Page 41 of All of Me

I didn’t get a reply, but I didn’t think that mattered. I looked up and saw Drake watching me. Maybe I could do Thanksgiving?I wanted to so much. Maybe it would be good for Tammy. She needed to have a big family.

After Gael had hung up, Rawlings looked at everyone. “Suggestions?”

“Dodson’s PM report is in,” Danny interrupted. “But they’re happy with basic blood tests. It’s been rushed because it was a death in police custody, and significant amounts of amphetamines were found in his blood. Couple that with Dodson being arrested for possession of ecstasy four months ago, and a report that Dodson appeared to be sweating after arrest, but said he was nervous, it’s basically case closed.”

“Sweating?” I asked. What the hell did that have to do with anything.

“Early signs of possible overdose from E or Molly,” Danny explained. Now I felt stupid, but my da—John Turner’sdrug of choice was vodka and cheap whisky, and he consumed it in enough quantities not to need anything else.

“What about the cops who were on duty?” Drake asked.

“There were three that had access to Dodson,” Danny said. “One transferred from Miami because his wife has just gotten a very high-paying job here, and he checks out. One that had been there two years, no red flags, and a sergeant who’s one year from retiring. Nothing to indicate problems with any of them.”

“What about authorized visitors, lawyers?” Drake asked.

Danny shot an apologetic look at Drake, pressed some more buttons, and a man’s face flashed up on the screen. “I was just getting to this. There was also a retired cop in the station, Sergeant David Starr. From the reports he often comes to visit colleagues.” Danny glanced at Drake again, but Drake didn’t say a word. “He has an expensive drinking habit, and he likes to gamble. He had twenty thousand in debts up to last month when they were abruptly settled. He was at school with Gary Bruin’s father.”

Drake’s lips flattened, but he didn’t say a word.

“On the surface, Starr’s financials look precarious,” Danny continued, “but I need to investigate some more.”

“Precarious?” Drake asked, frowning. “Twenty thousand isn’t a lot by most standards. He owns his house. He—”

“Actually he doesn’t,” Danny said. “He remortgaged seven years ago to pay off a hundred thousand in debt, and he’s added a second mortgage two years ago. The only reason he had just twenty thousand credit card debt was because his old ones were closed by the companies themselves after he had to take out the loan to pay them off.”

Drake gaped, “Did my mother sign off on this?”

“The house isn’t in joint names,” Danny said and Drake just stared at him in shock.

I squeezed his hand under the table.

“It’s one thing to look the other way, an entirely different thing to commit murder,” Rawlings said mildly. I glanced back at Drake. He was estranged from both his parents and I knew his dad had beat him as a kid, but I wasn’t sure how he would feel about the possibility of his dad being involved in Lee Dodson’s death, but then I remembered the truck driven by whoever shot at us had been returned to the police parking lot.

Gray waved at the screen. “I have no idea where you found the time to do all that.”

“Impressive as always,” Diesel agreed. Danny grinned and did a mock bow.

“Gael helped me set up my own program for this. There’s no way I could access this sort of thing quickly or at all without his help.”

“And only Gael can get the servers themselves to delete shit afterwards,” Kane said.

“So long as you’re protected,” Gray added.

“What now?” I asked, feeling completely thrown by the whole thing.

“I think we need to find connections,” Gray said thoughtfully. “There’s too many loose ends.”

“And it looks like Ryan is somehow mixed up both with John Turner and David Starr,” Rawlings continued. “What we need to find out is if he became involved with them before you two did.”

Nothing thatJohn Turnerdid surprised me, but I was hoping I was rid of him. Looks like I wasn’t going to be that lucky.

Rawlings’ phone buzzed, and he looked down, then left the room. Danny stood up to stretch and Gray gathered the empty coffee cups.

Drake squeezed my hand. “I don’t suppose I can persuade you and Tammy to go stay with Pink until we get this mess sorted out?”

I searched his expression. “If you come with me.” I knew he wouldn’t. “And you’re not telling me Jay won’t have the place locked down.”

Drake scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “You know he will, but—”

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