Page 32 of Cold Vengeance

“I can only think of one other person,” River said.

“Nathan? It can’t be.”

River leaned back in her chair. “I’m trying to wrap my head around this. Before we accuse Nathan, we need to see if the electronic-crimes task force can figure out who removed all those episodes.”

“So now what do we do?”

River smiled at him. “Repeat after me. My partner...”

Tony looked confused. “Not sure why you’re smiling, but I’m a little frightened.”

“Do what I asked,” River said.

“Okay, okay. My partner...”

“Is the best partner in the world.”

Tony crossed his arms and stared at her. Finally, he said, “Is the best partner in the world.”

“Because...”

His eyes widened. “You have all the information from her site, don’t you?”

“Well, not all of it, but quite a bit.” She picked up her notebook. “I already told you I took pictures of all the pages and notes in April’s notebook, but I also took pictures of the podcast pages. Of course, they only contain a general description of the case. But I listened to each podcast and made additional notes. I just felt like the way things were going, it was best to make sure all the information stayed with us. I’m pretty sure we have everything we need.”

“You really are brilliant,” Tony said. “You know what this proves, right?”

“I’m not sure.”

“It proves that no one is smarter than I am since I picked you as my partner.”

River laughed. “You’re ridiculous.”

“I know, but I’m really cute, so that makes up for it.”

“Yes, yes. You’re adorable.” River got up and grabbed her notebook. Then she brought it over to her desk. “We can go through my notes, and anything I didn’t get, we can see on my phone.”

“Before we do that, let me call the detective in charge of the case and tell him about the podcast.”

“I’m not sure what they can do,” River said. “Can they actually tell us who removed the episodes? Wouldn’t whoever did it have to have access to April’s login information?”

“Sure. That’s why the first person I’d look at is Nathan. Supposedly, April wasn’t close to her father, and she didn’t want him to know about the podcast. I’m pretty sure it couldn’t have been him.” Tony picked up his phone and made a call.

While he talked to the detective, River began looking through her notebook. She had a lot of notes from the Casanova case. She even found some scribbles she couldn’t decipher. It wasn’t the firsttime she hadn’t been able to read her own writing. She quickly pulled up the pictures she’d taken with her phone. She planned to send them to her laptop so they’d be easier to read, but she hadn’t done that yet. She also grabbed April’s notebook out of the tote bag and brought it over to her desk. As she looked through the pages, she saw something written in a margin that had to do with the Casanova case. This was the first time she’d noticed it. April had written the name Brent Wilkins. Who was that? Although she had no idea, something about the name struck a chord with her. As if she’d seen or heard the name before. Could it be someone who phoned in a tip? Had the name been mentioned somewhere else in April’s notebook? Or on her podcast? Of course, there were a lot of reasons it might seem familiar. Maybe River had known someone with a similar name. Hopefully, she’d remember at some point, but right now she couldn’t pull up any connection.

“Everything okay?” Tony asked. “You’re frowning.”

“Yeah. Just a name April wrote down here. I have no idea why she thought it was important. No explanation. Maybe I’ll find it somewhere else in her notes. So, what did the detective say about April’s site?”

“He said they’d noticed it was gone, and they’re already looking into it,” Tony said. “He also asked that you send him the pictures of the site. The good news is that most hosting companies keep copies of the podcast for at least ninety days. The police can request those copies, but they have no idea how long that could take. For now, they want the information we have.”

“I want to call Nathan,” River said. “I need to ask him a question.”

“Like whether or not he has the login information? After thinking about it, I realize it would be very difficult for him to do something like that with the police department watching him.”

“You’re right. I’ll bet they already checked that out themselves. They may not be looking for April, but I’m sure they’ve come to the conclusion that what happened to Kevin could be connected to her disappearance.”

River picked up her phone and called Nathan, not sure he’d actually answer. When he did, he sounded stressed. She couldn’t blame him.

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