Page 17 of Flynn

Now they were together again, without the distraction of a baby. Taylor dominated his thoughts and not in a good way.

He closed the garage door and headed back into the house. Having the second computer was a relief. He needed something to do, other than watching Taylor.

Maybe the discovery of Roman Paulson’s fingerprint in Steve Miller’s office was nothing important, but the only way to know that for sure was to dig into the guy’s reasons for being there. Had it been a personal meeting or a business one? He wasn’t as skilled as Gabe Melrose, the team’s tech guru, but he figured he could handle a basic search.

Scouring social media sites had become common place in police work these days. Like every other cop he was acquainted with, he didn’t personally use social media but had an anonymous profile page just for the purposes of digging into suspects.

A profile he planned to put to good use now.

As he logged into the precinct laptop, he caught Taylor’s curious gaze. “What?”

“Nothing.” She turned back to her screen. “I’m just—do you think Cassidy is right? That this gunman might not be from the US?”

“I don’t honestly know what to think.” He was irritated that Cass had mentioned it, but now he had to admit the bank angle was interesting. Maybe Steve Miller was somehow involved in money laundering. It could be the guy stumbled across something suspicious, which required the organized crime syndicate to take the drastic measure of killing him and his wife. But for now, he thought their time was best spent dealing with local possibilities. “Anything is possible. I’d still like you to keep going through mug shots, though.”

“Yeah, I will.” She turned back to her computer. “But I’m going to reach the end of the alphabet sooner or later. We’ll need another plan by then.”

“Maybe your cousin Roman Paulson will provide a lead.” Even as he said the words, he knew Detectives Klem and Irving were probably paying Roman a visit. Flynn liked working for Rhy’s tactical team, but there was something to be said for investigating a case.

Not that he had any plans to take the detective exam. He liked his job and the team.

He turned his attention to finding Roman Paulson on social media. Thankfully, the guy’s name was unusual enough that he only had about ten profiles to sift through.

“Hey, Taylor? Is this your cousin?” He turned the screen to show her the profile that looked similar to the photograph Rhy had sent. “He has a five-o’clock shadow here, unlike his clean-shaven face on the mug shot.”

“Yes, that looks like the guy in the picture, but like I told you, I haven’t seen Roman in years.” She leaned closer, then took over his keyboard. She tapped a few keys, and then said, “Yeah, I’m positive this is my cousin Roman. See here, his brothers Jake and Lyle are listed as his friends.”

He quickly scrolled through to see the profile pictures of both Jake and Lyle Paulson. Then he turned the computer toward her again. “What do you think? Any chance one of these guys was the shooter?”

She frowned but took a moment to go through their photos. “They don’t have the same nose.”

He nodded, not surprised by her answer. It was worth a try. Then a thought occurred to him. “What about you?” He turned to face her. “You’re related to these guys. Do you have a social media account?”

“I do, yes.” She flushed as if embarrassed. “I don’t post anything, though. What am I going to post about? I don’t eat fancy food to take pictures of or hang out at gatherings with my friends. Even when I do those things, I’m not big into posting them online for everyone to see. I went through and took a lot of my old posts from college off my page when I decided to go the nanny route. I didn’t want any potential parents looking at those old pictures and judging me unfairly.”

“I totally agree with you. I don’t use social media either, but that’s more of a cop thing,” he said. “I only asked because most people I know are on these sites.”

“That’s true, but as a nanny, I would never post photos of the kids I care for, that just seems to be asking for trouble.”

“So why bother?” he asked.

She flushed. “I have an account in case I need one for marketing purposes if I ever get around to finishing and publishing my book.” She looked away, as if embarrassed by her secret desire to be a published author.

“Ah, that makes sense.” He remembered her dream was to write a book. “So you’re not friends with Roman or his brothers.”

“No, although to be honest, I haven’t bothered to check my account recently.” She frowned, then said, “I guess it’s possible they’ve sent me a friend request that I’m unaware of. Did you want me to check on that?”

Flynn hesitated, torn between wanting Taylor to finish with the mug shots and getting access to her account. “Yes, if you could log into the social media site using this computer, that would be great.”

“I’ll try. But you know how it is with passwords. It’s been so long I may have forgotten which one I used.” She went through the motions of logging him out of the social media website, then attempted to log in as herself. Her first try was not successful. He wondered if there was a limit to how many times you could attempt to get in when she abruptly grinned. “I remembered! Here you go.”

“Thanks.” He figured it would be easier to look around as Taylor than as his anonymous account. For one thing, he noticed right away that Taylor was friends with her mother, who in turn was friends with her cousin Susan who was, of course, friends with her own daughter, Robin Miller. The family connection was right there in living color for the entire world to see.

If they bothered to look. Which made him fear the killer might in fact do just that.

He paused when he came across Robin Miller’s smiling face beaming from the screen. Were they on the wrong track with focusing on her husband Steve Miller’s banking background? Was it possible the double homicide was related to her interior design business? Hard to imagine how the task of picking out colors and types of furniture could lead to such a brutal crime, but Taylor had mentioned famous athletes. Money was at the root of many crimes.

He shrugged the remote possibility off. Robin’s business would have to be considered, but for now, he decided to stick with Roman as the potential link to the shooter. The suspect being Taylor’s cousin was an added complication.

---