Dead End Read online

  She heard a commotion from inside and turned to look through the open patio door. “Grady and Maya finally got here. We can get started with our meeting.”

  He connected gazes with her for only a moment, just enough for her to see the longing in his eyes. She totally got why he wanted a family and it still hurt that he lost his, but if he had five bossy brothers like she did, she was sure he would understand her viewpoint.

  He gestured for her to go ahead of him, and she entered the family room. He pulled the sliding door closed, and she glanced at her partners already facing the portable whiteboard that Blake had brought along. He stood next to it, marker in his hand.

  Sierra took a seat next to Kelsey on a comfy sofa covered with a tropical print. To her dismay, Reed sat next to her, his knee touching hers for a moment before he jerked it away. Kelsey noticed his sudden movement and eyed Sierra, but she pointed her focus at Blake.

  He was looking at Reed. “Since Agent Rice is here, can we assume he’ll be providing investigative details.”

  Sierra opened her mouth to respond, but Reed beat her to it. “First, call me Reed. And second, I put in a call to my supervisor asking to read you in. Got his voicemail, so until I hear from him, I’ll have to pass on that. But if I get the okay, I’ll let you know.”

  Sierra gaped at him. “When did you do that?”

  “On the way over here.”

  She nodded her thanks, but when he smiled—a sweet one that tipped one side of his mouth up higher than the other—she quickly focused on Blake. “Even though Reed can’t share details with us, I offered to share our information as it could result in finding Eddie faster.”

  Blake gave a firm nod. “I assume you want me to coordinate this investigation.”

  “Please,” Sierra replied. “Let’s start with forming an investigative hypothesis. I know I’m biased, but I think we should look at this from two points of view. First, Eddie was abducted and didn’t walk away on his own. And second—”

  “He took off with his client’s money and didn’t look back,” Reed interrupted.

  “Yes, that,” she said, irritated that he was so adamant even after she found blood in the office, but she hadn’t proven anything to change his case theory. “I don’t know a thing about Eddie, so what Reed said may be true, but I’d ask that everyone keep an open mind.”

  “We can do that,” Blake said. “Right?”

  Her teammates nodded.

  “Thank you.” She smiled at them. “When I processed his office I was considering both angles and collected evidence accordingly. I located blood on the blinds and floor that had been cleaned up with bleach. And, I also took a metal whale. The perfect size to bonk someone on the head with if you were trying to subdue them.”

  “Blood on it?” Maya asked.

  “Not that I can see, but the attacker, if there was one, could’ve cleaned it, too. I’ll have to examine it in the lab.”

  “Any prints on it?” Grady asked.

  “Maybe,” she replied. “Metal surfaces are challenging substrates to reliably obtain fingerprints from. And this one is textured, too. I didn’t try to develop them on scene as I could’ve messed them up. But in the lab, I’ll cast any prints or even use Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry if I find prints on this piece.”

  “We’re going to pretend we understood that.” Nick grinned.

  “Hey,” she said. “It’s not like we all don’t have to pretend when you start into your computer speak.”

  “Touché.” His smile widened.

  She loved how Nick could keep things light under the most difficult circumstances. The others laughed and even Reed smiled.

  She waited for everyone to settle down before continuing. “I can tell you that Eddie was an avid golfer and played daily. He had a stack of score cards in his desk, but they only contained the player’s initials.” She looked at Nick. “Can you compare the names of people interviewed tonight with the initials on the cards to see if we can figure out who Eddie regularly interacted with? We can also run the initials past Mayor Parks as he seems to know what’s going on in his small town.”

  Nick nodded, and Blake jotted the information on the board along with Nick’s name.

  “I might be able to help put names to the initials,” Reed offered.

  She nodded briefly, when inside she was overjoyed at his offer to help.

  “And put me down for doing a background check on Eddie,” Nick said. “Including his financials.”

  Blake added that to the board, too. “Did you collect any additional evidence, Sierra?”

  “Loads of fingerprints,” she said. “I’ll review them when we get back to the office. And Emory, I have DNA for you.”

  Nick shifted to look at Reed. “I assume you took the computer.”

  “We did. If I’m given the green light to read you all in, I’ll be glad to provide a copy of the drive.”

  Nick nodded, but his expression was skeptical, and Reed took a sharp breath. Surprisingly, Sierra felt bad that Nick didn’t trust Reed. She thought of Reed as trustworthy, though this early in the game she had nothing to base that on.

  “I also took a pair of sneakers I found under the desk to analyze in the lab,” Sierra said, moving them on. “Hopefully the particles on the shoes will give us a history of his recent whereabouts.”

  Blake quickly updated the board with the information they shared and added Sheriff Case File and his name. “Trent emailed me a report, but he couldn’t share many details—not even with me. Still, tonight I’ll review what I received.”

  “Any chance that includes calls made from Eddie’s cell and business phone?” Sierra asked.

  He shook his head.

  Reed shifted and looked like he wanted to say something, then clamped down on his lips. Sierra knew his team had already reviewed the calls, and if he could share, it would save them time, but she had to be patient. “What about emails? Are those in Trent’s file?”

