Page 29 of Last Seen Alive
“I’m not sure why we would do that. She was the victim.”
“Uh-huh, but that victim has secrets any way I look at it. Her unregistered gun alone tells me that much. Why was it in her possession? Is it connected to a previous crime?” The ID that was most likely fake told Amanda that was quite possible.
Graves nodded, though subtly, and there was an energy Amanda sensed coming from her, like she wished she’d thought of that. “It is curious.”
Wow, she gave me an inch!“I’d like to get that gun tested. Not just for ballistics, also for prints.”
“I’ll approve that.”
Amanda went on. “Was the victim’s phone recovered?”
“No.”
“Really? There wasn’t one in her purse or the pockets of her discarded clothing?” There wouldn’t be room to hide anything in the lacy number she was wearing.
“Nope.”
“That would help us, but Claire Hunter has a sister, who lives in Dumfries. I think we should serve notification and have her go to the morgue to see if she can identify the body.”
“Fine.”
“Trent and I will also need to bring ourselves up to speed on all the evidence that was logged: crime scene photos, autopsy findings, officer interviews with Logan’s neighbors, any forensics. Then we’ll go from there.”
“All approved. Get to it.”
Amanda walked out of the office feeling taller than when she’d arrived there. Then it had been a bravado that she’d put on, but now she felt it deep inside. She and Trent were free to work the case. Hopefully, Amanda could plug the holes in this investigation—of which there were many. If she didn’t, she had the feeling Graves would be far too happy to see her downfall.
ELEVEN
“Hope you’re happy, Steele, when you’re left to admit your boyfriend’s a killer,” Fred said as he brushed past Amanda with Natalie. She’d just reached her cubicle, and the detective’s words had Trent popping his head over the divider.
“What’s he talking about?”
She went into Trent’s cubicle. “The Hunter case has been reassigned to us.”
“It… Really? How did that happen?”
“Let’s not get weighed down with that.”
“I think we should. Last I knew we weren’t allowed near the investigation, and now it’s ours. And what’s up with Hudson?”
“The murder charge against Logan is still proceeding.”
“Now I’m really lost. The case is closed, but we’re working it anyway?”
She counted to three in her head. Did she set off into a tirade, listing off all the things that didn’t line up with the so-called evidence? She’d save that—for now. It was time to come clean about her visit to the police chief. “I went to Chief Buchanan and requested the case.”
“You went over Graves’s head?” Trent let out a low whistle. “That takes balls.”
“Whatever, Trent. Logan wasn’t receiving a fair shot. It was like they’d pegged him as guilty and shut out everything else.”
“Everything else being what?”
“The woman’s sudden emergence, two guns on scene—loaded with Logan’s ammo. Then there’s the fact Logan’s SIG has hisandClaire’s prints on it. As if to suggest a struggle for control of the gun. And if Logan was clever enough to get me there to find her body, why would he be that stupid with the gun? Also, there’s the discrepancy with her name. They haven’t bothered to dig into any of this. They ran with what they saw, face value, and Logan could go to prison for life because of incompetence.” She panted for breath, frustrated, angry.
Trent said nothing for a few beats. “All right, so what do you suggest we do first?”
She ran through it as she had with Graves and told him they had to get the victim’s gun tested for ballistics and prints. She took the time to make that request immediately and made a quick phone call to the crime lab. She was put right through to crime scene investigator Emma Blair, one of the senior investigators, who said she’d make sure that happened.
