Chapter 14
Gabe shoved to his feet in the bedroom’s small sitting area and paced past his worn leather couch he’d owned since college. He’d been home for two hours, tried to get some sleep, but as predicted earlier, he’d failed.
He reviewed all the reports and data again until his eyes glazed over.
Including the strangulation cases El had found.
But as they’d concluded together, none of them were actually similar enough to warrant further investigation right now.
He didn’t give up, but no matter how many times he flipped through the pages, he couldn’t make these investigations match theirs simply because he wanted—no, desperately needed—a lead.
A loud knock sounded on his door, and he spun to look at it. Living at a former inn, he knew no one came to his door in the middle of the night, other than one of his teammates who also lived in the building. “Come in.”
The door opened, and Jude poked his head in. “Figured I’d still find you up. Want some company?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Jude stepped into the room and quietly closed the door.
“Please tell me you’re here to give me a lead?”
Jude’s shoulders slumped. “No, nothing like that. I just finished putting up missing posters and fliers all over town and in Seaside Harbor and saw your lights on. Wanted to check in on you.”
Gabe had passed his bad mood on to his buddy, who was only there to help. Not acceptable. “Hey, man. Your work could provide the lead we need. Sure, there’s an Amber Alert out, but people get their information in many ways.”
Jude settled on the couch as if he planned to stay for a while. “I want to do more, but we keep hitting roadblocks. I don’t get it. We’ve never struck out this much in an investigation.”
He didn’t have to tell Gabe that. “Maybe the forensics is our key.”
“We have—”
A high-pitched alert on Gabe’s phone stopped him. “Hold that thought.”
He tapped the alert for an email with the subject of Developed Photos. “Speaking of forensics, the text is from Sierra. Pictures from Mason’s camera are in.”
Jude jumped to his feet. “We can view them on the big screen in the conference room.”
“Good idea,” Gabe said, already on his way to the door.
Pumped now, they jogged the short distance down the hallway to the former dining room.
Jude dropped into the chair behind the computer assigned to this room. “Airdrop the files to the network, and I’ll get them on the screen.”
Gabe uploaded the pictures, not surprised to see his fingers trembling as he tapped his phone screen.
Jude’s fingers clicked over the keyboard. “Got them.”
Gabe straddled a chair at the head of the table, working hard not to hold his breath as Jude put an array of pictures up.
“Say what?” Gabe leaned closer to the screen. “Why does Mason have pictures of Lucy’s daycare?
“No idea, but it could prove his murder’s connected to Kenna’s.”
Gabe kept staring at the pictures. “Give me the next set of pictures.”
The photos shifted to a black van parked across the street from the center.
“Van is black.” Gabe squinted at the screen. “Could be the vehicle that ran Kenna into the ravine.”
“I’ll zoom in to see if there’s any front-end damage.”
The photo enlarged, and Gabe searched for any sign of damage. “I don’t see anything, but the camera angle blocks the vehicle’s right side. Could have damage that we can’t see.”
“Agreed.” Jude looked up. “The photos are clean. No dates or markings to tell when they were taken.”
“Maybe they were shot before the ravine crash,” Gabe said. “Looks like a person in the driver seat. See if you can focus better on him.”
Jude played with his mouse and computer keys, sharpening the picture. “There’s a guy there, all right. Looks like he’s holding binoculars.”
Wishing they could make out more of the guy’s face, Gabe rested his arms on the chair back and propped his chin on them. “You think this guy is watching the daycare and Mason was watching him?”
“Looks like it.” Jude rubbed his jaw. “But why?”
“The six-million-dollar question.” Gabe peered at the photo. “Can you make out the license plate?”
“First four characters. 974M.”
“That’s what I see too.” Gabe grabbed his phone and called El.
“Gabe,” she answered, far too alert to suggest she’d been asleep.
He put her on speaker. “You see the email from Sierra?”
“Just heading into the office to run the van’s plates. We can only make out four digits, how about you?”
“Same, but they’re enough to generate results that we should be able to narrow down through process of elimination.”
Why in the world would she waste time driving to her office? “Can’t you do it from your car?”
“More efficient to be at my desk to print out a list of potential candidates. Then I can use the computer to start narrowing them down.”
“Can I help?”
“Sure.”
The answer came far faster than Gabe had expected. “Jude is here with me. Mind if I bring him too?”
“That might be helpful.”
“Be there in fifteen.” Gabe ended the call and looked at his buddy. “You in?”
