Chapter 18
Dani had the results spread out across her secondary monitor.
Her lab had a special guest today, while Questionable Documents was being repainted after that rather nasty spill a week ago from the biologicals lab had done damage to the walls and floor.
Dani didn’t mind—Payton didn’t take up too much room, and was a rather quiet kind of person, anyway.
She was there on a consult, as one of her previous cases was prepping for trial.
And…she hadn’t wanted to work from home—Payton had said something about wanting to be normal for a day or two.
And something about her husband driving her insane because of something going on with his family down in Texas.
An aunt or sister or something. Dani hadn’t pressed for details.
Payton had had a strange, wild-eyed look on her face at the time.
Mostly, Payton just worked.
Dani was the one who’d done most of the talking.
The video call notification popped up on Dani's screen. Miranda. Oh, goodie. She’d been waiting for Fearless Leader.
Dani accepted the call. Then Miranda was there, with a beautiful, beautiful blond man at her side. Well. That was unexpected. Talk about pretty.
"Hey. Danielle Conner, meet Pierce Asher. Pierce, Dani," Miranda said. "Tell me you have something good."
"Define good," Dani said. “Payton’s camping out in my office today, too. She’s keeping me in line.”
"Hi, Payton! Two Ashers in one day.” Miranda paused while the other woman moved her chair closer. Payton didn’t say anything, just waved. “Dani, give me something that moves us forward."
"Then yeah. I've got good." Dani pulled the DNA results up so she could reference them while she talked. "We got a hit on the letter."
"A hit on what? DNA or prints?" hot blond guy rumbled. Talk about giving the shivers.
"Both, actually. Fingerprints came back first. Full print, no smudging. DNA confirmed it a few hours later,” Dani told them.
She put her raging hormones back where they belonged.
But…wow. They just did not make men like that often.
And this was Payton’s brother? Dani shot a look at the Payton in question.
No way. "Peter Arthur Graves. Currently residing in Poseyville, Indiana. "
"Poseyville," Hot Guy Asher said. "That's about forty-five minutes from Washington."
"Give or take," Dani said. She’d looked at the map, and then tried to find everything she could about good old Pete Graves online. He didn’t have much of a presence.
Just the same standard ‘Me go hunt, wife go cook my dinner…now me live alone, me sad…all her fault…’ type posts that classified men of his age bracket, education level, and work history. She’d seen his type before.
"Why was he in the system?" Miranda asked.
"Felony conviction. Assault." Dani scrolled through the file she had pulled. It had been typical, too.
"Plea deal?"
"Aggravated assault. Served two years, got out on parole. He's been clean since, at least on paper."
"What do we know about him now?" Miranda asked.
"Fifty-two. Current address is in Poseyville. I'm still running his history, but I can tell you he worked at the same factory as Derek back then. For a little while. Guy is a job jumper. Line worker, sanitation worker, stock at grocery stores, that kind of thing."
"So they probably knew each other," Pierce said. He was all rumbly when he talked. And his eyes…wow. Those were some powerful eyes.
"Looks like it." She’d just sit there and drool, as long as she could. Dani just couldn’t help it.
"What about the fingerprint?" Miranda asked. "You said it was a full print?"
"Right thumb. Full print. Almost textbook. He pressed down hard when he wrote that letter."
"Angry," Pierce said.
"That would be my guess. And…there may have been…spit… on there.”
"Really angry. What about the sticky note?" Miranda asked.
Dani glanced at Payton. This was her territory. The two of them had discussed the sticky note already. And Payton’s brother, to some extent. Payton had said this case really haunted her older brother. And it hurt him. Well, Dani could understand that.
Payton leaned over Dani’s shoulder from behind. "Nothing definitive yet. The handwriting on the sticky note doesn't match Graves’s samples that we were able to find—he wrote out a confession for the plea deal, so I have that. Different person entirely."
"Any matches in the system?" Miranda asked. “I know it’s a long shot.”
“No. Nothing that compares with what I already have—which handwriting samples weren’t part of the investigation back then, so…get me something to compare it to…and then we’ll go from there,” Payton said.
"What about the ink?" Miranda asked.
"Standard ballpoint. Black. Nothing distinctive about it."
