At half past seven the next morning, Josh pulled into the motel parking lot with a box of donuts and coffee, hoping the combination of sugar and caffeine would be enough to counteract the lack of sleep from last night. More than likely he wasn’t the only one feeling sleep-deprived today. He and Caitlyn worked past midnight, trying to put the information they had into some kind of logical order before they took it to the captain.
He stepped out of the car as Quinton’s gray Ford pulled in beside him.
“I was hoping you’d have coffee.” Quinton met him on the sidewalk and held his hands out for the donuts. “From what you told me on the phone, it sounds as if Caitlyn Lindsey’s getting under your skin.”
Josh dismissed the comment with a frown. “I’m worried about her, but that’s it. And the captain did tell me to get away for a while.”
Quinton laughed as they headed for room 29. “Somehow I don’t think working on a closed case in a sleazy motel on the outskirts of the city is what he had in mind.”
“This isn’t sleazy,” Josh countered. “It’s got . . . character.”
“If you say so.” Quinton stopped to face him. “But seriously, when I told you it might be worth finding out what she wanted, this wasn’t what I was thinking of.”
“Trust me, I never imagined I’d be relooking into Olivia’s murder either. But so far we’ve been able to verify everything she came to me with.”
“I’ve got a few of my own updates to share. Does Caitlyn know I’m coming?” Quinton asked before knocking on the door to her room.
“Yeah, she knows. Though don’t be surprised if she seems a bit cautious. The last couple days have shaken her up quite a bit.”
“Frankly, I don’t blame her. I’d be spooked if I were her.”
Caitlin answered the door wearing a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt, with her hair mussed and a sleepy expression on her face.
“I didn’t wake you up, did I?”
She shot him a smile as she ushered them in. “If that’s a nice way of asking me if I just crawled out of bed, you’d be right.”
She double-locked the door once they were inside, then turned to Quinton.
“It’s nice to meet you, Detective.”
“You both had a long night, I heard,” Quinton said, shaking her hand.
“And even after Josh left, I struggled to go to sleep.”
“Looks like you’ve been doing more work,” Josh said, glancing at their board covered with sticky notes, photos, and a timeline.
“I kept working through Helen’s journal and notes. There’s a lot to go through.”
“I have a feeling you’re going to need this.” Josh handed her one of the coffees. “Did you sleep at all?”
“I feel like I heard every creak of this old motel, but I also had some pretty vivid dreams, so I know I slept some.”
Just not enough probably. Or at least that was how he was feeling.
Josh grabbed a maple donut from the box, then pulled the chair from the desk. “Hungry?”
“Not really, though I can definitely use the caffeine. Thank you.”
Quinton stopped in front of their board. “For someone who’s supposed to be on vacation, you’ve been busy.”
“True, but there’s a lot to go through here,” Josh said.
Quinton turned back to them. “Were you able to confirm that the men who attacked you in the parking garage yesterday were the same men that showed up at Helen’s house?”
“We were. We sent a couple of the photos we sent you from the tunnels to Helen’s son, and he confirmed they were the same men who came to his house claiming to be from the lab.”
“I’ve got a couple things for you, though you’re not going to like some of what I found out.”
Josh shrugged. “I haven’t liked anything about the past thirty-six hours. What have you got?”
“For starters, it looks like the car in the parking garage driven by the guys who followed you was stolen. And in fact, I almost didn’t catch it because it was a cloned vehicle.”
Caitlyn shook her head. “What does that mean?”
“It’s a common practice by organized theft rings where they use the VIN number of a legally registered car in order to cover up a theft,” Josh said. “It makes it easier for the car thieves to sell stolen vehicles and get away with it.”
“Almost like stealing the car’s identity?”
“Exactly,” Quinton said. “Which means, so far I haven’t been able to identify who was in it, though I have widened my search to include security cameras. On the positive side, I was able to trace that number you gave me from the envelope the photos were in.”
“And . . . ?” Josh asked.
“The number belonged to a Samuel Johnston.” Quinton grabbed a donut and sat down. “I spoke to him briefly on the phone. He’s a private detective here in Houston who works mainly on divorce cases but also does a lot of surveillance and tracking down missing people.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me that Dr. Abbott hired him. He was paid to follow two men, Jarred Carmichael from the lab and the assistant DA, Nigel Hayward. Then a couple weeks before he died, the doctor sent him a check and told him he didn’t need his services anymore. Johnston never tried to ID the man with the assistant DA.”
“That’s strange.”
“Agreed.”
“Did you tell him that the photos were stolen?” Josh asked.
