Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Colton picked up his guest badge at the HPD Central Patrol Division and stood to the side instead of taking a seat, waiting for his escort to the Detectives Unit.
He hid a yawn behind his hand. Sleeping in his own bed under his own roof last night for the first time in months hadn’t gone as expected. Every time he closed his eyes, all he saw was the devastation on Riley’s face yesterday morning.
When he left her.
Shaking off the memory and self-recrimination, he stepped up as John Stapleton emerged from the restricted hall into the lobby.
He offered his hand. “John. Thanks for seeing me on such short notice.”
The detective accepted his handshake with narrowed eyes. “Blankenship. Something I can do for you?”
“I’m hoping it’s more what we can do together. Two heads and all that.”
John crossed his arms. “Go on.”
“Say hello to your new partner.”
One eyebrow rose. “You got a badge over the weekend I’m not aware of?”
“Look.” Colton sighed and splayed his hands on his hips.
“I may no longer be on Riley’s detail, but I’m not walking away from this.
Petersen Security works alongside law enforcement all the time.
I could get my boss to call your boss and blah, blah, blah, but you and I have already established a good working relationship.
Let’s put our heads together and solve this thing. For Riley.”
“Riley. Speaking of—”
“Don’t start. I’ve already had a barrage of texts from the girls. Including your beloved.” His fault for letting Riley give them his number a few weeks ago in case they needed him or had information for him. “Let’s just say I made a decision that was best for Riley.”
“Best for Riley. To leave her detail.”
“Trust me. Nowell’s a top-notch lead man. He’ll do right by her.”
“Better than you, I hope.”
A gut punch would’ve been preferred. He’d recover more quickly. It wasn’t news to him he’d let Riley down. That he said things, did things, had her believing things, he couldn’t follow through on.
“I deserve that. Nobody knows better than I how I blew it.”
With a sigh, John stuck his hands in his pockets. “That was out of line. I apologize. Your reasons are your reasons, and I trust they were truly in her best interest.”
Colton answered with a nod. “Now, do you think we can work together to get this thing done?”
“You think I haven’t been trying?”
“I have no doubt. There’s simply not a lot to go on so far. But, like I said, maybe two heads can bring this thing into the light.”
John stared at him, then, apparently giving in, gestured for Colton to follow him.
Without a word, they took the stairs to the third floor and entered a large room where a dozen or more officers sat at their desks, either on the phone, staring at their laptop screens, or studying case files.
Ringing phones punctuated the steady hum of conversation, and the aroma of strong black coffee wafted from a counter sitting inside the door.
John motioned to the pots lining the wall. “Help yourself.”
“Think I will. Thanks.” Colton poured himself a cup of the steaming brew, then joined John at his desk, planting himself in the chair next to it.
John tapped some keys on his laptop and studied his screen. “Okay, this all started with the attempted grab Saturday, November ninth. No video. Composite drew only a few dead-end tips.”
“But we now know the guy disguises himself, so that tracks.”
“Affirmative. Suspect left a card for Riley at the front desk of her building on Monday, November eleventh, another Wednesday, November thirteenth, and one on Friday, November fifteenth. Video footage shows what appears to be a different person each time, but we’ve pretty much verified it’s the same guy.
He also called her on that Friday, clearly altering his voice.
“Our cyber team—working in conjunction with Petersen—discovered a cloned social media page had been created on Wednesday, November thirteenth, five posts altogether, including the three with doctored images. Petersen had it taken down by Saturday morning, November sixteenth. We also know sometime that week—we suspect between Tuesday and Friday afternoon—he broke into her home and trashed the place.”
“That window is based on …?”
“No muddy footprints or anything else he might’ve tracked in. It was a downpour on Friday, with the storm parked over us well into Saturday evening.”
“Makes sense.”
“We have nothing to tie the break-in to the messages she’s received, so that’s conjecture at this point.”
“I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“I don’t either, so that’s why we’re assuming it’s connected. Riley received another card Monday, November eighteenth.”
“That’s when we tied him to the grab.”
“Affirmative. We do have fingerprints from the envelopes, but nothing in the system. He used water to close the envelopes, so no DNA. Still, I’m shocked he delivered them without wearing gloves. It’s winter. It wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary.”