"So we have Graves for the threat," Miranda said. "But we still don't know who wrote the sticky note. What about the coat?"
"Nothing unexpected," Dani said. She had the reports from Biological and DNA departments in front of her now. Most of the physical evidence for the cold case files filtered through her. It was just easier that way. "DNA was consistent with Derek. Skin cells and a few hairs. All his."
"No secondary DNA?"
"Some trace amounts, and a few things that matched his kids or his wife. But nothing that gave us a new profile. Degraded, mostly. That coat sat in a box in a garage for a long time."
"So it's a dead end."
"For DNA, yes. Unfortunately. I sent fibers, too, but I'm not expecting much. There's nothing unusual about the material. I’ll keep you posted, but…other than the letter, I don’t think Hannah’s box will give us much more.
" And that was the way it was. Some cases had thousands of pieces of physical evidence—and still sat on a shelf somewhere, unsolved.
Just like Dani’s own case was still sitting there. Rotting.
"Pierce, before you go," Payton said. "Fair warning. Luc's going to call you again tonight.”
"About what?" Pierce asked. He was scowling now. So pretty—even with the scowl. Maybe Payton would give her a picture of him to keep? Wow. And she’d heard they had other brothers?
"He wants to. He’s being annoying about it. This really matters to him—even if he won’t come right out and say it.”
“I’ll talk to him. After I wrap up this case. However…it ends.”
“Thank you. It means a lot to me, too.”
Pierce just scowled even more deeply. Well, he was a bit of a grouchy bear now. Dani had so many questions.
"Anything else?" Miranda asked.
"The rest of the box contents are still processing," Dani said. "Receipts and the notebook should be done by tomorrow. The work gloves might take a bit longer."
"What about the phone number in the notebook?"
"I ran it. Disconnected, not really a surprise. It was a landline, belonged to a house in Kentucky that's changed owners twice since then. Dead end, at least for now." Dani wasn’t surprised in the least. Most people didn’t have landlines any longer. There really wasn’t a need for it.
“The number was for an older woman out of Kentucky. She was close to ninety, and passed away two years ago, six days before her one hundred and fourth.” Dani had read the obituary—no connection to the names in the Gibson case could be found.
She had no clue why Derek Gibson had had that number. But she was going to try to find out.
"Let me know as soon as you have more," Miranda said.
"You'll be the first call."
"We're heading to Poseyville tomorrow," Miranda said. "Pay Mr. Graves a visit. See what he has to say for himself."
"Good luck," Payton said.
"Thanks," Pierce said.
The call ended. The screen went dark, cutting off the gorgeous guy she’d been admiring again.
"Wow," Dani said. “Just like…wow. You so should have told me.”
Payton looked at her. "What?"
"Your brother is seriously hot. Are they all like that?"
Payton just blinked light gray eyes at her. Like Dani was crazy or something. "How am I supposed to know? They're my brothers. They're mostly just pains in the rear ends."
"That doesn't answer my question. Do they all look like that?"
"I am so not answering that.”
"It's a legitimate inquiry—it’s for science. I swear."
"Yeah, right.” Payton started gathering her gear.
Dani checked the clock. Wow. They had both worked a bit late tonight.
And Dani had some things to do online herself tonight—a big guild meeting was at the top of the list—while she waited for more instructions from her teammates that were out there somewhere right now.
If nothing, well…she’d get other results in the morning.
"I'm going back to my lab now, to clock out. Before you ask me anything else that's going to make me need therapy. My brothers do not get to be called hot. They just don’t.”
"You didn't answer about the other ones, though. There's like six of them, right?"
"Seven. Used to be eight, but we lost Patrick several years ago in an accident. And no. I'm not doing this. Brothers are not and will never be hot.”
"Just a general assessment. Scale of one to ten."
"Goodbye, Dani."
"You're no fun."
But Dani was a woman with the internet. Maybe she could google?
Luc and Payton’s wedding photos were all posted online.
Tabloids had had a field day. She’d seen the photos and she’d been living in Texas at the time.
Everyone had been talking about the billionaire falling for an ordinary FBI girl like Payton. Talk about romantic.
Dani was a romantic at heart. Even if she wouldn’t ever tell anyone that.
A girl had to have her secrets, after all.