“I did, and he sent me copies I can email you, but so far I haven’t been able to ID the man.”
“I hope you warned him to watch his back,” Caitlyn said. “They have his number now as well.”
“He knows that, but we all need to watch our backs.” Quinton took a sip of his coffee. “Because there is something else. There’s definitely something going on at the precinct.”
Josh frowned, not sure he was ready for another bombshell. “What do you mean?”
His partner shook his head. “I was called in by a couple detectives to answer some questions, then told that I needed to keep our conversation to myself or there could be consequences.”
Josh reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, feeling the beginnings of a tension headache coming on. “What did they want to know?”
“Lots of personal things about you and Olivia and how you got along.”
Josh set his coffee down on the desk behind him, his stomach knotting as he struggled to digest what Quinton was telling him.
He rubbed the back of his neck again. “If I stay here and try to run my own investigation—especially against the captain’s orders—we both could lose our jobs, Quinton. I need to go in and try to set the record straight. Answer whatever questions they’re asking. They’re going to call me in anyway, and now that we have proof that Beckmann’s alibi was good, we have the evidence we need, even if it’s just circumstantial, to look somewhere else for her killer. At least it’s enough to show them—”
“I still don’t think that would be wise.”
Josh stopped in front of Quinton. “Why not?”
“Because we don’t even know who’s behind this. Just give me another forty-eight hours until I can figure out who’s pushing this agenda. And in the meantime, my advice is for you to lay low. Act like you really are on vacation. You could use one.”
Josh sat back down, his frustration mounting. What he could use was answers. “Do you think you can find out more without getting yourself caught up in this?”
“That’s my plan. The truth will come out, Josh.”
“And in the meantime?” Josh walked back across the worn carpet toward the window, his restlessness winning out. “Because no matter how discreet we try to be, we can’t get information without asking questions.”
“There are a few more things we can do from here,” Caitlyn said. “I still need to finish going through Helen’s notebooks and the lab reports we got from Gavin. We also need to ID both the men who followed us in the tunnels and the surveillance photos from the private investigator. If they don’t have records, we could try a google image search and see if something pops up.”
“Agreed,” Quinton said. “But you both need to keep your heads down, because someone’s out there pulling the strings, and until I find out who it is, we have to be careful.”
“What about you?” Josh asked, facing his partner. “If they find out you’re helping me—”
“Don’t worry. I’m being careful.”
Josh hesitated. Careful might not be enough. Quinton had a wife and two daughters. He wasn’t going to risk his partner’s life. They needed someone on the outside who could help them. Someone who couldn’t be connected to him. And someone who had access to what they might need.
A name surfaced that might work. Josh grabbed a second donut, wondering if he was making a mistake. But there weren’t a lot of options open at this point.
“You keep up with what’s going on at the precinct,” he said, “but I have someone who might be able to help with some of the legwork.”
“Are you sure we want someone else involved?” Caitlyn asked.
“There are questions Quinton can’t ask without drawing attention to himself. I have an old friend who worked as one of my informants. His name’s Eddie Macklin. He has connections and is the kind of person that if you need information, he can get it for you. I never gave up his name in all my years of working on the force, so no one should be able to connect him to me.”
“So he’s safe,” Caitlyn said.
Josh nodded. As safe as anyone could be in a situation like this.
“And you think he’d agree to help us?” she asked.
“I think it’s worth contacting him and finding out.”
“What could he do?”
“He could ID the man in these photos, for starters.”
Quinton shook his head. “I don’t know if I like that idea. If we bring someone else in, we risk things going south.”
“And if we do nothing? What happens then?” Josh asked.
“I can do the legwork.”
Josh shook his head. “You shouldn’t be digging into this. The captain needs to see you following protocol.”
“What about your job?” Quinton asked Caitlyn. “What’s going to happen if you don’t show up? Will that raise any red flags?”
“I called my supervisor after the wreck. Asked him if I could take off a few days to recover.”
“And he agreed?”
“I sent him a photo of the car. He couldn’t exactly argue with me.”
“Good. At least you don’t have that to worry about.”
She took a sip of her coffee. “But I have been wondering if I need to go back to the lab.”
“What do you mean?” Josh asked.
“Whatever’s going on happened there.”
“Maybe, but I’m not sure that’s where you need to be right now.”
“There’s got to be a computer trail,” she said. “Helen’s lab reports are telling, but there are still a few blanks I’m working to fill in before I have the complete picture of what was going on.”
“And if whoever’s behind this discovers what you’re doing?”
Caitlyn looked up and caught his gaze. “If we’re going to discover what’s really going on, it’s a risk we’re going to have to take.”