The sound was similar to a bull charging down the hallway. Six eyes were focused on the door, and seconds later, Royce burst through.
He stopped, caught his breath, and pointed. “You three in the briefing room, downstairs right now! We found the car company who uses that shade of green. The paint transfer was enough to confirm it!”
“Holy shit.” Rue leapt from his chair. “We’re finally getting somewhere. Did Tech figure out if the vehicle was a van or an SUV?”
“We’ll discuss it all at the briefing. I want our beat cops in on it, too, along with Sergeant Hatch from Patrol.”
The word was out, and everyone gathered in the lower-level briefing room, which was much larger than each department’s conference rooms.
Once all officers and detectives were seated, Royce and Hatch stood at the front of the room. A hush overtook the space when Royce stepped up to the podium.
“Okay, everyone, save all the questions for the end of the meeting. We’ve just received some great news from Forensics. They haven’t had any luck with the pieces of red plastic that broke off the turn signal of the vehicle that rammed Mitch, but they did get a color match off the scrapings they took from the paint transfer on the Vette. The good news is it turns out that the shade of green is a GM color.” Royce sighed. “The bad news is that you have to check all Buick, Chevy, Cadillac, and GMC vehicles.”
That news steered them in the right direction but still left a lot of investigating to do. Royce saw by everyone’s expressions that they were champing at the bit to ask about the vehicle.
He held up his hands. “Okay, okay. I know at least the detectives are about ready to bust at the seams. Yes, Tech was able with about eighty-five percent certainty to say the vehicle is an SUV, not a van. That still gives us plenty of work to do. The color name is Green with Envy, and it was available only on the 2016 model vehicles. That should narrow down the playing field somewhat, but it also means we have to find out how many SUV models, large or small, offered that color on all GM vehicles. Keep that in mind when you start looking for the right make and model. Tech did say that from the gas station image, the vehicle appeared to be a medium-sized or larger SUV. Go back to your computers and start digging in. Of course, we don’t have a name or a VIN to plug into the DMV database to go along with that year and color vehicle, but we can find out how many of those SUVs are registered in the state of Georgia. If the vehicle owner’s names are familiar or they’ve had previous arrest warrants, they’ll be looked into first.” Royce looked from left to right and didn’t see any hands up. “Okay, get after it. Let’s make today count.”
Rue, Lawrence, and Bentley took the stairs to the second floor then headed down the hallway.
“You guys want to continue to work together in your office?” Rue asked.
“Yeah, why not? That way, we won’t be repeating the same thing somebody else has done. Everything you find out, write it down, then tell the others. We’ll narrow down the SUV field pretty quickly if we’re aware of what each of us is doing.”
“Yep, I’m good with that,” Rue said. “Remember, it doesn’t matter—all SUVs, large or small—but put a check mark next to the ones that are medium to large in size and bypass every truck.”
After looking up all makes and models of GM SUVs in every size, they moved on to the available colors for each car manufacturer. The quantity of vehicles was large, so they had to devise a logical method of searching.
Rue spoke up. “Okay, we have all the SUVs that GM makes. Now, let’s knock them out one car maker at a time. I’ll take Buick. Bentley, you take Cadillac. And Lawrence, you take Chevy. Whoever finishes first can start with GMC. Good to go?”
“Yep,” Lawrence said. “Let’s figure this out.”
Rue got through the Buicks quickly and began the GMC models. “Remember to only search 2016 vehicles.”
The Cadillac search was over within minutes. All that was left was the larger Chevy inventory and the rest of what Rue was searching for in GMC vehicles.
“I think I’ve narrowed it down to two vehicles!” Lawrence yelled out.
“What? The actual models?”
“Yeah, the 2016 Chevy Tahoe and the Suburban had Green with Envy as one of their colors. They’re medium to large SUVs, so they fit the parameters.”
Bentley scratched his head. “And they’re the only two vehicles out of all Chevy SUVs?”
“Yep. The Suburban is considered large in my opinion and—”
Rue cut him off. “But the Suburban and the Tahoe aren’t shaped the same. Tech would know the difference.” Rue reached for Lawrence’s desk phone and called. When Dan picked up, he set the phone to Speaker.
“Hey, pal, it’s Devon.”
“What can I help you with, Detective?”
“You have two choices, the Chevy Tahoe or the Suburban. They’re the only vehicles GM makes that used Green with Envy as a color in 2016.”
“Hang on.”
Rue heard Dan discussing it with Tom, and seconds later, he came back to the phone. “Tom says it was definitely the Tahoe. The Suburban is too large.”
“He’s ninety-nine point nine, nine, nine percent sure?”
“Absolutely. He’s looking at the screen shot right now and nodding.”
“Thanks, buddy.” Rue hung up and high-fived the others. He dialed Royce’s phone right away. “We’ve got the SUV, Boss. It’s a 2016 Chevy Tahoe.”
“Okay, I’ll pass that on to Patrol to keep an eye out. We don’t have an owner or a plate number, so it won’t be an actual BOLO, but it’s the best we can do for now. I’ll alert the news stations and say we’re looking for a murderer who may be driving a front-end-damaged 2016 dark-green Chevy Tahoe. Then we’ll see if we get any bites. Great work, guys.”
“Thanks, Boss.” Rue looked at the others. “Royce is alerting the news channels right now. Hopefully, we’ll get calls as soon as the news comes on.” He tipped his wrist. “And we only have a half hour to go.”
Rue took that time to call Mitch. He needed to hear how he felt that day and give him the news. He would stop in after work and visit, too, if Cannon was up to it.
“Hey, buddy, how’s it hanging?” Rue put Mitch on Speaker so Lawrence and Bentley could join in on the conversation.
“It’s hanging about as good as I’d expect. The doctor said my brain works, so that’s a plus.”
Bentley chuckled. “You sound like the typical Cannon, so I guess it is working.”
“Bentley?”
“Yep. We’re all squished in the office together. Between the three of us, we found out what kind of vehicle hit you.”
“So Rue said. That’s great news. Now you need to find the person who was behind the wheel.”
“That’s the plan,” Lawrence said. “Up for some company tonight? We’ll stop in for a minute if you can stand all of us at once.”
“Hell yeah. Staring at the walls all day is driving me nuts. I mean, Mom, Marie, and the girls stopped in a few hours ago, but the kids go stir-crazy after a while. I’ll take a cheeseburger and fries, too, if someone feels sorry enough for me to pick something up.”
“Consider it done, partner,” Rue said. “Royce is putting the description of the Tahoe on every local news channel, so we should get some calls on that. It ought to keep the night crew busy.”
“Sounds good.”
“Danny Whitman didn’t stop in to bug you today, did he?”
“Hell no. How does he know where I’m at?”
“Royce told him. I guess he stopped in this morning and talked to Sarge. He said he heard that you were involved in an accident.”
Mitch sighed. “Well, keep him away from me so I can heal in peace. I’m sure you guys can handle him for a while. I swear, he’s like a pesky mosquito.”
Rue laughed. “If I didn’t feel sorry for the guy, I’d probably give him a piece of my mind. He’s as annoying as hell.”
“That, he is.”
“Okay, pal, we’ll see you later. The briefing with the night crew is about to start, and then the piece about the Tahoe will be aired right after that.”
“Good enough, and don’t forget the burger and fries.”