Page 120 of State of Alert

“Not really. I could see it from Jada’s point of view, but Elaine was resolute in her anger over it.”

“Can you think of anything else that might be relevant?”

“I’ve gone through all my notes since I got the news, and there was nothing that stands out to me that would lead to murder.”

“Thank you for taking the time to do that review and to meet with us.”

“I really hope you find the person who did this to Elaine. Despite how it might seem to you after hearing about the difficulties with the girls, she was a sweet lady who had a difficult life. She didn’t deserve this.”

“No, she didn’t.”

Sam left her card, with the usual request to call if anything else came to mind that might help. “What do you think?” she asked Freddie when they were back outside.

“I want to look closer at the daughters. The situation inside their house was combustible for years. I can’t see how it doesn’t involve them in some way.”

“I agree, but how? They both have airtight alibis, the phone data and witnesses put them where they said they were, and there was nothing unusual in the financial reports.”

“We pulled them for the parents, not the daughters.”

Sam looked at him. “No, we didn’t.”

“We never pull financials for minors.”

“Maybe we should in this case.”

“We definitely should. I’ll call Cameron and get that moving.”

Frank Myersonvociferously objected to the request to access the girls’ financial records. “That’s outrageous,” he said on acall to Sam after receiving Cameron’s request for permission to access the data, which was required since the girls were minors. “They’rechildren.”

“We can get a warrant,” Sam told him.

“What in the world could you possibly want with the bank accounts of two teenage girls?”

“We’re trying to rule them out as suspects, Mr. Myerson. I would think you’d have the same goal we do.”

“There’s no need to rule them out of anything! They had nothing to do with this!”

“That’s what we’re trying to prove.”

“If you want that information, you’re going to have to get a warrant. There’s no way I’m betraying my daughters this way.”

“Fine, then that’s what we’ll do.”

The line went dead.

“Did he hang up on you?” Freddie asked as Vernon drove them back to HQ.

“Yep. Call Malone to get a warrant going for all three kids. We may as well include Zeke in the warrant, but we don’t need to notify his parents because he’s a legal adult.”

Freddie made the call and put it on speaker.

“That’s going to be a tough ask,” Malone said. “Judges tend to require a higher burden of proof when minors are involved.”

“You can say that our investigation has yielded extreme tension between Elaine and her daughters,” Sam said. “And not with anyone else.”

“I’ll do what I can, but just know it’s not a certainty.”

“Would it help to have an affidavit of all the reasons we think the daughters could be involved in this murder?”

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