  Blake shook his head. “Like I said, Trent couldn’t share.”

  Maya shot Reed a tight look. “How long have you been investigating Eddie?”

  “Two months including the month that he’s been missing.”

  Grady propped a leg on his knee. “How did he first come onto your radar?”

  “One of Eddie’s clients filled out a complaint form on our website. She didn’t have proof of his embezzlement, but she got to talking with a friend who also listed her rental through Eddie’s company, and they both thought he was charging them for services they didn’t use.”

  “Didn’t they try to confront him?” Emory asked.

  Reed nodded. “Barnes said his accountant handled the financial part of the business and claimed he had no idea what they were talking about. He said he would look into it, but he never got back to them, no matter how many times they tried to follow up. So as soon as their contracts with his agency expired, they moved their properties to a new leasing agent and contacted us.”

  “Since when does the FBI look into such a small claim?” Blake asked.

  “We do an initial investigation into all claims. Unfortunately a white-collar investigation can easily cost the Bureau $200,000 and up, so all of our offices have a loss threshold. But we quickly learned Barnes’s theft was an ongoing problem, and that in the end, it would likely exceed our threshold. And it did.”

  Sierra shifted to look at Reed. “And what about this accountant? Did you look into him?”

  He nodded. “I can’t go into detail, but we quickly cleared him.”

  “Does Eddie have any other partners?” Maya asked.

  Reed shook his head.

  “I’ll be glad to confirm that,” Nick offered.

  Sierra was suddenly very thankful for her partners. She couldn’t do this investigation without them.

  “We should look into social media, too.” Blake noted it on the board.

  “Let me handle that,” Kelsey said. “I don’t have any other responsibilities here, and t
hat’s something I can do.”

  Nick looked at her. “I’m thankful for your help with my workload, but be sure you check both his business and personal social accounts. And if you come up empty, let me know and I’ll take over.”

  She nodded, and her springy curls bounced. “I wanted to mention that the people I interviewed only had good things to say about Eddie. Well, at least until the FBI started questioning his honesty.”

  Reed grimaced, but didn’t defend himself. Sierra was impressed that he didn’t try to explain.

  “I heard the same thing,” Maya said. “And also that he was obsessed with golf and probably put more time into perfecting his game than managing his business. They also mentioned that his accountant kept things going for him.”

  “Ditto,” Grady said. “And a few of them questioned whether the accountant might be behind the embezzlement. They said he wasn’t a local, and they preferred to think he was the one who stole the money.”

  Blake scribbled that on the board and underlined it. “I’ll be glad to set up an interview with him when we get back to town.”

  Nick scrubbed his hand over his bearded chin. “I heard people ask if Eddie was taking this money for some time, why doesn’t his lifestyle show it,” Nick said. “He lives in the small cottage fully paid for, and his car is ancient. He’s a member of the local country club so he has unlimited golf, but of course, he has that membership fee.”

  “Getting Eddie’s financials could clear that up,” Sierra said.

  Blake tapped the board. “Okay, what are we missing?”

  Sierra wished Reed would offer something as he knew exactly what they were missing, but of course he didn’t speak.

  “Someone should interview Mayor Parks first thing in the morning,” Sierra said. “I really want to do it, but I’ll likely still be busy with the cottage.”

  “I’ll talk to him,” Blake offered.

  With years of interview experience, he was the right person for that task, and she nodded her thanks. “Can you ask about Eddie’s golf partners, too?”

  “Will do.” He jotted the information on the board.

  Sierra’s phone chimed. She glanced at the incoming text. “That’s Chad. He’s waiting at Eddie’s cottage for me. I hope we can finish up processing the place by morning, but it could take longer.”

  Blake nodded. “The forensics you recovered are our best leads, and we should get back to the lab as soon as possible to get them going.”

  “Anyone mind driving my car back to Portland?” Sierra glanced at her partners. “I’d like to take the evidence back on the helicopter and get started on it right away.”

  “I don’t have anything but the social media to check on and can do it,” Kelsey offered.

  Sierra smiled her thanks and quickly snapped a picture of the whiteboard then stood. “If anyone needs me, I’ll be at Eddie’s cottage. Hopefully the evidence that will lead us straight to him is just waiting for me to find it.”

  7

  Reed had been to Barnes’s cottage more times than he could count. Each visit he hoped to find something they’d missed, but he always struck out. Tonight, with the obviously talented Sierra on the hunt for evidence, he once again believed it was possible to locate a lead. But he knew they wouldn’t find anything to take them straight to Barnes like she hoped for. If that kind of lead existed, he’d have already found it. But then, he trusted County’s forensics team. He believed they’d done a thorough job. Turns out they might not have, and if they’d fallen short, that mistake was on him.

  He continued to watch Sierra, finding her attention to detail even this late at night admirable. She moved through the small living room inch by inch while her assistant snapped pictures of her finds and noted them on their sketch.

  Chad looked to be about their age with blond hair that was messy in the front and sleekly tamed down with some sort of gel in the back. He had one of those mustaches that was barely there as if he couldn’t grow a thick one. He was of average build, and Reed had gotten a look at the guy’s jeans and a dark denim shirt before he slipped on a coverall. He tended to smile a lot, and he also looked at Sierra like she was the best thing since the discovery of DNA. Question was, was it because he was in awe of her skills or just plain in awe of the woman? It would be hard to separate the two. At least Reed wasn’t able to do that.

