Page 14 of Breaking Rules

Kevin pulled out his notebook, scanning his scribbles. “It looks like the bag was found near the Webster property.”

Harry thought for a moment. “You know, I think it might be pretty close. That land doesn’t belong to the Websters, though. It’s owned by some company...” He snapped his fingers, trying to conjure the name. “Obsidian something. We tried to get info on them but hit a dead end. Probably some shell corporation.”

Sam came out of his office, phone in hand. “That was John Dudley from the ME’s office. He finished the autopsy on Alex Sheridan.”

Wyatt swiveled his chair around. “And? What’s the official cause of death?”

“Drowning,” Sam replied. “They found water in his lungs. Looks like he went into the lake alive.”

“So it was just an accident?” Wyatt asked. “He wandered onto the ice and fell through?”

Sam shook his head. “Not likely. The tox screen showed alcohol and drugs in his system.”

“Alex was an experienced hiker. He wouldn’t mix drinking and drugs before going out on the ice,” Jo said.

“Not to mention the lack of hiking shoes,” Kevin said.

“Right,” Sam agreed. “It points to this not being an accidental drowning.”

Kevin leaned back in his chair. “Someone could have forced the alcohol and drugs on him to knock him out. Then dumped him in the lake to drown.”

“That’d be a pretty cold way to kill someone,” Wyatt said with a frown.

Jo nodded. “Especially in the dead of winter. The frigid water would finish the job quickly.”

“We’ll need to dig more into Alex’s background,” Sam said. “Figure out who might have wanted to get rid of him. The money is an obvious motive.”

“But it might not be the only motive,” Harry said. “That money’s been hidden for fifty years, and no one’s been killed over it. Maybe Alex’s death is about something else.”

Jo crossed her arms. “You know, Alex was managing Marnie Wilson’s campaign. Could be someone from that world who wanted him gone.”

“Political types can certainly play dirty,” Kevin agreed. “We should take a closer look at Wilson and her crew.”

“Did anyone else come up with anything on Alex?” Sam asked, glancing around at the team.

“I checked out his social media,” Jo said, tapping her pen on her notepad. “Doesn’t show much personally. He belonged to a hiking group on Facebook, but there’s no animosity there, at least not about him being executor of Frank’s will.” She flipped a page. “Oh, and it seems he was pretty into politics, especially his grandfather’s support of Marnie Wilson. That could be why he left his IT job to work on her campaign.”

Sam nodded and turned to Wyatt. “Did you find anything on his computer?”

Wyatt leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head. “Well, Alex was a big gamer, part of some online groups. Bit of a loner in real life, it seems, but he had some pretty high-tech equipment and apps.” Wyatt, a big gamer himself, sounded a little envious.

“Anything on his schedule leading up to his death?” Sam asked.

Wyatt shook his head. “Nope, calendar’s empty the past few days. No appointments or plans logged. I also did a check in the parking lot of his apartment and the campaign headquarters, and his car isn’t in either place.”

“Guess it must be at the murder scene. We need to find it.” Sam turned to Kevin. “Kev?”

Kevin felt a tingle of nervousness, worried Sam would somehow know he had been looking at the old narcotics case file. But he straightened in his chair and flipped open his notebook, pretending to consult his notes. “The money they found in the woods seems odd. It was on a property abutting the Webster farm.”

Sam and Jo exchanged a glance. Hazel Webster was the serial killer they’d arrested not that long ago, and her land was where she’d buried many bodies. In fact, the FBI was up there digging right now.

“I don’t think we should read too much into that. The Webster property is out in the middle of nowhere, and that area is heavily wooded, so it makes sense the getaway helicopter would fly over it,” Sam said.

“We searched back in the day. Never found a thing beyond that one busted money bag.” Harry glanced down at the paperwork. “Though looking at this now, I can see we would have caught the guys if I’d been in charge back then.”

“I bet you would have.” Sam clapped Harry on the back then turned to the rest of them. “We need to figure out what Alex did on his last day. Let’s start at the place he would normally be on a workday. Marnie Wilson’s campaign headquarters.”

CHAPTER NINE

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