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Pulling out of the parking lot we turned left heading back downtown. Stopped at a traffic light as an elderly couple made their way across the intersection. We discussed our visit to the rental store.
“Do you think it’s worth the effort to get a subpoena for her computer? The hard drive could be wiped by now.”
“You never know Roman it may just be sitting on a shelf right now untouched with something on it. We should try and secure it. I’ll see if the DA’s office can help.”
The screen lit up between us in the car as the light turned green. Our dispatcher also came over the radio just about the same time.
“Unit 83 Unit 83”
“83 go ahead”
“Investigative unit needed on Atlantic corner of Park. MSP Lab tech also dispatched to the area.”
“Don’t tell me we have another.”
“83 responding”
Turning on the flashers we moved quickly over to the older Medical District in the city.
We arrived at one of the facilities that now sat abandoned. The building once housed a research center with a laboratory for Alzheimer patients. There were no signs of any units that had responded.
A pimple faced teenager with red curly hair approached us as we exited the car. He was on his hoverboard and looked quite concerned.
Lonnie spoke to him first.
“Are you the one that called 911?”
His voice cracked a bit when he answered.
“I did. I called because I fell off my board over there.”
“But you’re ok now right?”
“Yes, I thought I was bleeding when I fell off and landed. But I found out that the blood wasn’t mine and that’s why I called you.”
“Where did you fall son?”
“Over there near the door in the back.”
“You see anyone around since you been here?”
“My friends left a while ago after they got texts from their parents. I fell after they had already left. It was really disgusting.”
What appeared to be a decent size amount of darkened blood had been smeared slightly by the teenager’s hoverboarding incident. Oddly an animal carried rested not far away with its door ajar. I walked over to it and taking a pen gently moved the door open a little further. It was empty except for the strong smell of animal urine.
Lonnie was busy writing and sketching in his notebook. He crouched a little lower to the ground to examine the darkened blood.
“What are you thinking? Animal cruelty.”
“We have seen worse that’s for sure. But what animal and where is it?”
“Not sure. Could be human blood for all we know.”
“I guess we’ll know soon enough.”
A dark blue MSP lab van with its distinguished insignia entered the lot stopping to park next our squad car. A door opened revealing a lab tech that was not Monica Spencer. I was a little disappointed. He walked over to us carrying a box similar in size to a tackle box used for fishing.
“Do you have a test kit for human blood that can give you immediate results?”
He looked back at me as though I just insulted him.
“Of course, and the response is almost instantaneous. We use what’s called an Isoantigenic Body Fluid kit. It is a blood assay that will determine specifically if the sample contains the human Glycophorin A Antigen.”
“Then it’s fairly specific in identification?”
“The test itself should determine whether its human blood specifically if it’s absent of any cross reaction with saliva, semen, urine or amniotic fluid. We’ll have the results in about five minutes.”
Lonnie and I canvassed the parking lot area for good measure. A brown paper bag was rolling around near a tree at the end of the lot. It was odd given there wasn’t a breeze of any kind. Picking up the wrinkled brown bag I peered inside immediately met with a small pair of eyes staring back at me. The little hair ball pinned his ears back hissing and spitting taking a swipe at me with bared claws.
“Did you find something Roman?”
I opened the bag for Lonnie to view.
“Feisty, isn’t he?”
“Probably our missing occupant from the cage.”
The MSP Lab Tech walked over carrying his field kit.
“The specimen sample is positive for human blood. It’s all from the same individual. I collected more samples to see if we can build a DNA profile. We have enough to determine age, gender and a variety of other information. Whoever this is suffered some serious trauma from the blood loss.”
“There really that much of it?”
“The luminol that I sprayed around it’s perimeter was fairly large considering.”
“Any guess as to how long that blood has been there.”
“Long enough for it to still be transferable by touch.”