Page 85 of State of the Union (First Family 3)

Each of them asked after the first lady and expressed their concern for her.

“Thank you all.” Nick took his seat at the head of the table, with Terry seated to his right.

“She’s in surgery now, and as you can imagine, I’m eager to get back to the hospital. Let’s get this done.”

Gonzo updated the murder board with the information gathered thus far in the Olsen investigation. He’d started a column for similar cases, including the one Detective Lucas had brought them, as well as the earlier one that had been tied to their case by DNA.

“What’s the latest?” Cruz asked when he came into the room, where Jeannie was also working on a laptop.

“Dani and Gigi reviewed every call, text and email on Audrey’s phone from the last year and didn’t find anything other than the ongoing beef with a teacher she worked with that the boyfriend mentioned,” Gonzo said. “The guy liked to tell her she was young and naïve and didn’t ‘get it.’ He, of course, was much older and wiser and knew better in all situations. There were some texts from Audrey to Wes complaining about how the guy had something to say to her at every staff meeting and how she thought of him as a bully.”

“We need to talk to him,” Freddie said.

“I talked to him,” Gonzo said. “He was with family all day yesterday and never left the house. Multiple family members can vouch for him.”

“Crap,” Freddie said, taking a seat. “So that leaves us with no one in her life who would’ve had motive for murder.”

“It leaves us with most likely a random attack by a guy who’s done this before,” Gonzo replied. “Lindsey ran the DNA found on Audrey through national, state and local CODIS and checked it against the rape kit from Lucas’s case to find they’re a match. But nothing new popped from CODIS.”

“You should look at FDS,” another voice said.

Gonzo and Cruz turned to find Chief Marshal Jesse Best taking up most of the space in the doorway.

“FDS?” Gonzo asked. “What’s that?”

“Familial DNA Searching,” Best said. “Simply put, it’s when you run the DNA you have through the system to look for close relatives. That can lead you to someone who’s already in prison or has submitted DNA in a previous investigation. From there, you work backward through the person’s male relatives until you find the one you’re looking for.”

“Ah, right,” Gonzo said. “I’ve heard about that.”

“I’ve been reading about it,” Freddie said. “It’s been used in several cases that never would’ve been solved otherwise, but DC and Maryland outlawed the practice.”

“How come?” Jeannie asked.

“Fear of it targeting a disproportionate number of minorities, and the FBI has been slow to embrace it. The NDIS can’t be used for familial searching,” Freddie said, referring to the National DNA Index System.

“How does FDS work?” Jeannie asked. “I haven’t done the research yet.”

“Say for example a perp’s brother is in the system,” Freddie said. “In that case, a familial match on them can lead us to the guy who did our crime, but it’s not without controversy. For instance, say the family doesn’t know that the person whose DNA is in the system had committed a crime. This process would ‘out’ the first person, because we’d have to disclose what led us to the second person.”

“I can see how that could get messy,” Jeannie said.

“Very, or if we target an entire group of siblings, for instance, we put them all through an investigation in the effort to find the guilty one,” Freddie said. “Or maybe we uncover a previously unknown paternity situation.”

“People have raised privacy concerns as well as Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment concerns regarding illegal search and seizure and equal protection,” Best said.

“How so?” Jeannie asked.

“Requesting samples from family members who haven’t committed a crime, for instance, puts their DNA into the system, and again, the disproportionate representation of minorities in CODIS and the many issues associated with that.”

“I see,” she said. “Well, if we have a serial rapist on the loose who’s escalated to murder, we might be able to make a case for an exception to the local law prohibiting the use of FDS.”

“It’s definitely worth considering,” Best said. “Cases like this one are usually the exception to the rule when it comes to new technology. In my experience, when there’s a violent predator likely to strike again and all other investigative options have been exhausted, jurisdictions are willing to consider it, even with laws on the books.”

“That’s true,” Freddie said. “If we can present a strong rationale for the use of the technology in this one isolated case, we might be able to get them to make an exception.”

“Or if you happen to get a hit on a similar case in Virginia,” Best said. “FDS is legal there.”

“That’s an interesting angle,” Gonzo said. “Let’s widen our search to see if there’re other unsolved sexual assaults within a three-hundred-mile radius and go from there. Thanks for this, Jesse.”