Free Hidden ( CSI Reilly Steel #3) by CASEY HILL Page B

spectrometry station. Affectionately nicknamed Pegasus, Gary had once joked that if there was ever a fire in the GFU, the first thing Reilly would do was unplug the machine and drag it out the door.
    ‘Just running the tox from the post mortem on the same case. I’m nearly finished if you need to get in here,’ Lucy said as she straightened up a bottle in a sample holder sitting on top of the machine. Several bottles were labeled: Femoral Blood (s1), Heart Blood (s1), Vitreous Humor Fluid (s1), Liver (s1), Brain (s1), as well as other pathological trace contained in small bottles relating to their hit-and-run victim.
    ‘Find anything interesting?’
    ‘Nope, I swear I’ve never seen such a clean set of results. Not that I was expecting to find anything hardcore like drugs or even alcohol. Even the hair analysis shows up negative for pretty much everything you’d expect – no heavy metals or other airborne pollutants. It’s like a corpse from the seventeenth century.’
    ‘What about that stuff in the lungs?’
    ‘There’s only trace amounts of silica, and I’m guessing she must have been living or working in a dusty environment.’
    ‘Or in a museum,’ Gary said dryly.
    Lucy tapped some keys on Pegasus and a humming sound kicked in.
    ‘I don’t know,’ she sighed, ‘usually the more analysis we do the closer we get to an answer, but seems to me that we’re getting further away.’
    ‘Patience, Luce, one step at a time. Something is sure to turn up that will flick a switch on this. Like this maybe…’  He took out a sealed container from his sample bag and held it up for her to see.
    ‘What is it?’ she asked.
    ‘Killer snot.’ When she gave him a baffled look, he smiled and continued. ‘Seems our courier likes nothing better that a good nasal rummage when he’s out on the road,’ he said gleefully. ‘Followed by wiping his mucus-adorned finger on the edge of his seat – remember that the next time you get a delivery from Amazon.’ Gary waved the sample close to her face making her reel back.
    ‘Ewww …’ Lucy exclaimed, enjoying the banter. While she enjoyed and embraced the solitude of the job, it was nice to have a little company on a weekend morning when most of her peers were enjoying time off.
    Gary walked back to his desk like a triumphant eight-year-old who’d just dangled a worm in front of  his little sister. ‘No shortage of DNA in the cab of that van either. Like I said, it will be interesting to hear from Batman and Robin about the owner and what his excuse is.’
    Lucy giggled at his description of the detectives but a noise from nearby caused them both to turn around.
    ‘Ah isn’t this sweet.’ Kennedy stood in the doorway with a cup of coffee in his hand.
    Lucy laughed at Gary’s reddening facial features.
    ‘Well, Einstein, what have you got for me?’ he said to Gary. ‘Do we have a definite match with that van yet?’
    Gary nodded. ‘Looks like it. The damaged areas on the front are consistent with the injuries the victim sustained. I’m just about to run a test on the glass fragments from the van with the ones we found on the road and the body.’
    ‘Can we place the courier at the scene though?’
    ‘I think so. I’m also going to do a particle analysis on the paintwork and match them with what we’ve already found.  While I’m a hundred percent sure we can put the van at the scene, putting the guy behind the wheel is a tricker one, but I’m putting my faith in the coffee cup to give us a break on that.’
    ‘Nice one.’ Kennedy smiled as he took a sip of his own coffee. ‘We have our guy in for questioning this morning. Hopefully we’ll have him singing like a lark once we put those photos of the dead girl under his nose. Speaking of which …’
    Lucy duly got up and walked to the far end of the lab to retrieve an envelope.
    ‘Here you go,’ she said, handing it to him. ‘You can hold onto them – they’re copies.’
    ‘Good stuff.  As you