Page 416 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

She wandered to the fireplace. The flames were low, headed for a smolder. The corner of a printed page lay in the ash, partially burned. Addie pulled a pen from her pocket and used it to shift the page over. Beneath it was a photo—her photo. The image of her that occupied her personnel file with the FBI.

“Anything?”

Addie straightened out of the crouch. “Yeah, the crime lab will need to see what they can salvage.”

“You think it’s connected to Celia and the open cases?”

She scrunched up her nose for a second. “Doesn’t fit the same MO. It might turn out there are enough correlations it’s the same guy, but I’m guessing this wasn’t planned.”

How would Austin know the killer anyway, unless he had something to do with it?

“He would’ve been a kid when Jake and I were seniors.” She could rule him out as the accomplice.

“We can find his phone, pull his call history and the messages we’re able to salvage. Dig into his social accounts. See what we can find.”

Addie circled the room again to see if the killer might’ve taken something of Austin’s. Cleaned up yet more evidence. She doubted it was Austin who set that fire, but it might not be possible to tell either way.

Addie lifted the couch skirt and looked underneath. The crime techs would search every inch of the cabin, but she didn’t like standing around doing nothing until they showed up.

“Anything?”

She settled into her crouch and pulled her phone for the flashlight. What was illuminated gave her the answer. “Yes.”

“Gloves?”

She turned to him. “You have some on you?”

McCauley handed over a pair. “Grabbed them from the car when I called it in. Reinforcements should be here in a few. Then how do you feel about searching for whoever ran off?”

“Not sure how far we’ll get. Whoever they are, they’re probably long gone by now.”

“Worth a look. Maybe they dropped their wallet.”

Addie tugged the phone from under the couch and straightened. “That happen to you a lot?”

McCauley shrugged. “I’ve been a cop a long time. You’d be surprised.”

“Were you on the force when…” She didn’t even want to say it aloud. Not when things were so fresh.

They always looked different in the light of day. But standing here in the same cabin? She had to fight the shudders even ifit looked nothing like the same one where they were held. The walls were different. The floor, the kitchen and all the furniture. She could almost pretend she’d never been in here before.

Except for the window.

Addie couldn’t fight it off anymore and shuddered.

“You found a phone?”

She handed it to McCauley. “Not sure what we’re gonna do if we need his fingerprint to unlock it.”

“How about your informant? Maybe they know the code.”

Addie sent her sister a message. “Just so you don’t think I’m hiding anything from you, this guy is my little sister’s boyfriend. Russ made her break up with him a couple days ago.”

“You think she’ll consent to an interview?”

“Ask Russ. She’s seventeen.”

“Understood.”

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