14
An hour later, Noelle strode into the conference room with Detective Lori Shults behind her.
Evan had picked up his phone to call forensics to ask why he hadn’t received any preliminary reports yet, but the annoyed look on Noelle’s face caught his interest, and he set down the phone. “What happened?” he asked.
Noelle pointed at Lori. “She’ll tell you.”
Lori snorted. “Noelle heard my story in the hallway.” The detective was a petite woman, and standing next to Noelle, who was wearing her usual high heels, made Lori appear very tiny. She was in her early thirties, but in the face looked no older than a senior in high school. She’d had to work hard to prove herself as a cop, always battling people’s perceptions, and Evan admired that she had become a detective.
“I just got back from Charlie Graham’s ... halfway house ... living situation ... whatever you want to call it,” Lori said. “It’s an older house, but it does have an impressive security system. The owner is a private citizen contracted with the state, and he takes his job very seriously.” She snorted. “I don’t want to call him a warden, but I think that’s how he sees his role. He clearly enjoys being in charge of the five men living there. Runs a tight ship. Anyway, he showed me video of Graham entering the home around six thirty p.m. on Friday, which would make sense if he got off work at six. The men also each have a key card that they scan anytime to go in or out one of the exits. Graham’s card didn’t show an exit until eight thirty a.m. on Saturday. I also have a record of his comings and goings for several days before that. If we can figure out when Sophia disappeared, we can compare them then.
“I talked separately to two residents who said Graham had eaten dinner and watched TV with them that evening until late and then went to bed.” She raised a brow. “Of course Graham could have told them to cover for him, but one of the men said, and I quote, ‘Graham is a dick.’ I sensed a lot of genuine dislike from him, so I don’t think he’d cover for him if Graham asked. So the alibi is strong. Not one hundred percent, but I’d say maybe ninety-five percent. We all know there are ways to get around security systems. The question is: Would Graham bother?”
Evan wondered too. “Graham seemed legitimately surprised when we asked him about Rod and Sophia, so what you found falls in line with that,” he said. “But why are you annoyed, Noelle?”
“She’s annoyed because I told her how Graham was running his mouth while I was there,” said Lori. “His arm was in a sling, and he gave me some shit for checking up on his comings and goings. Then he said the department should pay him for missed work time, since it’s our fault he was shot.”
Noelle rolled her eyes.
“He’s still pointing the finger at us for that?” asked Evan.
“Yep. Says he’s talking to a lawyer about suing the department, which I’m sure is a bunch of bull. When I pointed out that Detective Bolton had nearly been shot, too, he got pissed and said, ‘Yeah. They missed him. How convenient .’”
Noelle’s expression was thunderous.
Again Evan abruptly recalled the sound and sensation of the bullet passing within inches of his head, and he fought back a shudder. “Graham may be walking the straight and narrow these days, but his mouth sure isn’t.”
“It’ll get him in trouble,” agreed Noelle. “We’ve mostly cleared Graham’s alibi for placing Rod’s body in the junkyard, but as far as making progress on the shooting yesterday, they couldn’t find either of the bullets.”
“There was a lot of equipment in the shop for them to disappear into.” Evan was disappointed but not surprised.
“And the explorers turned up nothing in the area where we think the shots came from. Some random bits of debris, but I don’t think any of it shows promise.” Noelle brightened. “On the other hand, I went through the cell phone records I finally got from Sophia’s provider, and there is a number registered to an Ian Martin.”
Evan sat up in his chair. “You should have told me that before Graham’s update. Did you call?”
“I haven’t called yet. I thought you’d like to be in on that conversation.”
“Thanks for thinking of me,” said Evan. She was right.
Noelle opened her laptop and pulled up a report.
“I’d love to stay for this,” said Lori, “but it’s back to my desk to dig into the people from Rod’s case files.”
“Anything yet?” Evan asked, keeping his hopes in check.
“If there’s a common link, I haven’t found it yet,” said Lori. “Deputy Coates, Maxine, and I are determined to find something.”
“I skimmed them and didn’t see anything obvious,” said Evan. “I don’t envy you. Is Coates’s back surviving through all that sitting?” Sometimes light duty for which a person sat all day was worse than the regular job.
