Page 8 of Now You See Me

“I agree and we can do that when we’ve figured out what’s happened to her.” He rubbed her back. “With luck, Rio and Wolfe have solved the crime and Rowley has collected a ton of evidence.” He stepped away and took her hand. “Come on, if we wait here much longer, poor old Duke will freeze to the sidewalk.” He led her toward the steps. “The steps are slippery, hold on tight.”

Blowing out a cloud of steam, Jenna looked down Main. “It’s okay. They’re spreading salt along the sidewalk. I’ll ask Maggie to make sure they give the steps a good coating.”

“Come on, Duke.” Kane pushed open the door. He smiled at Jenna. “You go see the guys and I’ll fill the coffee pot.” He waved at Maggie and headed for the stairs.

The deputies and Wolfe were congregated around the kitchenette at the back of the office. After speaking with Maggie about salting the steps, Jenna headed toward them. “Morning. Any progress on the warrant?”

“Not yet.” Rowley sipped from a steaming cup of coffee. “It shouldn’t be long. I’m waiting on a call to go and collect it. The judge’s secretary said she’d make sure he made a decision before court at ten this morning.”

“There’s a few things we need to discuss.” Wolfe’s expression gave nothing away.

“Yeah, I’ll need to bring you up to date too.” Rio pushed away from the counter.

Nodding, Jenna turned on her heel. “Okay, my office and someone please turn up the heat.”

Standing at the whiteboard, pen in hand, Jenna glanced at Kane. “I doubt any other law enforcement office goes to such lengths to find a missing person. It’s only been a couple of days. She could be back with her boyfriend by now for all we know.”

“That’s not going to happen.” Rio leaned against the counter, his fingers wrapped around a cup of coffee. “Her boyfriend, Zander Hastings, was found dead on Tuesday morning. The local PD were reluctant to give out information as it’s not our case, so I called Wolfe.”

“I called the Idaho ME’s office and they sent over the autopsy report and photographs of the scene.” Wolfe’s gaze narrowed. “The ME gave the cause of death as a heroin overdose.” He dropped a folder on Jenna’s desk.

Jenna made a note on the whiteboard and linked it with Maisy Jones. She turned back to Wolfe. “Do you think she left him and he overdosed?”

“They have his time of death as between late Friday and Saturday night.” Wolfe raised both eyebrows. “Which means he died around the time she left Idaho.”

“I’ve been hunting down his friends, clients and family.” Rio sipped his coffee. “The one thing they all said about him was he was a health fanatic—organic food, vegan, protein shakes and the like. He never drank coffee or smoked in his life.” He cleared his throat. “He had broken up with Maisy and was seeing someone else. They all said he was happy. There’d be no need to take his own life.”

The room fell silent with the implications. Mind whirling with possibilities, Jenna returned the pen to its holder and picked up the folder. She laid out the photographs over her desk and peered at them. Hastings was in a vehicle, leaning back in the driver’s seat, a strip of rubber tubing tied around one arm. A syringe hung by a needle from his arm. In her time as DEA Special Agent Avril Parker, Jenna had seen too many overdoses.

“Can you deliver this much heroin using a one-milliliter syringe?” Kane frowned at the toxicology report. “He’d pass out trying to reload the needle, wouldn’t he?” He shuffled through the images. “This isn’t right. There’s no drug preparation paraphernalia in the vehicle.”

“Yeah, y’all be familiar with the usual types of street heroin. It’s a powder heated in a spoon and injected.” Wolfe indicated to the images with his chin. “What I saw here sent up a red flag, so I looked a little deeper. I’ve asked for blood samples to run my own tests because there’s something else that concerns me.” He looked at Jenna. “I have the autopsy images. There’s something there that might explain the amount of heroin in his system.” He laid his tablet on the desk and scrolled through the images. “The family wants the body released for cremation, but I’ve requested more information. I asked for close-ups taken of the body after noticing something on the neck.”

