Page 57 of Spark
“Do you think there’s any way the DNA that was stored in these kits is still viable?”
For a second, Tyler said nothing.Something visceral inside of him snapped its teeth at the idea of causing her any more stress, but he overrode it.Chloe had asked for everything on the table, and she wasn’t some fragile flower.She trusted him.
He had to trust her, too.
“Is it possible?Yes, otherwise we wouldn’t be trying, and the kitsarespecifically engineered to withstand extreme temperatures.But the truth is, whoever did this wants this DNA gone, and fire is one of the most effective methods to destroy physical evidence.It’s why a high percentage of arsons are tied to people covering up crimes—it works.”
Again, his brain flared with a thought, barely formed and yet, still insistent.But as soon as he tried to catch hold of it to examine it more fully, it slipped away, and he shook his head, coming back to the moment.
“But, to answer your question honestly, yes,” Tyler said, gentling his voice just a little to soften the blow he’d promised to deliver.“There’s a very real chance Leo Navarro’s DNA won’t be viable, and the Intelligence Unit is going to have to find another way to connect him to either the murder or this arson if they want to take him down.”
Chloe took a breath.Then another.Just when a cold trickle of worry started to move down his back—had he somehow fucked this up and scared her?—she nodded.
“Okay.That’s all I needed to know.”Taking a step toward him, she reached out to place her fingers on his forearm, her smile bittersweet as it moved through his chest.“Thanks for being straight with me.And for bringing me here so I could see all of this for myself.And for…well, trusting that I can handle it.”
Tyler was helpless against his smile.“Thanks for trusting me to help you.”
“You might not want to thank me just yet.We’re partners, remember?”Chloe asked, her determination returning as if it had a vendetta to fulfill.“We still have to give Esme an update.”
“Then let’s not waste any more time standing around.”
“Holy fuck,Si.You’re never gonnabelievethis!”
Leo’s voice carried through the entire dining room at La Vielle Maison as he strode over to the table where Simon sat working the books.At nine thirty in the morning, the restaurant they co-owned (fifty-one forty-nine, naturally, so Simon could claim being a minority stakeholder if/when the authorities ever uncovered the place as a front) was thankfully still closed—not that a little thing like that was going to stop Leo from being noticed.His affect alone was arrogant enough to be obnoxious, his smirk so well-worn, it might as well have been tattooed on his face.Today’s suit, a navy-blue Brioni bespoke with a seven-thousand-dollar price tag, screamed his wealth.His Van Cleef & Arpels diamond and onyx cufflinks and custom-made Italian dress shoes completed the package.
Leo was a man of privilege and power he’d never earned.Simon had never been so tempted to murder him.
Their restaurant manager, Perry, being neither deaf nor dead, turned in Leo’s direction from the spot where he stood behind the bar as Leo made his grand entrance, and Simon bit back the urge to cram his fist in Leo’s mouth—which was probably the only way, short of killing him, to get him to lower his damn voice.
“Leo,” he said quietly, fixing well-practiced innocence over his face as he looked up from the laptop he’d been working on.Time to act the part.“You look happy.”
Leo dropped his volume to match Simon’s, and Simon chalked up yet another little victory in his head.“I just got off the phone with Phil.”
“Did he have news about the case?”Simon asked, drawing on his deep well of patience as Leo took the seat across from him and snapped his fingers at Perry.
“Bring me a vodka martini, shaken, not stirred—I’ll be able to tell the difference—and make it extra dirty.”
Thankfully, Perry was paid well enough to do what he was told, as well as to have the discretion to leave the dining room as soon as he’d delivered Leo’s drink.
“So, the judge wouldn’t dismiss the ‘evidence’”—he paired the exaggerated air quotes he’d made with an equally exaggerated eye roll, even though the evidence in question was literally his own DNA that he’d been too stupid not to leave behind—“even though Phil tried.It’s bullshit, because everyone knows I didn’t do anything and I’m being set up.Some dirty cop probably planted my DNA there so he could try to take me down.That Markswell guy, I bet.He looked shady AF.”
Maxwell,Simon silently corrected before reining Leo back in.The judge had made her ruling days ago, and Runner had told Simon about it less than an hour after the ink had dried on the court documents.He needed updates, not history.“Did Phil have anything new to add?Maybe about the DNA?”
“Right, yeah.”Leo paused for a gulp of his martini, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.Heathen.“He doesn’t think that’s going to matter, because according to his sources, the fire at the lab was catastrophical.”
That Simon didn’t blink at Leo’s condescending tone or his use of a word he’d invented in order to look smarter was a true testament to his patience.“Catastrophic.”
“Exactly,” Leo crowed.He slapped a hand on the table, sending a slosh of briny liquid from the martini glass onto the pristine cream-colored tablecloth.“If thefakeevidence was destroyed, that’s easy.Done.That bitchy A.D.A.can’t take me down with DNA that doesn’t even exist.No proof, no charges.Without the DNA to back it up, she can’t even mention the fact that it once existed.It’s, like,gone.”
This had been the driving factor in Simon’s plan.Forensic evidence might not lie, but it also didn’t talk, like judges or jurors who’d been bribed.Taking the DNA out of the picture by torching it had been the smartest play, although not easy by any means.
Also, not one hundred percent foolproof.“What if the evidence wasn’t destroyed?”Simon asked, but Leo waved a dismissive hand through the air.
“Simon.My guy,” he tsked.“You’re such a wallbanger of doom.”
Simon closed his eyes, just briefly, as he prayed for patience.“I think you might mean harbinger.”
“I don’t think so.I’m pretty smart about this stuff.Anyway, I’m not worried about the DNA.Phil said that lab is fucking toast, and the fire department has no leads on who torched it.The best part?It wasn’t me.I was here at the restaurant all night.But it’s crazy luck, right?Someone else sets a huge-ass fire and takes care of all my problems.”