Lori grinned. “Yes. He gets up and moves around and has three pillows lining his chair. I think he’s enjoying the break from patrol. Keeps mumbling about how nice it is not to deal with stupid people doing stupid things every day.”
“He’ll get bored reading files eventually,” said Evan to Lori as she stood up. “One thing about patrol, it’s different every day.”
“I remember very well.” Lori left and closed the door.
“Here’s Ian Martin’s number,” said Noelle. She turned her laptop screen to Evan.
“Where’s that area code located?”
“Boston.”
“What else did you find on him?”
“Owns a home in southwest Bend. A few previous addresses in Massachusetts.”
“When was the last call or text between them?”
“Monday. It was a phone call. She called him.”
Evan let that sink in. “Seems a long time to go without speaking if they were a couple.”
“Maybe he saw her in person for a few days last week.” Noelle frowned at the call log.
“But no texts to set up those meetings?”
“Should we visit him in person instead of calling?” She held his gaze.
“I don’t think we’ll reveal our hand with a phone call,” Evan finally said. “If he’s guilty, he knows the police would want to talk to the boyfriend, and he’s had plenty of time to run.” He put the number into his work cell and left it on speaker. “Probably will go to voicemail.”
“Hello?” a man answered.
Noelle looked as startled as Evan felt at the fast answer.
“This is Detective Evan Bolton of the Deschutes County Police Department. Is this Ian Martin?”
There was a long pause. “Are you calling to tell me there’s a warrant for my arrest, and I need to pay five hundred bucks immediately with Apple gift cards?” asked the man, disdain in his tone.
Evan snorted. He’d heard about the widespread phone call scam dozens of times. “That would be a no,” he said. “I have some questions related to an investigation. If you’d like, you can phone the department and ask for me.”
“I’ll do that.” The man abruptly ended the call.
“Well, he’s not stupid,” said Noelle. “And I assume that’s Ian Martin. I heard a faint accent. Think he’ll actually call back?”
“I think he will.” If Ian was guilty, he would call because he didn’t want to look guilty. If Ian had nothing to do with it, he’d call out of curiosity.
As they waited, Noelle went to the whiteboard that showed a list of elements in their investigations. “Neither Sophia’s or Rod’s vehicle have turned up,” she said, tapping those entries with a finger. “And we’re still waiting on forensics for both of their homes. Is forensics backed up? We should have had some preliminary reports by now.”
“They’re always backed up,” said Evan. He opened his email to check for the forensics reports for the tenth time that day. “Not yet.” Scanning his new email, he saw nothing that appeared relevant to the investigations, and then he deleted two spam emails. One pretended to be from Craigslist, asking “Is this still available?” and another was supposedly from a British lawyer with awkward grammar about a distant relative who’d left Evan a fortune.
Only two pieces of spam meant it was a good day.
The phone on the conference table rang. Both Evan and Noelle had set calls to forward from their desk phones.
Evan raised a brow at her as he pressed the speaker button. “Detective Bolton.”
“Okay, you’re legit,” said Ian. “What can I do for you?”
Evan was tempted to ask for Apple gift cards. “What can you tell me about Sophia McLeod?” he asked, keeping his question vague and open ended.
“Sophia?” Ian hesitated. “What do you need to know?” Curiosity filled his tone.
“How do you know her?”
“Sophia and I dated for a while. She’s a good person. Her dad was also a police detective—he was with Deschutes County, I believe. Retired a while back. Why?”
Evan noticed the past tense of dated . “Yes, he worked here. You and Sophia are friends?” He ignored Ian’s question.
“We were,” said Ian. “We broke up recently and agreed staying friends wouldn’t work for us. It was a full break.”
“When did you last see or speak with her?”
“What’s going on? Is she okay?”
He sounds genuinely concerned.
Which meant nothing to Evan now. “Can you answer my question first?”
“I last saw her on Sunday,” said Ian. “We had dinner at her dad’s house. And I last talked to her the next day, when we agreed this wasn’t working.”
A good explanation for why he hasn’t contacted the police or called Sophia’s phone.
“What’s going on?” Ian asked.
“Sophia McLeod is missing,” said Evan. “She hasn’t been seen for several days.” He wouldn’t share details. “Do you know of anywhere she could have gone? Did she mention plans?”
