The crime-scene-tech supervisor this time was a pretty blonde with big blue eyes and a sexy way of walking that Jake had noticed before. She’d interned at the TSP a while back before being injured in a shooting a few days after the storm. She was damned smart, sexy as hell, and thoroughly in love with the sheriff of Barratt County.
From what he understood, the adoration was returned by that sheriff.
There was a lot of love floating around him lately.
It made Jake all the crankier.
“Deputy Moore…or is it Addy, now?”
“Addy as of three weeks ago.”
“Congratulations. Hope he knows what he’s got.” Sheriff Addy was a connection of the Barratts, he thought. He’d met the man a time or two and thought he was a cousin of the mayor. More than that, he’d seemed like a good and honest cop.
Jake respected that.
“He does. I remind him frequently. We were called in,” Bailey said. She fastened the snaps on what Jake called the paper burritos. It was TSP policy for forensics to wear sterile coveralls on all scenes. “I’m going to dust for prints now.”
“For a smash and grab?” That didn’t make a damned bit of sense to Jake. Then again, the assistant commander of major crimes shouldn’t have been called out for a simple smash and grab, either. No, this had bigger connections—or someone had called in a favor with either Elliot or Dan. Jake suspected he was that favor.
“Chief Marshall wants you on this,” Bailey said. “Do you know whose condo this is?”
Jake shook his head. Bailey tucked a lock of straight blond hair up into the hairnet.
Had she not been so hung up on that husband of hers, he would’ve pursued it a bit more than he had when she’d interned at the Finley Creek TSP.
They’d had two dates and a few seriously hot kisses between them long before shit had hit the fan for her and she’d been wounded in a massive case that had involved FBI from far away as St. Louis. She’d been shot again just after the storm. She and Izzie both.
Bailey was a friend of his niece. She asked about Izzie as they walked toward the condo entrance. He reassured her that Izzie was recuperating with friends near the Gulf, and would be back in Finley Creek once the bruises faded. Bailey thought Izzie had been injured in a car accident—so apparently, the false reports were working.
That was good. It would buy him more time—and more protection for his niece.
“Never mind all that, how are you feeling? It’s good to see you back on the job. Though here in Finley Creek surprises me.”
“Policy states that I can’t work directly with my husband.” A smile stretched her pretty face at the word husband. “Plus, this position was already in the works before the storm destroyed everything. Haldyn and Chief Marshall asked me specifically to take the supervisor’s position. Chuckie and I are partnering up today because we’re shorthanded. Elliot said that this was a personal case. For him and for you.”
They fell into step together. Jake was careful to not bump and contaminate the paper burrito.
“Why?”
“The condo belongs to Allen Jacobson. The doctor who is good friends with Nikkie Jean.”
“I know Jacobson.” It would be Jacobson’s place. That man was involved to his eyebrows in whatever hell was going on at FCGH. He just kept coming up in everything Jake looked into. He fought a curse as he approached the fancy digs. “So what the hell do we know so far?”
“Neighbor called it in. The whole place has been trashed. It looks as if someone was searching for something. What, nobody really knows yet.”
“And?” There was something. She might be forensics now, but Bailey was one hell of a TSP investigator. “Initial thoughts?”
“No one can find Allen Jacobson. He’s not at the conference he’s been rumored to be at. He’s not answering his cell phone. No one knows where he is at all. With this…I hope nothing has happened to him. I’ve met him several times in the W4HAV building. I like him.”
Jake’s stomach sank like lead. He knew about as well as anyone where the man was.
With Izzie. All that stood between her and the threats. Jake didn’t trust Jacobson at all.
This…this made that distrust so much worse.