  They worked in such synchronicity that it left this weird feeling in Reed’s gut as he watched them. Jealousy, he thought, if he had to put a name to it. He liked how they communicated without speaking. How they moved as one. Something Reed thought he would find if he ever got married. At least that was how his parents’ relationship worked. But Reed’s jealousy had no foundation. Sierra made it perfectly clear to him that she didn’t want the same thing that he did. His best bet was to stow any thoughts in that direction.

  “Done here,” she announced and worked her way down the hallway toward the bedroom.

  Reed followed behind Chad and leaned against the wall until they moved on again and entered the bedroom. Sierra dropped to her knees and crawled over every inch of the room with her magnifying glass, stopping along the way to place evidence markers. Chad rushed over to take close-up shots. Then she lifted things Reed couldn’t make out from a distance and dropped them in evidence bags. Maybe hairs or fibers. He didn’t interrupt her to ask and hoped with their newfound partnership she would tell him when she finished.

  She crawled into the large walk-in closet. He moved to a spot where he could see her every move. She sat staring at something on the floor.

  “What is it?” Chad asked.

  “Take a look for yourself.” She handed him the magnifying glass and pointed at something Reed couldn’t even see.

  Chad shifted around looking at the item from several angles. “What’s so exciting about a sliver of wood? He likely just tracked it in here.”

  She picked it up with the tweezers and took back the magnifying glass. “It’s not just a sliver. It’s tipped with blue paint.”

  “Matches the outside paint color,” Chad said. “So what?”

  She bagged it and shoved the bag into his hands as she stood. “This room looks like an addition.” She split Barnes’s hanging clothing in two, the hangers scraping over the metal bar in an irritating screech. “So, the back wall of this closet was once the exterior wall and it’s wood. I’d venture to say there’s a layer of blue paint under this white color.”

  Chad frowned. “Again, I ask, so what?”

  Reed couldn’t believe Chad’s lack of understanding. Maybe the reason he was still an assistant at his age.

  Reed stood and joined them. “You’re thinking there might be a false wall that opens and the sliver is from that.”

  She spun around, a satisfied gleam in her eyes, and she nodded.

  “Oh-h-h,” Chad said.

  Sierra started running her hands over the wall. Reed wasn’t about to be left out on a strong lead, so he brushed past Chad and entered the closet.

  “Hey,” Chad grumbled.

  Reed ignored him and ran his gloved hands over the wall. He’d covered nearly the entire right side when Sierra’s hands hit something and a small door swung open.

  “Bingo!” She glanced at him, a radiant smile on her face.

  Reed was excited about the lead, sure he was, but her thousand-watt smile directed at him was breathtaking. He grinned back at her and didn’t care if Chad was witnessing his interest in her.

  She, on the other hand, didn’t seem to care about his response but swung her gaze back to the wall. She reached inside and came out holding a handgun. She quickly pointed it away from everyone, removed the magazine, and looked down the chamber. She also swept the chamber with her finger. Reed knew she was following proper protocol to make sure there wasn’t a round chambered. She handled the gun like a pro, and he wondered if she was a shooter, but now wasn’t the time to ask.

  “It’s a Glock 9mm,” she said.

  “One of the most common guns out t
here,” Reed said, but still impressed that she could recognize the caliber.

  “Why would Eddie need a gun?” She frowned. “And if he took off, why wouldn’t he take it with him?”

  “Great question,” Reed said.

  She handed the gun and magazine to Chad. “Bag and log it, please.”

  “Aren’t you going to print it first?” Reed asked.

  She shook her head. “I’ll get better prints in the lab.”

  “I’ll be glad to run the serial number to see if it’s been used in other crimes.”

  She nodded and reached into the cubbyhole again. Her hand came out with a manila envelope. She opened it and pulled out pictures. Her mouth fell open.

  Reed didn’t like the shock darkening her expression, and he eased over to get a look at the top picture. It was of her, taken recently, if he was right. She started flipping through the photos, and they all included her, going back through time all the way to her toddler days.

  She looked up at Reed and swallowed hard. “He’s been watching me for years.”

  Reed didn’t think it was done in a creepy stalker way but as a dad interested in seeing his daughter grow up. “He followed your progress in life.”

  “Yeah,” she said sounding dumbfounded. She shoved the envelope and pictures into Reed’s hands and went back to the hole in the wall.

  He couldn’t believe she put that connection aside so quickly, but maybe she wasn’t ready to process such a personal response from Barnes.

  She pulled out programs from milestone events in her life and printed articles documenting her successes as a forensic scientist.

  “He might not have wanted to be a dad, but he’s clearly proud of you,” Reed said.

  She didn’t respond except to shove those items into his hands and return to the hole in the wall. This time she brought out a large green journal and a stack of cash. Eyes wide, she opened the journal, revealing ledger pages. Barnes had recorded large sums of money and assigned them to different account numbers but he hadn’t included names or other identifying information.