Page 67 of Spark
Her heart sank.“She’s safe, but damn it.I’m sure she’s freaking out.Tom’s on his way to go get her.We’re all meeting at Tara’s office in an hour.”
“Okay,” Tyler said, thankfully not wasting any time.“I can try Nat to see if there’s been any update on the arson investigation while you text Esme back, then I’ll pack up breakfast to go if you want to take a quick shower before we head out.Does that sound good?”
Chloe’s lungs worked on an inhale, then she nodded.Whatever the news, she’d figure something out.They’dfigure something out.“Yes.”
While she knew all minutes were technically created equally, each sixty seconds, just like the ones before it and the ones after, the next hours’ worth seemed to pass in a blink.Tyler hadn’t been able to uncover anything new on the arson investigation, although, having seen the destruction firsthand, Chloe wasn’t honestly shocked.Whatever these developments were, they had to pertain to the DNA and the murder itself.She’d followed up her text to Esme with a few more to try to keep her calm(ish) while Tyler drove downtown, and—at his quiet but immovable insistence—eaten one of the scones she’d pulled from her freezer, and by the time they’d arrived at the Remington Courthouse complex, fifty-eight minutes had passed since Addison’s call.
“Chloe!”Esme’s voice, sharp and scared, cut through the nearly empty lobby of the building, and she jumped up from the bench where she’d been sitting next to Tom.Her eyes darted from Chloe to Tyler, then back again, the relief flickering across her face quickly replaced by guarded concern.“What’s happening?Have you talked to Detective Hale?”
Chloe’s heart throbbed to hug the girl, but she worked up a smile instead, not wanting to push her luck.“Hey.We’re here.”She nodded a greeting at Tom before tackling Esme’s questions.“I haven’t heard anything new, no.But we’re in this together, remember?I’ll text Detective Hale to let her know we’re here and we can go upstairs and get some answers, okay?”
Having impeccable timing, Addison stepped out of a nearby elevator and headed their way before Chloe could fully grab her phone.Addison’s bootsteps hitched with the tiniest surprise as her gaze landed on Tyler, something Chloe would no doubt have to explain later, but for now, it would have to wait.
“Hey, everyone,” Addison said, her badge around her neck and her expression far more serious than the last time Chloe had seen her.“Tara and Sinclair and the team are upstairs.”She shifted her attention to Esme for a microsecond that Chloe wouldn’t have noticed if her black belt training hadn’t been so rigorous.“Tyler, could you hang out with Xander and Esme in Tara’s office while we go over some things with Chloe and Tom?”
Shit, this was going to be worse than she’d thought.Of course, Esme took it was well as expected.
“I’m not a baby,” she protested, and Addison shook her head.
“No, but you are a minor.Tom and Chloe will absolutely fill you in after we update them.No one wants to keep you in the dark.But we’ve got to follow some protocol to make the best decisions for your safety.”
Esme looked like she was going to dig in, but then she glanced at Tyler, her bottom lip between her teeth.“And you’ll stay with me, right?If I have questions, or whatever.You’ll answer them?”She swung to look at Chloe.“Then you’ll tell me what’s going on, for real?”
“Yes,” Chloe and Tyler said together, and Tom nodded in agreement.
Esme’s nod was small, but there.“Okay.”
They rode up to the floor housing the D.A.’s office, which was mostly deserted since it was a Sunday morning.Xander met them in the hallway, Tyler giving Chloe a look that was equal parts “you’ve got this” and “I’ve got you”, and she nodded, murmuring one last reassurance to Esme, then following Addison and Tom to the conference room.Sergeant Sinclair, Capelli, Garza, and Maxwell sat around the large table, sorting through the contents of various file folders and examining their laptop screens.Chloe’s stomach dropped about six stories at the realization that whatever was happening was big enough to have dragged all of them to this room.Tara stood at the head of the table, dressed more casually than usual in a pair of dark gray trousers and a pale pink sweater, but her expression was all business as soon as she saw Chloe, Tom, and Addison.
“Oh, good.You’re here.Esme’s with Xander?”she asked Addison, who nodded.
“And Tyler.”
No one in the room showed surprise, although that was probably more of a testament to their being excellent detectives than not feeling the sentiment.“Then let’s not wait any longer to get to it,” Sinclair said.“Start with the DNA and we’ll go from there.”
He gestured to Capelli, who typed one-handed to bring a report to life on the digital wall screen behind him.“The DNA analysis came back from the FBI’s forensics lab early this morning.”His voice softened the smallest degree, and even though Chloe had been bracing herself for the past hour, his next words still hit her like a haymaker.“Unfortunately, the fire destroyed all the forensic evidence we collected from the warehouse.There’s no viable DNA to put Leo Navarro at the scene of Sal Brinkman’s murder.”
“Oh, my God,” Chloe said, her heart rising into her throat.“There’s nothing at all?”
“No,” Sinclair confirmed.“But Navarro’s DNA kit took the worst of the damage, so there’s good reason to believe he had something to do with the arson.We’re still digging into who hacked the system.It’s slow going, but Capelli is making some headway.”
Chloe’s dread wanted to commandeer her chest, but she pulled in a slow breath to combat it.“That’s good news, right?If you catch the hacker, you can connect him to Navarro and the arson.”
“There are a lot of variables in that theory that could affect the desired outcome, and this hacker is the best I’ve seen in a while,” Capelli said, tilting his head and pushing up his glasses.“But, yes.Given what we’ve been able to rule out about the other suspects whose DNA kits were damaged or destroyed in the fire, Navarro is likely our perpetrator.He had both motive and means.”
“And that’s not the only good news,” Sinclair added.“While we no longer have DNA to put Navarro at the warehouse, we did find another key piece of evidence that directly connects him to the murder.”
Chloe’s brain spun.Spun harder.Then… “The knife,” she breathed.
The edges of Garza’s mouth hinted up in the closest he ever got to a smile.“It took a subpoena, and even then, I had to get charming with the guy who runs the auction company?—”
“I went with him,” Maxwell interrupted, shaking his head.“There was no charm involved.”
“Anyway.”Garza lifted a black brow that made Chloe very glad she hadn’t been on the receiving end of Garza’s questionable charm.“The purchase records from the auction last year confirm that Leo Navarro was the winning bidder on a hand-crafted seven-inch Damascus steel dagger with a handle made of exhibition-grade Australian silver-lip pearl.The piece was hand-delivered to him four days later after being appraised for insurance purposes.He signed the receipt personally.”
“Obviously, we didn’t find it when the search warrant was executed, which is problematic,” Tara put in.“Per his attorney, Navarro claims he’s an avid collector of ‘items of value’”—both her tone and her eye roll hung air quotes around the phrase—“so he buys a fair number of high-end antiquities, pieces of art, jewelry, et cetera.He vaguely recalls attending the auction and making a purchase, but he claims he doesn’t remember the dagger, specifically, even though it was the only piece he bid on or bought that day.”
Ugh, Navarro’s attorney was a cagey bastard.No wonder Tara wanted all the hard evidence she could get.Not that this seemed to count.“So, we can prove that he bought it, but not that hehadit,” Chloe said.
