Page 30 of Astrid
“Yeah, what about it?”
She pointed to the wad of white on the edge of his desk and asked, “Is there any way you can have DNA run on them? I can run fingerprints.” She held up the phone number Griff had given her, then shook her head. “I don’t have the capabilities to run DNA.”
Without saying a word, Tom opened one of his desk drawers, withdrew a set of gloves, and an extra-large, clear plastic envelope that had ‘evidence’ written in black with a red banner over the top. He picked up the wad of napkins and placed them in it. After filling out the information on the front, he sealed it, then removed his gloves.
“It’ll take some time, maybe three or four weeks.”
“I understand. Now, I’m only asking this next question as an opinion, I’ll throw it by the others when I get home and explain all this to them.”
“What do you need?”
“Should I call Griff back and set up a date with him?”
“Why don’t you hold off?” Tom asked as he stood, and grabbed his hat. Astrid stood also, but when Tom didn’t make a move to leave, she waited for him to continue. “I’ll take this to the crime lab right now and put a rush on it. Talk it over with Morgan and the others. Are you working with anyone from any of the bowls of soup?”
“Carl with BCI,” Astrid admitted.
“Good, tell him what’s going on, see what he says. He told me about him going in and helping with the cabinets, maybe. Depending on what comes back from the DNA, I can have you girls go out on a ‘date’—” He used air quotes. “—a day or two before you’re to install them. Depending on what we find, maybe we can have them arrested, and then this would leave Neil scrambling to get someone to cover the front entrance while Griff and his buddies are being detained.”
“I never thought of that,” Astrid said as she grinned at him. “I’ll tell Morgan that when I tell her everything that happened today.” Together the two of them left Tom’s office, and he only stopped long enough to tell the officer from earlier that he had to step out. Outside on the sidewalk, Astrid leaned in, and asked, “Isheold enough to be a cop?”
Tom laughed, “I know right, doesn’t look any older than twelve, but he’s actually twenty-six.”
“Holy crap,” Astrid said as she shook her head and strode to her Jeep. Tom waited until she’d pulled out and left, before he backed his work SUV out of his parking spot and headed in the opposite direction.
* * *
Astrid lookedup from filling out the log book Joyce had placed in all the work vehicles, and smiled when she saw John back his truck in. She paused, and waited until he got out of the truck, and rolled the passenger-side window down. Before she could say a word, he exited the truck, and with his briefcase in his hand, totally ignored her. She stared at him in shock, because he had looked her directly in the eye when he’d exited his vehicle.
She scowled at his retreating back, then sighed in frustration when he closed the overhead door behind himself. Granted, she had left it open, but still he must have seen her, and known she was still in her own vehicle, and could have left it open for her. Sighing in frustration, she concluded her paperwork for the vehicle, then gathered her things and exited the black Jeep. Once she made sure the building was secure, she exited out the side door, and locked up after herself.
In the house, she quickly removed her shoes at the entrance, and looked around, and didn’t say anything when she didn’t see John anywhere. All the others were either in the kitchen or living-room area.
“Hey,” Joyce said as she looked up from helping Alex in the kitchen. “Everything go okay?”
“Yeah, I got some information. I’m going to go write it up. How long before dinner?”
“Two hours,” Alex said from beside Joyce. “Hope you like fried chicken, biscuits, mashed potatoes and gravy.”
Astrid grinned. “Coleslaw?”
Joyce laughed and held up the chunk of cabbage she had been shredding. “Don’t you know it. Can’t have fried chicken without coleslaw.”
Laughing, Astrid made her way down to one of the offices that she’d claimed a desk in, and sat down behind it. She fired up her computer, and made notes about her observations of her mission that day, documenting the conversation she’d had with Tom Erwin on her way home. Once that was done, she took the other napkin out of her pocket, and went down to the office in the basement and grabbed the fingerprint kit. In no time she was able to gather two good prints, and ran them through her program. With nothing to do but wait, she decided to go back upstairs, and see if she could help out with dinner.
What she hadn’t realized that between the time she’d written her report and done the fingerprints, it had been longer than she’d anticipated. She arrived at the dinner table just as the last dish of food was being set down.
“Good, you’re here.” Joyce laughed as she took her seat, and automatically filled Alex’s plate as the dishes were passed. Astrid looked up, and frowned when John didn’t say a word to her, and actually took a seat at the other end of the table, causing Chuck to come over and sit next to her.
“What’s wrong with him?” Chuck whispered as he held her chair out for her.
“No clue,” Astrid whispered back, and took her seat. When the others scowled between the two of them, she only shrugged in confusion and shook her head. Dinner conversation was subdued, and when everyone was done, Astrid automatically began cleaning up the leftovers, and scowled when John stood and disappeared through the door that led to the basement.
“What the hell?” Ava asked as she joined Astrid at the sink.
“No clue,” Astrid answered, and began scraping the scraps of food into their bucket that they took to the ranch every day to give to the two pigs that Lucas had convinced his father and uncle to get. Astrid rinsed the dishes, filled the dishwasher, then made a sink full of hot soapy water before washing by hand the ones that didn’t fit in the dishwasher. Ava and Chuck dried and put them away. When she was done, she cleaned the counters for a second time, then turned on the dishwasher. Instead of joining the others in the living room to watch TV, she went over to the wall that held the bookshelves, selected a book, and went to her room. She took her nightly shower, and settled into her bed, hoping John would join her soon. When he didn’t appear by ten, she put her book aside, realizing she’d have to start reading it all over again, because she couldn’t remember one word of what she’d read, then turned out her light and settled beneath the light covers. It was a long time before she relaxed enough to get any amount of sleep. The last thought she had before her brain shut down for the night was that if he thought he could get away with treating her like a booty call, and not explain his actions to her, then he had another think coming. She would just as soon break it off with him, than to have him treat her like he had earlier. Ignoring her wasn’t going to be an option, not when she hadn’t done anything wrong.
CHAPTER14
