Page 126 of Over the Edge

The partial plate the witness had seen wouldn’t help him with MULES. You had to have a complete alphanumeric sequence to run a plate through the Missouri Uniform Law Enforcement System portal. A better resource was the Missouri Information Analysis Center. They could cross-reference the letters he had with a variety of databases, then try to match those results with whatever other information was provided. Like the description of a dark sedan.

Worth trying, but the twenty-four to seventy-two hour turnaround wasn’t going to help him tonight.

And his gut said tomorrow would be too late.

He slammed the heel of his hand against the steering wheel and muttered a word he rarely used.

If there was even one tiny clue to follow up on, he’d be all over it. But there wasn’t.

This was as difficult to unravel as the Robertson case.

No surprise, since the two were related and had likely been masterminded by the same person.

Whoever that was, they were smart and meticulous and careful. The only lapse had been the blood on Lindsey’s car.But without a match in the database, that hadn’t helped anyway.

He turned the heat down and scanned the street again.

Was it possible someone else had seen a helpful detail but hadn’t answered the door earlier? Should he make another circuit of the neighborhood, call in reinforcements? Sarge would assign more people if he asked.

Trouble was, there wasn’t much for anyone to do except knock on doors, and he’d done that once.

Couldn’t hurt to do it again, though. See if any of the people who hadn’t responded to his knock before were willing to talk to him now. What else was there to do on this Friday evening he’d planned to spend with Lindsey?

He reached for the door handle as his cell began to vibrate. Paused to pull it out.

Dick Lewis.

Had he thought of another fact or two he wanted to pass on?

Jack put the phone to his ear and greeted the man.

“Sorry to bother you, Detective, but I was just telling my wife about what’s going on over on the next block, and she said we had a little excitement on our street earlier too. While she was getting ready to run over to our daughter’s, she glanced out the window to see if Missy and I were coming back yet from our walk, and she saw a car sideswipe an SUV parked across the street from our apartment. She said it was about seven fifteen. I think it was the car I saw.”

That seemed like a stretch.

Jack stifled a sigh and shut off the engine. “Why do you think that, Mr. Lewis?”

“It was a dark sedan, and the timing fits. My wife knows cars, and she said it was a BMW. The owner of the SUV came out of the building across the street as it happened, and he tried to chase after the car. It took off, but he called the police.I don’t know if our neighbor got a license plate, but you may want to check.”

That would be a huge break if it was the same car.

A big if, though the timing was promising.

“Why didn’t your wife tell you any of this earlier, Mr. Lewis?”

“She was already gone when I got home with Missy. She didn’t get back from our daughter’s until five minutes ago.”

It was a long shot, yes—but if that’s all you had, you went with it.

“I appreciate the tip. I’ll follow up.”

“Always happy to help keep our streets safe.”

“What’s the name and address of the SUV owner?” It could be faster to talk to the man directly rather than try to track down the patrol officer who’d taken the report.

“We don’t know him. He hasn’t lived here long. But I know which apartment is his.”

Jack jotted the information down as Dick recited it.

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