Jude grinned. “Thought you’d never ask.”
Gabe shot to his feet. “On our way out, we need to get Hayden searching for a connection between Mason and the daycare.”
“Agreed.” Jude clicked the mouse a few times then stood. “I might be okay as the team’s technical backup, but he can run circles around me.”
Gabe didn’t disagree with that statement. He charged for the door, beating Jude. Together they raced to Hayden’s room. Gabe pounded on the door until his teammate answered.
Hayden rubbed his eyes. “Do either of you know what time it is?”
“Yeah. Two a.m.,” Gabe replied. “Your usual prime work time.”
“Why’re you sleeping anyway?” Jude asked.
“Long day.”
“Got enough in your tank to run one of your famous algorithms?” Gabe explained their discovery. “Not only run the van’s plates but look for a connection between Mason and the daycare.”
Hayden perked up. “I’ll fill the tank up with some coffee and get started right away. It’d help me make connections if I had a list of kids enrolled in the daycare.”
“No can do,” Gabe said. “We tried earlier to get one from the director. She refused, claiming client privacy. I’ll ask El to request a warrant, but don’t hold out hope. It’s not likely we have probable cause to get one. I’ll also ask the director if she knows anything about the van.”
Hayden stifled a yawn. “I’ll let you know the minute I find anything.”
Gabe bumped fists with his teammate and jogged out of the building, Jude hot on his heels. After they both settled in his truck, he pointed it toward the sheriff’s office located in Seaside Harbor, the county seat.
Jude glanced across the pickup cab at Gabe. “I’m shocked El agreed to your help so easily when she was adamant about you staying out of the investigation at first.”
Gabe could feel Jude’s focus on him, but he didn’t look at his buddy. He was fishing for information Gabe didn’t want to share.
“Something change that you want to tell me about?” Jude asked.
Gabe should know his teammate would keep pressing him until he answered. Persistence was one of the hallmark traits of every member of the team and why they’d succeeded on all of their investigations so far. Even so, he answered, “Not really.”
Jude shifted in the seat to face Gabe. “‘Not really,’ as in, something hasn’t changed or you don’t want to tell me about it?”
“Tell you about it.”
“But you will, right? I mean, we don’t keep secrets from teammates.”
Gabe groaned. “Sometimes you guys are as determined as the local gossips.”
“We are investigators after all.” Jude chuckled. “But seriously, did you reach some sort of professional or personal truce?”
“Personal,” Gabe admitted, since he couldn’t lie. “You know we’ve got a thing for each other, right?”
Jude snorted. “Bro, the whole world knows.”
Gabe looked at him and rolled his eyes. “Anyway, we agreed to pursue it, but tabled it until after we locate Lucy and find Kenna’s killer.”
“Congrats, man.” He gave Gabe’s shoulder a playful punch. “That’s great news. I’m glad to see you both found a way to get past whatever was stopping you.”
“Trust me.” Gabe was shocked at the raw emotion in his own voice. “We didn’t put that aside. If we don’t figure it out, this could fail big time.”
“What’s your issue?”
No, Gabe wasn’t going there. Thankfully, the sheriff’s office was just ahead.
He glanced at Jude. “That’s a story for another day. Now we need to focus on that van and what it means to finding Lucy before time runs out.”
That put a silence in the cab for the duration of the drive.
Gabe parked near El’s vehicle and didn’t wait for Jude.
He slipped off his seatbelt and rushed up to the front door, where he texted El to notify her they’d arrived.
Jude joined him. He should probably be thankful a third party was with them.
Their conversations were less likely to drift to personal issues.
She came to the door. His heart lurched
Calm down. This is a business meeting. Nothing more.
“Perfect timing,” she said, pulling the door in and standing back. “My search returned nine vehicles, and you can help me narrow down the list.”
Gabe shared a quick look with her, but he couldn’t read her expression and he wouldn’t ask. “After you, Jude.”
“Whoa, who knew you could be polite at this time of day?” Jude laughed.
And they could count on him for comic relief, too. Gabe was in no mood for humor, but he appreciated his teammate’s help and forced out a laugh.
“C’mon,” she said to Gabe. “Get inside so I can make sure the door latches. Wouldn’t want to violate security protocol.”
He stepped past her, catching a whiff of her citrus-scented shampoo or lotion. She pulled the door closed with a reverberating click and followed the same process with the lobby door leading to their bullpen.
He trailed her scent through the open pen to her cubicle.