Chapter 14 #3
Or killing me. Ice rippled through her.
When Eli squatted beside her, she met his gentle eyes. “Noelle, think about it. Your brakes were cut. Intentionally.” His voice was calm and soothing despite his frightening message. “I’d say Scott has already tried to hurt you. Or worse.”
Scott…
Noelle sucked in a sharp breath as her gaze cut to the table where she’d been working. It was empty. A sensation like electricity raced through her veins. “Oh no,” she rasped.
“What?” Eli whipped his head around to look across the room where she stared in horror.
“The paper files. All the sheets I’d printed off and the hard copies of information you gave me on the case.” She swallowed hard, regret churning in her gut. “I—I had them on that table when I left.”
Eli’s eyes widened, and he mumbled a curse. Surging to his feet, he moved to look among the detritus scattered around the base of the empty table, then scanned the room slowly, as she did, for any evidence of the files. But they were gone.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, guilt filling her. “You trusted me with those files and—”
He touched a finger to her lips to silence her. “No. You’ve done nothing wrong. The files were locked in a room where you had every expectation they would be safe.”
Her heart tripped, doubting she deserved the grace he offered her.
She should have kept the paper case files as secure as she’d kept her computer.
Scott—because she, too, felt in her bones the forensic specialist was behind the break-in—now knew the details of what they’d uncovered about his tampering with the case.
“So, now what happens?” She hated the tremor in her voice, but this turn of events, piled on top of so much other emotional upheaval in recent days left her off-balance.
“Well, I’ll call the locals to come take pictures and dust for prints, but you can bet he was wearing gloves if it really was Scott.”
“I meant now that he has your files.”
Eli scratched his chin. “If Montgomery is the one who broke in here and took the files, then all he’s really gained is confirmation we’re onto him. He was already privy to most of the casework already.”
She pressed a hand to her mouth and sighed. “And we know he’s still close, somewhere in town. Or was here within the last few hours, anyway.”
Eli nodded, stroking her cheek to brush her hair back. “Another thing I know is you’re not staying here at the hostel any longer. When you notify the landlord about the break-in, tell him you’re checking out.”
She jolted, more surprised and hurt by his suggestion than she wanted to admit. “You’re sending me back to Seattle?”
He blinked. Frowned. “No. I’m moving you to my house. I’m keeping you near me until—” His expression shifted, softened with sorrow and acceptance. “Although it’s true. You might be safer in Seattle…if that’s where you’d rather go.”
Here was her chance to walk away if she chose. No one could blame her if she left before Allison’s funeral. She’d already made the funeral arrangements and signed the paperwork at the coroner’s office. Did she really want to stay for the service?
Someone had tried to kill her. Her lodgings had been ransacked. And the longer she stayed near Eli, the harder it would be to avoid breaking his heart and her own again when they parted. Staying would be foolish, wouldn’t it?
Yet another part of her refused to leave before Allison’s killer had been caught or before Scott Montgomery was brought in for attempting to kill Asher and Eli or before she’d done everything she could to help Eli resolve the Fiancée Killer case for the sake of the victims’ families.
Drawing a deep breath, she found her resolve and squared her shoulders as she angled her body toward Eli. “No. I’m not going anywhere yet. We have work to do, and I won’t leave until Allison and the others have justice.”
Eli swallowed against the lump that swelled in his throat. He couldn’t be sure whether the rise of emotion choking him was rooted in relief that Noelle was staying or pride in her conviction to see the case through. Either way, he leaned in to give her a quick kiss.
He cleared his throat as he rose to his feet and held a hand out to her. “All right, let’s get the police out here to take a report. Once they take pictures and process the scene, you can pack a bag, and we’ll get you settled at my house.”
The local police worked for close to an hour before they allowed Noelle to organize and pack her possessions.
While the police were processing the scene, Noelle and Eli stopped in the landlord’s office to turn in her key and report the crime.
Eli asked the hostel owner about security cameras for the property, both for his own knowledge and to speed the process for the local uniforms.
“Not inside the rental, but there’s one that covers the front door and one for the backyard,” the landlord said.
“I want a copy of the footage. Tonight.” When the owner started shaking his head, Eli pulled out his badge and narrowed a hard look on the man. When the man sighed and jerked a nod, Eli added a tight, “Thank you.”
He told the landlord that the local police were already on-site, collecting evidence, and to make an additional copy of the video for them. After handing the man his business card with the email to send the video footage, Eli escorted Noelle to his car.
When he took her to pick up her car in the hospital parking lot, they dropped in to check on Asher briefly.
He was asleep, but a nurse informed them Asher was doing fine and not showing any adverse symptoms. Kansas, the nurse added, had left to get a meal and some rest only a few minutes before they’d arrived.
In the parking lot, Eli searched Noelle’s rental car for sabotage before she got in to follow him to his house.
The idea that someone, probably Montgomery, had targeted Noelle, likely because of her association with him, sat like glacial ice in Eli’s gut. Now that he was aware of the danger his coworker posed to her, Eli swore Scott would have to come through him to get near Noelle again.
