man, but he was young and green. “Why don’t you just listen to my proposition? Even Emma thinks it’s a good idea.”
“Emma likes playing detective.”
“That doesn’t mean I want Jake getting hurt in the process,” said Emma. “I think it’s a good plan.”
“Fine. Tell me.”
“We’ll form a partnership, pool resources, and share information. By working together, we’ll be better positioned to track down the killer.”
“What kind of partnership?”
“There are resources the police have that I don’t. With Roger giving me authority to act on his behalf, there will be resources open to me that would take you a court order to get to.”
“And we’ve seen that people will talk to us, who wouldn’t exactly open up to the police,” added Emma.
“I’ll run it by the Captain. I hate the idea, but we have to do something. If we wait until I can get back out there, the killer’s gonna have a big head start on us.”
Captain Danning didn’t like the idea either when Matt spoke with him, but when Jake made it clear he was determined to undertake the investigation with or without the police, Danning eventually agreed that it would be best if they worked together. After some grumbling from the City Attorney, the Chief signed off on it and the partnership lurched into action.
***
“We’ll go over everything we know and see where that leads us.” Jake, Emma and Grace were assembled in Kristy’s spacious living room, listening to Matt outline their plan of attack. “Let’s start with the burglary.”
“Do we know they’re connected?” asked Kristy. She was standing next to a large white dry-erase board Jake had bought with a credit card Roger had given him to cover expenses. Marker poised, she was looking expectantly at Matt.
“I don’t like coincidence. Until we know they’re not, we should assume they are.” He looked around the table where they were assembled and as heads nodded, Kristy wrote Burglary onto the board. “We know they had a code. We don’t know how they got it. We know they only took items of good value that were small and easy to carry.”
“They?” asked Grace. “Do we know there was more than one person?”
“Good point, Grace. We don’t know how many people are involved.”
“Someone at the alarm company would have to be involved,” noted Jake. “Someone had to re-activate that code.”
“Morty’s looking into that.”
“Has anything showed up in pawn shops?” asked Emma.
Matt shook his head. “We sent out the pictures the Hills gave us. We’re also keeping an eye on Internet sales sites, but there are so many places to sell these days it’s hard to keep track of them all.”
“They could sell it on the streets, too,” said Jake. “By the time the item surfaces, it may have changed hands two or three times.”
“Other than coincidence,” said Emma, with a nod to Matt, “I can’t see why anyone would break into Roger’s house then go after Steven. I don’t see the connection.”
“Hill Energy,” said Grace.
“That’s my theory too,” agreed Matt. “Jake suggested maybe a disgruntled employee. With oil prices tanking, a lotta guys who were making six figure incomes are hitting the bricks with nothing but unemployment to live on.”
“We were just talking about that at Greeters,” said Kristy. “Businesses don’t want to hire them because they know the minute oil and gas comes back, they can’t compete with those salaries.” She wrote Hill Energy on the board with a question mark.
“What did the ballistics’ report say, Matt?” asked Jake, once they’d agreed they had exhausted what they knew about the burglary.
“There were three shots fired. One hit the wall above the bookcase that was standing beside the door.” Matt sketched a rough outline of the murder scene for them. “The next two hit Hill in the back. One went clean through his left lung and lodged in the closet door, which means it would have
“Emma likes playing detective.”
“That doesn’t mean I want Jake getting hurt in the process,” said Emma. “I think it’s a good plan.”
“Fine. Tell me.”
“We’ll form a partnership, pool resources, and share information. By working together, we’ll be better positioned to track down the killer.”
“What kind of partnership?”
“There are resources the police have that I don’t. With Roger giving me authority to act on his behalf, there will be resources open to me that would take you a court order to get to.”
“And we’ve seen that people will talk to us, who wouldn’t exactly open up to the police,” added Emma.
“I’ll run it by the Captain. I hate the idea, but we have to do something. If we wait until I can get back out there, the killer’s gonna have a big head start on us.”
Captain Danning didn’t like the idea either when Matt spoke with him, but when Jake made it clear he was determined to undertake the investigation with or without the police, Danning eventually agreed that it would be best if they worked together. After some grumbling from the City Attorney, the Chief signed off on it and the partnership lurched into action.
***
“We’ll go over everything we know and see where that leads us.” Jake, Emma and Grace were assembled in Kristy’s spacious living room, listening to Matt outline their plan of attack. “Let’s start with the burglary.”
“Do we know they’re connected?” asked Kristy. She was standing next to a large white dry-erase board Jake had bought with a credit card Roger had given him to cover expenses. Marker poised, she was looking expectantly at Matt.
“I don’t like coincidence. Until we know they’re not, we should assume they are.” He looked around the table where they were assembled and as heads nodded, Kristy wrote Burglary onto the board. “We know they had a code. We don’t know how they got it. We know they only took items of good value that were small and easy to carry.”
“They?” asked Grace. “Do we know there was more than one person?”
“Good point, Grace. We don’t know how many people are involved.”
“Someone at the alarm company would have to be involved,” noted Jake. “Someone had to re-activate that code.”
“Morty’s looking into that.”
“Has anything showed up in pawn shops?” asked Emma.
Matt shook his head. “We sent out the pictures the Hills gave us. We’re also keeping an eye on Internet sales sites, but there are so many places to sell these days it’s hard to keep track of them all.”
“They could sell it on the streets, too,” said Jake. “By the time the item surfaces, it may have changed hands two or three times.”
“Other than coincidence,” said Emma, with a nod to Matt, “I can’t see why anyone would break into Roger’s house then go after Steven. I don’t see the connection.”
“Hill Energy,” said Grace.
“That’s my theory too,” agreed Matt. “Jake suggested maybe a disgruntled employee. With oil prices tanking, a lotta guys who were making six figure incomes are hitting the bricks with nothing but unemployment to live on.”
“We were just talking about that at Greeters,” said Kristy. “Businesses don’t want to hire them because they know the minute oil and gas comes back, they can’t compete with those salaries.” She wrote Hill Energy on the board with a question mark.
“What did the ballistics’ report say, Matt?” asked Jake, once they’d agreed they had exhausted what they knew about the burglary.
“There were three shots fired. One hit the wall above the bookcase that was standing beside the door.” Matt sketched a rough outline of the murder scene for them. “The next two hit Hill in the back. One went clean through his left lung and lodged in the closet door, which means it would have
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