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After a half hour of searching and beginning to feel part fool and part lunatic, she sat down on the floor and leaned against the wall “Maybe I a my mind”
As she leaned forward to rise, her gaze caught sight of so frorabbed a chair, positioned it under the light, and clilass until it slid over a s, she plucked the metal disc from the underside
She held it up to the light, triu device
For several long seconds, she stared at it, the sound of her heartbeat thudding hard in her ears Philip You bastard Slowly, she closed her fingers over the device
Four years ago, she’d have screa! She’d have battled hysteria Cried And then she would have s the cops But not today Today she was smarter Afraid, yes, but wiser
Carefully, she reattached the listening piece to the underside of the light fixture and s the trap
Chapter Twenty-One
Monday, January 23, 3 PM
Deke arrived at the forensics lab office after three He showed his badge at the front desk and then swiped his access card, allowing hiia in the lab, staring into a microscope Her red hair isted into a topknot and a deep frown furrowed her brow
“Froht you ho,” he said
She glanced up, her green eyes dark with curiosity “I had three older brothers waiting for enius baby that I was, I knew that meant trouble”
He chuckled “You were right It’s a wonder Mom didn’t equip you with your own sidearm”
“Believe un, but she said it wasn’t a good idea for a five-year-old to be packing”
“Didn’t you ask Santa for a pistol one year?”
She laughed “No one would give me one, so I went to the man himself”
He rubbed his hand over his head “Daun?”
“I think I requested a nine-millimeter Beretta like Dad’s”
“Jesus It’s a wonder Santa didn’t call child protective services”
“Santa was an off-duty copan extra buck He knew Dad had a houseful of hellions”
“Ah, well” He leaned against the side of the desk “I understand you have an identification on my victim”
She pushed away froh a stack of files until she found the right one “The one with parts ?”
“That would be the one”
“I do” She opened a manila folder and read her scrawled notes “You read Dr Heller’s report The victim was dismembered postmortem”
“I did”
“I’ DNA with the John Doe you found in the warehouse Remember the one without hands, feet, and a head?”
“Stands to reason the two ht be one and the same victim”
“We’ll see But I knoned the hands and feet because I pulled a good clean print froht hand We can thank the cold weather for that”
Deke reached for his phone to text the findings to Alex If the victiht break “That’s about the only reason to like winter”
“Do you think we’ll ever see suain?”
“I’ll re buckets at a crime scene”
Slanced at her notes “I ran the victiot a hit Lucky for us, he was in the ht years in the army His name was Brian Lawrence”
The naive him a possible address, job, and known associates He texted the update to Alex “So uy was Philip Latimer”
“The guy by the river isn’t Latimer I have no conclusive information on the warehouse victim”
“Guy gets out of the military with honors and a year later ends up in pieces on the banks of the Cumberland River”
Deke had learned long ago not to becoer, revenge, and guilt could be a hell of a motivator, but they could turn out to be your worst eneuy”