“How so?” Keller asked, after a long moment.
“Our investigator found something the local cops overlooked.” Judy reached into her handbag again. She retrieved an overnight delivery envelope. Slipping her hand inside the cardboard sleeve, she carefully removed a small Ziploc bag.
“What’s that?” Keller asked. Inside the bag was a leaf or part of a plant.
“The police let our guy view the crime scene.”
Keller opened her mouth to say something, to castigate them for potentially contaminating the scene, but Judy waved her quiet.
“I know, I know,” Judy said. She was a hand talker. “But they’d already closed the case, designated the deaths accidental.”
“What did he find?” Keller asked, deciding a lecture on crime scene protocol wouldn’t get her anywhere. And she wanted to know what was in the bag sitting on her desk.
“The scene was immaculate,” Judy said. “Wiped down from top to bottom, the kitchen and bathroom trash cans all empty, even though there was nothing in the cans outside.”
It was suspicious. Unusual. But there were plausible explanations. “Maybe the local police let the maid clean the place,” Keller said. “Or maybe the Pines cleaned up before…”
Judy offered a resigned nod. “The Tulum cops certainly didn’t think there was anything to it. But our investigator said it had the earmarks of a professional. And when he examined the scene outside—where they found Evan Pine’s body—he found this.” Judy handed Keller the plastic bag. “The patio of the rental is surrounded by a tall fence, which is why no one saw the body sooner. The gate was unlatched. Our investigator spotted this near the gate.”
Holding the bag at eye level with her thumb and index finger, Keller saw it. A drop of red, about a millimeter in diameter, staining the green leaf.
“Couldn’t it just be Evan Pine’s blood?” Keller said.
“Maybe. But he was pretty far away from the gate and the plant was at shoulder height, higher than you’d expect if it was cross-contamination from the dogs tearing out of there. But that’s what we hoped you could tell us.”
Keller narrowed her eyes.
“You could run the DNA, see if you get any hits,” Judy continued.
“The FBI isn’t a private DNA testing service. And we can’t disclose confidential investigation materials,” Keller said.
Judy frowned. “Look, our lawyer says you don’t have jurisdiction and we have no obligation to give you the sample. And we can hire DNA experts and genealogists and have them run it through public and consumer DNA databases. But let’s save us both some time, help one another out here.”
Keller wasn’t so sure that the Adlers’ lawyer was correct. Federal racketeering statutes gave the US jurisdiction over murders committed abroad if the crimes facilitated a domestic criminal enterprise, and the Marconi case gave her a hook. Still, a good lawyer could tie things up for months or even years.
“What is it exactly that you want?” Keller asked.
“Simple. Run the sample through CODIS, and let us know the results.” CODIS was a series of databases that stored millions of DNA profiles collected by federal, state, and local law enforcement. If the sample came from someone who’d been convicted or arrested—or had a family member who’d been convicted or arrested—CODIS would likely get a hit. And if the Feds didn’t get a hit in CODIS, they had relationships with private ancestry companies people used to test and analyze their DNA.
Judy added, “That’s all we need. And if you get a hit, we’ll commit not to disclose anything without your prior approval. If it turns out to be nothing—Evan Pine’s blood or an animal’s or whatever—then we’ll know.”
Keller thought about the photos of the family, thought about the pain in Matt Pine’s eyes that morning. Keller wasn’t sure she would get authorization to disclose information to the Adlers, but there was no way she was letting them walk out of there with the evidence.
“Okay,” Keller said, “you’ve got a deal.”
CHAPTER 17
After the filmmakers ambled out of the field office, Keller arranged for the red droplet on the leaf to be analyzed and run through CODIS. She then turned back to her computer forensics file on the Pine family. She was having a hard time concentrating, questions firing through her head: Was the crime scene staged? If so, then who would want to kill the Pines? Was it an accident, Evan Pine inadvertently gassing his family while killing himself? Or was it an intruder? A third party making it look like a tragic accident. But who and why? Could it be related to her money-laundering investigation of Marconi? And if it was a third party, a contract killer, as the Adlers’ investigator speculated, how could the perp be so careful to wipe the scene clean but leave DNA behind? And why would the perp be bleeding? Did Evan and the intruder have an altercation, and the killer was injured?