Chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

S am, Jo, Kevin, Wyatt, and Harry trudged into the police station, snow clinging to their boots. Lucy bounded ahead, her tail wagging as she spotted Major perched on Reese’s desk. The cat bent his head down, and Lucy raised hers so the two could sniff each other.

Reese looked up from her paperwork. “Did you guys find anything good out there?”

Kevin held up an evidence bag containing the small gold pin. “Just this old service pin. Might be related to the robbery. Might not be.”

Reese examined the pin through the plastic. “So we aren’t sure if this is part of the case?”

“We’ll have to investigate further to determine if it’s connected,” Sam said.

Harry’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He fished it out and glanced at the screen. “It’s the wife. She’s requesting me home for lunch.”

He answered the call, his voice softening. “Right away, dear.” Hanging up, he turned to Sam with a conspiratorial grin. “The wife doesn’t need to know about our little foray into the woods today, does she?”

Sam laughed and clapped him on the back. “It’ll be our secret, Harry.”

Harry bid the team farewell and headed out into the crisp afternoon air.

Sam turned to the others. “I’m going to go study my corkboard. Got some new pictures to tack up.” He disappeared into his office, closing the door behind him.

Kevin settled at his desk and logged in the gold service pin they’d found. As he typed, his thoughts drifted to their foray into the woods. He hadn’t said anything to the team, but he’d remembered exactly where he and Bridget had gone after finding the coordinates on the thumb drive. That had to be a good sign for his memory, right?

His stomach grumbled, reminding him of the peanut butter sandwich waiting in his lunch bag. As he unwrapped it, Kevin’s mind wandered to Bridget’s promise of a home-cooked casserole. The thought of a hearty, comforting meal was appealing. He wasn’t much of a cook, so his meals consisted mostly of spaghetti and takeout. Maybe he could ask Bridget to join him and make an evening of it. The idea of her company, sharing a meal and easy conversation, brought a smile to his face.

Kevin forced himself to focus on the paperwork in front of him, scrolling through the endless lines of text. The words blurred together as his thoughts alternated between the casserole and Bridget’s warm presence.

“Hey, I think I got something here,” Wyatt called out, breaking Kevin’s reverie.

Jo glanced up from her computer. “What is it?”

“It’s the tire tracks from the scene where we think Alex went in. I just got the reports back, and measuring tire to tire, it looks like a very long car. Like maybe a limo.”

Jo’s eyebrows shot up. “A limo? You’re saying Alex may have been brought to the scene of his death in a limo?”

Wyatt rose from his desk. “Kind of looks that way. I mean, at least it shows a limo was there. I need to look at the pictures on Sam’s board.”

They filed into Sam’s office, where a corkboard displayed a collage of photos and notes related to the case. Pictures of Alex’s apartment, the mysterious key, the suitcase full of money, and the area near the storage sheds where they suspected Alex had entered the water were all pinned up.

Wyatt tapped a photo showing several tire tracks. “I made a cast of one, but this wider-angle shot captures more of them. It looks like the car sat for a while. These impressions of the tires are deeper in two spots. Look at the length in between those two spots.”

The team studied the images, their minds racing with possibilities.

“We still haven’t proven this was where Alex went in,” Kevin noted, “but we haven’t disproven it either.”

“I think we might have.” Reese appeared in the doorway holding another paper. “Just came in.”

Jo took that paper. “It’s the analysis of the feathers we found. They compared them to the down inside Kevin’s jacket. They say it matches.”

Sam took the paper and read it. “It’s eider duck down on both.”

Wyatt looked skeptical. “Could it just be from a duck that was in that area?”

“Nope.” Reese waved her phone in the air. “I looked it up. No eider ducks near here. They stick to the coastline, and we’re pretty far from that. Plus the individual DNA points match up on the report. Those feathers are from Alex’s jacket.”

Sam nodded. “So with the hydrologist report and this, it looks likely that that’s the spot Alex went in. Just one of those might be shaky, but two makes it much more likely.”

Sam glanced at Lucy, remembering how she had sniffed out the feathers. No one might have thought them unusual if it hadn’t been for her. She opened one eye and blinked at Sam as if she knew exactly how valuable her services were.

“But why would a limo be out there?” Jo wondered aloud.

Sam’s gaze landed on a picture of the Thorne Enterprises logo. “It’s one of Beryl’s properties. Maybe she likes to check on her investments in style.”

“Or Victor,” Jo added. “He seems like the type to ride in a limo.”

Sam sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Guess we need to have a chat with Beryl or Victor.” He grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair. “I’ll pay Beryl a visit, see if she can shed some light on this limo business.”