Page 73 of Out to Get Her
“I don’t want to think it. But I can’t see any way that evidence walked off my desk.”
“We can’t jump to conclusions here.”
“No, we can’t.” She stood and made a beeline for Dustin’s desk.
Gary was only a step behind her. “Maybe he misplaced them and forgot where he left them.”
Samantha opened the bottom drawer of his desk, lifted a stack of files, and held up a plastic bag like it was a prize-winning redfish. “Misplaced them in the bottom of his desk drawer?”
The door rattled in protest against a powerful gust of wind while Gary stood frozen, staring at the bag in Samantha’s hand. His jaw was slack, hanging with the weight of disbelief.
Samantha hadn’t wanted to believe it either. She’d wanted more than anything to be wrong. But she was holding the proof.
Dustin had taken the prescriptions from Erin’s house. He’d hidden evidence in a murder investigation. The only questions now to be answered were why and who he was working with. Samantha didn’t believe for a second that Dustin was involved in this alone.
“I think I need to sit down.” Gary eased himself into the nearest chair beside Samantha’s desk, his eyes still focused on the bag in her hand.
“How should we handle this?”
Gary shook his head. “I don’t know. I…I can’t believe it.”
“We should put these someplace safe now. In your office? Do you have somewhere we can lock it up?”
Dustin or someone else would be back for the evidence once he realized it was missing. For real this time.
After a deep breath, Gary stood and held out his hand. “I have a filing cabinet with a key. I don’t trust them in parish evidence. Not yet.”
Samantha nodded and handed over the evidence. Until they knew what was going on and how deep this went, they needed to be careful and keep their investigation contained.
Gary disappeared into his office and returned a few moments later. “Locked up. Key’s with me. And I’ll keep my office locked too when I’m not around.”
He was going through the motions, doing the correct steps, but Samantha could tell he was still in shock. Not just that someone in their own department would do something like this, butDustinof all people.
She needed a reason. Answers. Someone else to blame.
Samantha pulled out the stack of files from his drawer, the ones that had been masking the evidence, and began flipping through them. There had to be something in here. Something that hinted at an explanation for Dustin’s connection to amurder. Something that could tell her why and who he’d gotten mixed up with.
The usual list of suspects ran through her head.
Jordan.
Not off the hook entirely yet, although it was clear now that he wasn’t the evidence thief.
Randy.
It was no secret he had a pill problem and more than his fair share of run-ins with the law, but her cousin was a reckless criminal. This was too well-planned for him. He would have made a mistake or run his mouth and gotten caught by now.
The doctor.
They had as much at stake as anyone, maybe more, but murder? That seemed a stretch. These kinds of people tended to flee in the middle of the night and set up shop in a different town.
Nathan.
Everything always came back to Nathan. A man who was used to getting what he wanted. A man who had a business and a reputation and expensive habits to uphold.
Had he finally met his match in Michael Sonnier? The one person who would never take a payoff and had a moral compass stronger than anyone you’d ever meet?
The room spun as she suddenly realized they might have missed something.