“She’s missing? What about Zack? Is he missing too?” Shock filled his voice. “Have you talked with her dad? Rod—”
“We’ve questioned the people closest to her, and Zack is staying at a friend’s,” said Evan. “What can you tell us about Sophia?”
“Am I a suspect?” Ian asked cautiously. “I know you guys always look at the husband or boyfriend first. Do I need a lawyer?”
“Only if you have something to hide,” lied Evan. “Do you not want to tell us where she could be?”
“I honestly don’t know,” said Ian. “She loves her job and went to her dad’s house a lot. She didn’t mention any upcoming trips. I guess she could have left town because of our breakup, but I believe she’d tell her dad where she was going. And since she broke up with me, I don’t think she’d need to go out of town to get over that.” A sour tone lightly touched his voice.
“She dumped you,” Evan stated. Noelle met his gaze, a question in her eyes.
Did he get angry?
“It wasn’t like that,” Ian said quickly. “It was rather amicable. If a woman breaks up with me, I take that at face value. I have no interest in pursuing someone who’s not interested.”
Evan wondered how true that was. “You haven’t texted her since the breakup?”
“No.”
At least we know that is true.
A soft knock sounded at the conference room door, and Evan turned to see Rowan peek through its small window. He held up a finger, and she nodded.
Evan looked at Noelle and gestured at the phone.
Any more questions?
She scribbled on a piece of paper. His location?
“Are you in Bend right now?” Evan asked.
“No. I’m in Boston for a meeting tomorrow—my employer is based here. I flew out Saturday.”
Noelle held up a hand, tipping it back and forth.
Convenient that he left on Saturday.
His travel would be easy enough to verify, but Evan hoped he could discover when the ticket had been purchased without having to subpoena the airline. “You fly back often for work?”
“Once every other month,” said Ian. “Always for this particular meeting.”
So he should have bought a ticket well in advance.
Or could have scheduled Sophia’s disappearance to coincide with when he’d be out of town.
“Do you think she’s all right?” Ian asked in a worried tone. “I’m confused that she didn’t take Zack or tell him where she was going. She lives for that kid.”
Evan wondered if her devotion to Zack was part of the reason Sophia had broken up with Ian. “We don’t know what to think at the moment,” said Evan. He asked Ian a few more open-ended questions, but it appeared the man had no other helpful information. Evan ended the call, promising to ask Sophia to contact Ian when she returned.
Evan took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. “What do you think?” he asked Noelle.
“He sounded convincing, but we know that can mean nothing. He quickly asked about Zack, which I thought was a good sign, and he told you to contact Rod, which was logical.” She threw up her hands. “But he could be the world’s best bullshitter.”
“I want to know when he bought his ticket to Boston.”
Noelle nodded and turned to her laptop.
Evan reviewed his notes from the phone call and added Boston ticket with a big question mark. He also made a note to have a deputy go to Ian’s home and verify that no one was there.
Rowan.
Evan pushed out of his chair, embarrassed he’d forgotten that she’d knocked minutes ago.
This job requires focus.
But he was determined to not let it affect his relationship. He’d seen too many law enforcement marriages go down in flames. He opened the door and spotted her standing near Detective Shults’s office. Lori knelt on the floor in the hall as she scratched Thor’s chin. The smell of Thai food reached him, and Evan’s gaze locked on the large plastic bag in Rowan’s hand.
Food.
He was suddenly starving.
Rowan saw him, excused herself to Lori, and patted her thigh for Thor to follow her before coming down the hall. She met his gaze and smiled.
His heart did a stuttering beat.
She takes my breath away.
Rowan wore faded jeans, an old black shirt with a Nine Inch Nails logo, and ratty tennis shoes she refused to part with. Long sections of hair had come loose from her braid.
Gorgeous.
“Hey,” she said in greeting. Thor greeted Evan with a nose to his crotch.
Rowan kissed him, and Evan eyed the bag, the bagel he’d eaten long gone. “Is that Thai?”
“Yes. I texted Noelle to ask if this was a good time to drop in. I have food for her too.” They walked back to the conference room, and she asked, “How are things going?”