Everyone crowded around behind Jenna as Wolfe enlarged one image of Hasting’s head turned to one side. “What are we looking at, Shane?”

“A needle mark on the neck, for one, and this man wasn’t an addict. Apart from the lack of linear needle track scars, his body and internal organs don’t show the results of an addict.” Wolfe blew out a breath. “The problem here is, when people find someone with a needle in their arm, they usually test the residue in the syringe, and then log it as an accidental overdose. Many don’t find their way onto an autopsy table. Hastings’ parents paid for the autopsy because they wouldn’t believe he’d taken his own life or overdosed.” He sighed. “I figure what we’re looking at here is liquid heroin. It’s heated black tar heroin mixed with water and is easily used without the usual paraphernalia. The needle in the arm is clumsy. It may not have hit the vein but it wouldn’t be necessary if someone administered five milliliters into his carotid artery.”

Incredulity swept over Jenna as she stared at the images and then at Wolfe. “Do you think he was murdered?”

“Yeah, I do, and I think you’re hunting down a missing woman who is more than likely the one who murdered him.” Wolfe straightened. “I’ll do what I can to prevent the cremation. I’ll speak to Hastings’ parents and offer to clear their son’s name. I don’t have jurisdiction in Idaho, but as we might be harboring his killer in Black Rock Falls, I could offer to fly the body here for examination.” He looked at Jenna. “I figure it would be about a two-hour round trip. I’ll be landing on the closest helipad, signing a few documents and flying back. No wait, no delay, but I’ll only suggest this if you approve, Jenna.”

Nodding slowly, Jenna tried to take it all in. “If you can get his parents to agree, I think it’s the best course of action. You’ll have to fly the body back to Idaho when you’re done. Do we have funding for that?”

“Yeah, my budget is a little higher than yours.” Wolfe smiled at her. “If you don’t need me for anything else, I’ll get at it.”

“Thank you.” Jenna returned the smile. “You’re a genius.” She waited for him to leave and turned to the others. “Rowley, head over to the courthouse and see if the judge has signed that warrant. Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Yeah.” Rio placed his coffee cup on the counter and turned to her. “Maisy’s prints were in the vehicle, but she’d ridden in his truck all the time. What caught my attention was that they didn’t find prints on the syringe.” He sighed. “Trust me, addicts don’t wipe their prints off a syringe.”

“Nope, with a dose that high he’d have been out in a few seconds.” Kane stared at the report and then dropped it back onto the desk. “If Maisy killed Hastings, why did she tell people her plans to come here looking for work?” He scratched his cheek. “It doesn’t make sense. If nobody knew she’d come here, she could hide off the grid forever.”

“Really? You don’t know?” Jenna shook her head in disbelief. “She left no evidence to indicate she committed the crime. It’s all circumstantial, and if she went to trial, telling people where she was headed will be seen as a presumption of innocence. She’d get off on reasonable doubt. This is one smart cookie.”

TEN

Pulling off his gloves, Rowley headed inside the office and handed the warrant to Maggie on the front counter. “Scan this into the files for me please and then I’ll go tell Jenna the good news.”

“Maybe you should take a look at this before I log it into lost and found.” Maggie pointed to a backpack resting on the front desk. “Wendy from Aunt Betty’s was on her way to work just before and found this backpack on the side of the road. It was about fifty yards from the Black Rock Falls sign heading in the direction of Blackwater. She picked it up figuring a kid maybe had dropped it on the way to school and then found a phone not two feet from it in the snow. She said she searched all around but there was no sign of anyone, no footprints in the snow, and she figures she’d have seen them as the snowfall we had yesterday is frozen solid this morning and the backpack was right on the top.” She frowned. “Maybe it fell from the top of a vehicle, but with people going missing all the time in these parts, I told her to set it down right there on the counter and she placed the phone into an evidence bag. I’ve been waiting for the sheriff to finish her meeting. I didn’t want to disturb her, but seeing as that girl is missing, I figured I shouldn’t touch it.”

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