“Maybe he isn’t aware we can get prints from paper. Or maybe he expected Riley would open them and throw them out.”
“All decent possibilities. Moving on. We didn’t think anything else had happened that week until he made us aware he’d been at the shelter Thanksgiving dinner.”
Colton rubbed his brow. “That kept me awake that night after seeing that photo, wondering how we missed scratch marks on the guy’s hand.
I talked to Paul and Trevor about it the next day, and Trev mentioned there were three that day who were amputees.
One missing his left arm, but two missing their right.
We know this guy can disguise himself. What if he somehow concealed his arm under baggy clothing and presented himself as an amputee? ”
“Hmm.” John rubbed his chin. “We have video from the two television stations that were there. We can run through it to see if anyone sitting in the photo’s vantage point area has only one arm.”
“Okay, next.”
“Next came the call on Monday, November twenty-fifth, followed by the package with the photo from the Thanksgiving dinner and a tube of lipstick from her purse the day of the abduction attempt. Tuesday, he saw her leaving the office with her detail, then called her on Wednesday to tell her about it. She also received a photo in the mail of the donor drive. At least she wasn’t in this one, so he didn’t get that close. ”
“Close enough. How can we not spot this guy when he appears to be everywhere? He must not be a great shot, or doesn’t have the firepower, because if he wanted to take her out long-range, he could’ve done it by now.
That and taking the chance on Saturday tells me he needs to be close to get a shot off. ”
“I tell you, when I heard those shots Saturday night, I couldn’t get Avery on the ground fast enough. It wasn’t about anybody but her at that moment.”
“Yeah. I hear ya.” He knew exactly how that felt.
The second he’d heard that first pop, his training had him pushing Riley to the floor in the split second before the second.
But if that first round hadn’t hit Trevor center mass, would it have found its mark?
Or would he have been the one to take her bullet?
As it was, they were fortunate that only one of the other shots grazed a gentleman who was treated and released at the scene. It could’ve been a hundred times worse if anybody had been seriously wounded or killed.
John gave his head a shake. “Anyway, no cards last week but two phone calls, then the shooting Saturday, December seventh.”
“We did catch video footage of him coming in with other kitchen staff. And the guy looks nothing like the composite or the videos of the card deliveries. He must have ditched the disguise on his way out, though, because there’s nothing showing him leaving.
Unless he waited it out somewhere and simply walked out later like any other guest of the hotel. ”
“Sure would help if we had a motive for all of this.”
Colton scratched his chin. He probably should’ve shaved that morning, but after a restless night and no assignment to report to, he didn’t want to waste the time he could be meeting with John. “We might.”
John sat up straight. “I’m all ears.”
“What if this all ties into the Shane Everett case?”
With a nod, the detective glanced around the bustling room before leaning closer with his arms crossed on the desktop. “That one’s on my list, too, since the messages she received appear to be warning her off.”
Colton kept his voice low, considering their location.
“The abduction attempt occurred five days after her press conference announcing she was taking over Shane’s appeals.
I was out of the country at the time, but I watched a tape of it later, and she says right out Everett’s innocent, and she’s putting all the resources at her disposal into finding the truth. ”
“Interesting timing. Nothing like a little threat of exposure to put the fear in you.” John glanced down and back up again. “But anything about getting a convicted murderer off doesn’t sit well around here.”
“I get it. I do. But if this all ties into Everett’s case, are you willing to do whatever needs to be done to find the truth, even if it means your brothers got it wrong?”
John sat back in his chair and folded his arms. “Riley’s pretty sure of this guy?”
“Extremely. She ran the case by me one night, and I have to say, John, I’m not convinced it was as open-and-shut as first assumed.”
John sat forward and laid his crossed arms on the desk again, his face mere inches from Colton’s.
“I don’t relish going up against any of my fellow officers.
That case was investigated from this very room.
But as a man of God, I do care about the truth.
If finding out the who and why of Riley’s case means Everett is exonerated, I’ll bear the consequences. ”
Colton grinned at his new partner. “Exactly what I hoped you’d say.”