and do nasty things to your body.”
Thayne smirked and flopped back down into his chair. “That sounds much more appealing than lunch at the moment and much more fun than the rifle range,” he said.
Jarrett frowned and scratched his three-day old beard. “Damn. I forgot about the rifle range.” He raised an eyebrow and Thayne punched him on the arm. Jarrett snorted with laughter. “You really are easy. You know it?”