Chapter 51
Fifty-One
T he buzz of the phone in his pocket drew Asher’s attention away from Esther, who sat with her sister and mother, looking through the box of baby things Faye had brought over. While he was over the moon happy with Esther, he was not ready for a baby or any of the things that went with it, so he’d left them to their own devices while he got some work done.
Lifting his hip, he took his phone from his pocket. Stroud’s name appeared. Asher’s heart sped up, and he swiped to answer. “Hello?”
“Horn, I need you to come down to the station. The tip line’s been inundated with reports of Lennox’s vehicle. I need another set of eyes—good ones—to help me go through this stuff.”
Asher closed his laptop and stood. “I’m on my way. Do you want me to bring Edie and Audra?”
“No. I need your computer expertise more than anything. They’ll be bored.”
Asher bit back a snort. He doubted it. The two women would find something to stick their noses into. But he didn’t want to drive another wedge into his relationship with the detective, so he didn’t argue. He’d just pried the last one loose. “All right, I’ll see you soon.”
“Thanks.” Stroud hung up.
“Who was that?” Edie asked. “I heard my name.”
“Stroud. The tip line got some hits on Lennox’s car. He wants my help analyzing footage. I asked if I should bring you guys, but he said just me for now.”
Her brows dipped, but she nodded. “Keep us posted.”
“You know I will.” He walked over to where they were seated and dropped a quick kiss on Esther’s lips. “Don’t get any ideas while I’m gone.” He gestured between her and the box. “I love you, but we’re not ready for that yet.”
“Oh, I think we’ll be ready sooner than you think.” She flashed him a sweet smile.
Asher sighed, knowing he’d better wrap his head around a major life change sooner rather than later. Surprisingly, the thought didn’t bother him as much as he thought it would, though. He wasn’t ready to be a dad, but it wouldn’t take much convincing. Not if Esther was the mom. She’d be great at it.
One thing at a time, though. They needed to figure out where they would live first.
After they caught Lennox.
Tapping her nose, he returned her smile. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. The others should be too.” Audra, Annabeth, and Brooke had run out to get Halloween candy for trick-or-treat tonight as well as supplies to make the tomato soup and grilled cheese on homemade bread Edie was craving. Rather than interrupt Edie and Esther’s time with their mom, the three women had offered to give them some space and go get the ingredients.
“Git.” Edie shooed him away. “The sooner you leave, the sooner you can come back.”
He chuckled and held up his hands. “I’m going, I’m going.” Walking away, he tucked his laptop under his arm, then grabbed his keys off the counter and let himself out the front door, arming the alarm system as he left.
The drive to the police station was uneventful. He pulled into a visitor’s spot and went inside. The officer working the desk recognized him and buzzed him back. After signing in, Asher headed down the hall to Stroud’s office.
He knocked on the detective’s partially open door and stuck his head in. Stroud looked up. Asher tipped his head. “Damn. You look terrible. When was the last time you slept?”
“Well? Before you came to town. Get in here and sit your ass down.” He motioned him inside.
As Asher walked in, Stroud turned a laptop around. “Can you enhance that? We need to know who’s driving.”
Sitting down, he set his computer on the other guest chair and pulled Stroud’s closer. A few quick clicks on the photo enhancement menus and he shook his head. “I need to put it into my software. Yours is crap.”
“So, log in and do your thing.” Stroud waved his hands.
“Uh-uh. I’m not logging into a government computer with my creds and my software. You can send that picture to me.”
Stroud eyed him from behind the desk. “What if I don’t?”
Asher arched an eyebrow. They both knew that he could leave and back door his way into the police station’s systems and get the picture with little effort. “You really want to play this game again?”
Fine lines appeared around Stroud’s mouth as he pursed his lips and glared. He snagged the computer, spinning it around. Angrily, he pounded the keys. After a half a minute passed, he gave the device a small shove and sat back. “There. Check your email.”
“Thank you.” Asher picked up his computer and did just that. In moments, he had the file downloaded and plugged into his photo enhancement software. “This might take me a few minutes.” He spared Stroud a quick glance.
“I’ll go get us some coffee.” The detective pushed away from his desk and left Asher alone.
Tongue poked between his teeth, Asher clicked on menus and filters, doing his best to zoom in and not lose image quality. The camera this picture came from wasn’t the best. It looked like the car was in motion, too, which didn’t help.
Slowly, he zoomed in, cleaning it up with each magnification.
“You get anywhere?” Stroud walked in, carrying two cups of coffee. He held one out to Asher.
“Thanks.” Asher took the cup and set it on the desk, too absorbed in his task to take a break. “I’m close.”
Stroud stood behind him, looking over his shoulder. “That’s definitely better than what our techs got it to. I still can’t tell who it is, though.”
“I’m not done yet,” Asher muttered. He zoomed once more; close enough that this time they should be able to see a face.
The detective leaned down as Asher sharpened the image.
“Hell.”
“Yeah.” A grimace crossed Asher’s face. It wasn’t Lennox. “You’re sure that’s his car?”
“One hundred percent. The techs didn’t have any problem enhancing the view of the license plate. It’s a match.”
“So, who’s driving, then?”
“I don’t know.” Stroud rounded the desk to sit down. “We’ll have to run facial recognition and see if we can get a match. God only knows how long that’ll take.”
With a grunt, Asher opened his program that did that and started the process. His would be faster than any the detective could run. “Do we know where the car went? How many cameras caught it?”
“It was tracked coming out of Coos Bay. We lost it when he turned off on a country road.”
“What about where it came from?”
Stroud paused, his coffee cup freezing inches from his mouth. He frowned. “I don’t know. That’s a good question.” He set the cup down and pulled the keyboard for his desktop closer. “So, that image is from a camera on the highway, but the license plate popped closer to the center of the city.” He glanced at the keyboard and pecked at the keys.
Asher got up and came around the desk, watching as Stroud moved through the camera footage on a split screen. “There.” He pointed to a square.
“I see it.” The detective clicked on it, bringing it full screen. “I know where that is. Let’s check the next one.”
It took them ten minutes, but they tracked the car to a residential neighborhood and caught it pulling onto a boulevard near a shopping center. The area it came from didn’t have any street cameras.
“You know, there’s a fairly decent-sized park there. And it’s flanked by houses that all face it. I guarantee some of them have doorbell cameras. We might get lucky and catch Lennox handing the vehicle over to someone. Maybe even see him drive off in a different ride.”
“Or we’ll just see that guy driving.” Asher pointed at the screen. It was possible, too, that it would be a wild goose chase, and they’d get absolutely nothing.
Stroud glanced back at Asher. “We won’t know unless we look. You have time to go on a little mission?”
“Yes.” Asher stepped back so Stroud could get up.
“Great. Text your buddies and tell them you’ll be late for dinner.”