“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?

She needed to stop, slow down. She wasn’t making a movie, like the Adlers. She needed to take things slowly, methodically, objectively. She would get the results from the DNA tests, she would have the bodies autopsied, she would conduct interviews. And until then, she’d review the digital forensics and documents.

She thumbed absently through pages of data until something caught her eye. Two days before the family left for Mexico, the teenage girl, Maggie, had deactivated all Danny Pine social media. Keller soon thought she knew why: the girl was being cyberbullied. At 2:00 A.M. there had been an onslaught of messages—hurtful, vile messages. Teenage girls were the worst kind of mean. But what had precipitated them? Keller examined the feed on the Free Danny Pine Facebook page. The last post was a video that Maggie called “tip.”