“Shitty. No word on Sophia and no inroads on Rod’s killer.” It didn’t matter how much work they had put in. The results were the only thing that mattered.
Being a smart woman who’d spent a lot of time around law enforcement, Rowan nodded instead of pointing out all the effort they’d already made. “I’m sorry.”
In the conference room, she set the bag on the table and unpacked the big containers. Thor went to Noelle for attention, which was promptly bestowed. Evan gave Rowan a greatly abbreviated rundown of what they’d worked on, his gaze locked on the food. When Evan mentioned that O’Brien said Rod had been tailing Charlie Graham, Rowan frowned. “Does that sound like something Rod would do?” she asked.
“Yes.” He didn’t like admitting it, but how Rod would dig into that concerned him.
“What did the fingerprints report show?” Rowan asked.
“Don’t have them yet,” said Noelle with her mouth full of pad thai. “And we need the damned things from both homes.”
Evan dished up a big serving of curry over white rice and paused. He had an autopsy to attend this evening. A spicy, big dinner might not be the best option.
But it smells amazing.
He took a bite.
And tastes amazing.
He decided eating was fine. He never had problems in the autopsy suite, unlike Noelle, who’d pay a lot of cash to avoid attending one. He noticed Rowan was still standing, no food on a plate. “Aren’t you eating?”
“No. I just brought it for you guys. And there should be plenty to share with anyone else.” She glanced out the open door as two deputies swiveled their heads, scenting food as they passed by. “I knew I’d be asleep when you got home tonight, so I wanted to see you.”
“Awww,” said Noelle. “You two are relationship goals.”
Rowan turned a speculative eye on Noelle, causing Evan to swallow before he finished chewing. He and Rowan had discussed a few men for Noelle to date but had decided none were right. The detective was a force. Strong in body and will. Tall and always perfectly put together, not a platinum blonde hair out of place. She’d been married twice but never talked about it. Rowan had asked some leading questions in the past, but Noelle always changed the subject.
“Don’t look at me like that,” said Noelle, pointing her fork at Rowan. “You people in couples always think us singles would be happier if we had a person too. Not true.”
Rowan pressed her lips together, again proving she was smart by not arguing with the detective. Instead, she turned to Evan. “I need to go.” She gave him a kiss and then stopped him as he stood to walk her out. “I’m good. I’ll see you when I see you,” she said, holding his gaze and making him regret he had to work. She snapped Thor’s leash on and left.
“That was a big sigh,” said Noelle.
“What?” asked Evan.
“You watched her leave and then sighed as if you’d been told you couldn’t play outside.”
Evan paused with a bite of curry halfway to his mouth. “That’s rather accurate.”
She snorted. “New love. It’ll change.”
“Pessimistic much?”
Noelle turned away and focused on her laptop.
Yep, doesn’t want to talk about her past relationships.
Evan felt a little sorry for her.
Rowan and I are in it for the long haul.
Another knock sounded and Evan turned, hoping to see Rowan again, but it was Crystal, one of the administrative assistants, in the window this time. He waved her in. Crystal was a quiet woman in her thirties who had worked in the department for about ten years. Evan knew she had young twins and an ex-husband who had moved out a month after they were born.
“Sorry to bother you, Detectives,” she said, looking from Noelle to Evan. “I wanted to say how sorry I am about what happened to Rod. He always had bad jokes to tell me, and I didn’t realize how much I looked forward to those until he retired.”
Evan smiled. “They were lame, weren’t they?” Five other employees had stopped Evan to make similar comments.
“He and his wife sent new clothes for the twins every few months before she died. She said she liked the excuse to buy little-girl outfits.”
“That’s adorable,” said Noelle.
Evan wasn’t surprised. Rod had said Ellen always wanted more grandkids.
Crystal looked down at her feet. “I felt a need to share that.” She glanced up, a fierce light in her eyes that Evan had never seen before. “Please catch who did this,” she said in a harsh voice. She turned and left, closing the door behind her.
“I’ll be damned,” said Noelle. “I’ve never seen—or heard—that sort of fire from her before.”
“She’s raising twins on her own,” said Evan. “She has to have it.” He turned back to his computer, oddly touched by the words that had clearly come from deep in Crystal’s heart.
I will catch him. That’s a promise.