Page 38 of Astrid
When Astrid had risen that day, she’d felt gloomy, because she didn’t know where her relationship with John stood. Not that she should be worrying about a relationship right now, but it was nice knowing that John had apologized and wanted to talk later. She promised herself she wouldn’t jump the gun and demand what he was doing with that other woman the other day. Sighing, she concentrated on her driving, and set out to see if she could find any more locations like she and Alan had a few days ago.
Several hours later, her cell phone rang, and she frowned when she didn’t recognize the number, but answered it anyway.
“Hello?”
“Astrid?”
“Yeah, who is this?”
“Tom Erwin. I was wondering if you could stop by the office when you got a chance?”
“I can, I’m out riding around and haven’t found anything. I can be there in a little over an hour.”
“No rush, but I’ll see you when you get here.” They hung up, and Astrid frowned as to why Tom would want to see her, but shrugged and headed back toward town. One hour and twenty minutes later, she strode into the police station, and the young man from a couple of days ago pointed to Tom’s office when he spotted her.
“He’s waiting for you.”
“Thank you.” Astrid strode down the short hall and knocked on the doorjamb. She smiled when Tom looked up. “You rang?” She grinned as she went in and sat down. “What’s up?” she asked to prompt him when he continued working on papers before him. She frowned again as he sat back with a sigh, pinched the bridge of his nose, and tossed his pen down on the papers.
“What were your results from running those prints from that phone number from that man named Griff?”
Astrid looked at him in shock, then remembered she’d e-mailed him what she’d had when she couldn’t come up with anything.
“Nothing, as of this morning, when I left to go out driving around, the computer was still running.”
“What programs did you use?”
She told him, and he nodded as she explained what she’d used. “Why?” She chuckled. “Did you get results?”
“I did, and it’s not pretty.”
“Why?” Astrid was hesitant to ask, but knew she had to know the answer.
“He’s a cop.”
Astrid felt her mouth drop, and she didn’t remember closing it for several minutes. When she swallowed hard, she shook her head to try and clear it. “That begs to ask, good or bad? Active or retired? Undercover or on the take?”
“Yeah, I thought those same things. It took a lot of digging to get what little information I did uncover.”
“What about the other two with him? Paul and Harry?”
“No clue, no prints to run on them.”
“Damn,” Astrid said, then shook her head. Before she could slump back in defeat, she jumped to her feet, and paced in the space before the desk.
“What?” Tom leaned forward and asked with interest.
“I know of a way we can get our questions answered.”
“How?”
“Remember when Alan Stuart and I went to Neil Mason’s house to talk to him about putting in new kitchen cabinets? Griff, Paul, and Harry were the first three people we encountered. They were on that video I gave you.” She walked around the desk when Tom started pounding on the keys. When the video came up, she pointed. “See, that’s the guy who called himself Griff, but I’m unsure of which one is Paul, and which one is Harry.”
“Okay, but how can we get our questions answered?”
Astrid elbowed her way in front of the computer and in no time brought up the information she had on her computer at the compound. “See,” she said as she pointed to the fine print on the side. “We showed this to Carl about a week ago. He’s supposed to be working on getting warrants to install undercover cameras when we put in the cupboards.”
“That makes sense, get it legal from him, and see if anything can be used in court.”