Noelle set her bags in a corner of Eli’s living room, and he, eager to get back to work on catching Scott Montgomery, cleared a spot on his kitchen table again to be their workspace. He booted up his home laptop to check his email and found the security video from the hostel had already arrived.
Noelle looked over his shoulder as he played the footage from the relevant hours of that day. They saw Noelle leaving, hurrying to the hospital following his call, a moose that wandered through the backyard, but nothing else.
“Damn. I was sure we’d have Scott dead to rights on camera.” Eli groaned and laced his fingers behind his head as he leaned his chair up on the two back legs.
Noelle returned to her seat with a sigh. “He’s no fool. He’d know to be wary of security cameras and not to be caught. He could have gone in a window at the side or out of frame at the back.”
“True enough.” Eli closed the lid of his laptop and faced her. “Where were we on your analysis?”
“I’ve run everything we had before this morning, but until we have more quantifiable evidence to add to the algorithm, I don’t know how I can help with building your case against Scott.”
Her phrasing hit him in the gut like a fist. Eli pressed his mouth in a hard line and held up a hand.
“Hang on. Stop there. I know the evidence we’ve got now all points to Scott, but my job, the job of the ABI is not to build a case against anyone.
That’s the DA’s job after he’s arrested and formally charged.
Our job is to collect evidence and follow the case wherever the evidence leads.
I can’t make the mistake of letting my personal bias or fears dictate a particular spin on the findings.
When we have enough evidence to support an arrest, we make the arrest. But we can’t fall in the trap of making assumptions about a person’s guilt and risk getting tunnel vision, missing the bigger picture and wasting time going down the wrong path. ”
“But don’t you have enough evidence against Scott to arrest him now?” Noelle asked, sounding as frustrated as he felt.
Eli twisted his mouth, skeptical. “Evidence he tried to kill me and Asher with the bomb at his house? Maybe. Indications that he tampered with the evidence and sabotaged our investigation? Yes. Proof that he’s the Fiancée Killer?
Not as much. We need physical evidence, eyewitnesses, a confession…
something solid that connects him specifically with the women’s deaths.
Right now all we really have is a lot of incriminating circumstantial evidence.
And we don’t have any solid proof he’s the one targeting you. Just hunches and gut feelings.”
“So where should we focus tonight? I can help you look at the big picture.”
Eli nodded. “Yeah. The big picture is likely where we’ll find his motive, for trying to blow me and Asher up if nothing else.
From there, we follow the evidence.” He drilled his finger on the tabletop as he made his point.
Scowling, he pulled out his cell phone. “Speaking of evidence, let me see what the forensic crew with the Shelby PD found in the rubble of Scott’s house and if anything there helps our case. ”
While Eli talked to the Shelby PD, he watched Noelle doodle on a notepad, drawing boxes, connecting lines and sketching Venn diagrams. Her expression was one of intense concentration, a look he remembered well from college and studying together.
His fingers itched to soothe the tiny line that creased her forehead between her eyebrows, and his lips tingled at the notion of kissing the taut line of her mouth.
He was so involved in her every move and subtle facial shift that he almost missed the Shelby police detective’s comment when he finally came on the line.
“We’re still combing through the debris and cataloging what’s found. The fire department wouldn’t let us get at it until they were sure there were no more explosive materials or smoldering embers that could reignite.”
Smoldering… Yeah, Eli could use that word to describe Noelle as she nibbled her bottom lip and angled her head so that her long hair brushed her cheek.
Eli pressed the pads of his fingers into his closed eyes, trying to redirect his thoughts.
“All right. Just…please be sure your officers know that there could be critical evidence related to a serial murder case at the site. Call me immediately if anything related to the Fiancée Killer victims, the crime scene locations…or my family comes up.”
Noelle looked up, a degree of surprise lifting her eyebrows.
“Your family?” the police detective asked, echoing what was written on Noelle’s face.
“Long story. And that link is both unconfirmed and confidential. Do you understand, Detective?” Eli thanked the local detective and disconnected. “Nothing useful from Scott’s house yet. They’re still processing it.”
“You’re pretty sure this is about you or your family then? Is that the bigger picture we need to look at?” Noelle said, her pen tapping her notepad restlessly.
“Since a significant number of those lines—” he pointed to her sketches “—have me at the center, it’s something we need to explore.” Eli paused, then leaning toward Noelle, he shot her a quizzical look. “Right?”
She blinked. “You’re asking me?”
He spread his hands and stated in a serious tone, “I just want to be sure I’m not being…egocentric or biased in some way. Those connections…” he tapped her pad again where she’d graphically linked him to Scott and the murders “…can’t be coincidence, can they?”
“You don’t believe in coincidence. Or so you keep telling me.”
“But am I right?”
A tender expression lit Noelle’s face. “You are an intelligent man and an excellent lawman. I’ve always known you to have good instincts.
Trust them. If your gut’s telling you to pursue this path, there’s something there to be discovered.
And for what it’s worth, that’s what my gut is telling me, too. ”
He smiled his appreciation for her reassurances and leaned in to give her a kiss. “Then let’s get to work.”