Pete had immediately flown down to land on the pier the minute he saw Jane. She opened the small cooler she carried and tossed small fish into Pete’s gular pouch. His throat bulged as he swallowed down his food. When the cooler was empty, his large wings lifted him back into the air, and he continued to hunt on his own.
Jane bent over and rinsed her hands in the seawater. “They’re probably bringing Will lunch about now.”
Reid nodded. The pain of knowing what Will was going through was almost too much to bear. Reid was hanging on to his composure by his fingertips. All his words to Jane haunted him too. It was one thing to proclaim that he trusted God and another to actually feel it past all the doubts clamoring to be heard.
God was all they had right now. And he was enough. He had to be.
“I talked to Augusta. She tried to call to warn me of the blood spatter evidence that had turned up, but I’d already gone inside the courthouse without my phone. She was going to call Lauren’s neighbors this morning, so I gave her the names and numbers we collected. She hadn’t gotten that far yet.”
“I thought you wanted to call them.”
She stared out over the water. “I did, but Augusta insisted she and Jackson should do it. She’s right. I’ve got to trust them.”
“We love him more than they do.”
Jane brought her anguished gaze back to him. “But if we interfere, that evidence might be inadmissible. We could be accused of tampering with things or leading the witness. It would be awful to have the evidence that would release Will and then see it thrown out because of something we did. I have to back off. I have to.”
He didn’t want to agree, but there was no choice. “So what’s next?”
“I’ve got Gail’s case to investigate, but we can also be thinking of anything we can throw Augusta’s way to check out. I told her about the Google Earth picture I sent to Nora, and she’s going to follow up on it.”
He shifted and frowned. It felt wrong to leave this in someone else’s hands. It had been one thing to do it when they thought they’d get Will out, but the stakes were higher with him accused of murder.
“I know, I know,” she said, reading his expression in a glance. “It doesn’t mean we aren’t looking into things too. But she needs to be the one interrogating possible witnesses.”
He leaned back on his hands propped behind him. “I don’t know what to do.”
He’d been trying so hard to be strong—for her, for Will. Faced with inactivity, his confidence wavered. How many days would their son have to spend behind bars? And would he even be the same kid when he was released?
“I’ll be constantly thinking of other places to dig, and Augusta promised she’d look under every rock I find. I’m barely holding on to doing the right thing here, Reid. You have to be with me.”
“I’m with you.” He took her hand. “Of course I’m with you. I need to keep reminding myself that doing the other investigation will free up Augusta and Jackson to find out the truth. We’re doing our part.”
“Exactly.” She consulted her notepad. “Have you heard anything from Elliot?”
“Not yet. He thought he’d have something by today, so I’m trying to be patient.”
Gulls gathered at their side, and Reid stood and shooed one away when it tried to peck at his shoestrings. Parker growled and lunged at it, and it flew away. Reid wished he could drive off his fear as easily.
Jane got to her feet as well and consulted her pad again. “I need to take a look at Gail’s lab. If Finn believed his test was falsified, maybe other complaints exist. I’m going to call the Department of Public Health and see what I can uncover.”
He nodded. “I’ll give Elliot a call and see if he’s got anything too.” Anything was better than twiddling his thumbs out here by the water, as beautiful as it was.
While Jane walked farther out on the pier toward the sailboats bobbing in the waves, he pulled out his phone and dialed Elliot.
“I was just about to call you, boss.” Elliot’s voice held a thread of excitement. “You won’t believe what I found. Lauren knew that other victim, Gail Briscoe.”
“What? How do you know?”
“I found Lauren’s email account and hacked in. They met when Lauren first came to town, and they became drinking buddies. Gail was helping her gather information about you.”
“Wow. Are you suspicious Lauren killed Gail or am I grasping at straws?”
“You nailed it, boss. Gail was asking for money or she was going to tell you what she knew about Lauren. They had an argument by email. I’ve compiled their conversations in one document, and I’m emailing it to you now.”
This made Jane’s investigation into Gail’s murder all the more pertinent. Or did it? Even if Lauren killed Gail, who killed Lauren?
Unless there was an accomplice behind both of them.
“Any idea who the man in Lauren’s life was?”
“I haven’t been able to get into her other email account. It’s encrypted, but I’m working on it.”
For the first time since the nightmare began, Reid started to think they might solve this, that they’d find the faceless figure behind this mess.
Twenty-Three
Jane stood at the end of the pier and stared out over the whitecaps. The breeze lifted her hair, and she inhaled the aroma of seaweed and saltwater. Pete had followed her out here and perched on the end of the pier by her feet. He eyeballed Parker when the dog plopped beside him, but after several years of contact with the dog, he wasn’t frightened off.
“Ms. Briscoe was about to be arrested?” Had Jane heard that right? This would turn the entire investigation on its head.
“That’s correct, Chief Hardy. A complaint was filed against her, and we have proof she forged a doctor’s signature about drug test results. We were about to execute the warrant when we learned of her tragic death,” the board of health employee said.
“Any chance the author of that complaint was Finn Presley?”
“Mr. Presley brought that charge, yes.”
“And he died in the fire too.”
“Our investigation ended when Ms. Briscoe died, so I was unaware of that detail. I’d heard a firefighter died, but I hadn’t heard the name. An interesting development. I wonder if Mr. Presley would have known her address when he went into the house.”
“I spoke with his ex-wife, and I believe he knew where she lived and had tried to talk to her.”
“Interesting. Let me know what you find out.”
“Could you send over details of your investigation?”
“Of course.”
Jane gave the woman her email and ended the call. She turned to find Reid striding toward her on the pier. His excited expression made her heart leap. Could Will be about to be released?
He reached her and held up his phone. “Elliot found out that Lauren knew Gail!”
Jane absorbed the news. “That’s definitely odd, but Gail died before Lauren, so their friendship doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Lauren’s death.”
“Maybe it does. We still don’t know who her lover was. What if he’s the one behind all of this? Maybe he killed both women.”