employees who found the wallet checked out. Emelina checked out. The other cleaning lady checked out. The maintenance man. The pest control guy and five different food service people. Say what you want. We’ve spent two days chasing our tails.”
“We’ve eliminated all the obvious suspects.”
“And wound up with nada. ” Randy didn’t bother trying to hide his frustration.
“You didn’t think this would be easy, did you?” If this case were going to be easy, Jack wouldn’t be working it. This meant he wouldn’t have met the beautiful director of Greywacke Lodge. Funny how things worked out sometimes. Wasn’t that what Frankie had said? “Look at these lists of purchases. I don’t see service people jetting around the country buying high-ticket items then racing back to Bluestone to clock in.”
“My money was on the family.”
That got Jack thinking. “You know, Francesca mentioned Captain Hickman had been in the hospital recently. He also did a stint at the nursing center for rehab. We need to check out who had his wallet during those stays.”
“Way ahead of you, chief.” Randy’s suddenly upbeat tone made Jack brace himself. “You’re spending too much time parading around in those dress blues. Thought of that already. Had an answer within an hour.”
“And,” Jack prompted.
“Hickman’s daughter took all her father’s personal items when she met her parents in the emergency room. She brought everything home and locked it in her own fire-safety box. Only she and her husband have keys, and both of them checked out.”
“Interesting that she didn’t give those things to her mother.”
“Her mother’s loopier than her father.” Randy looked pleased with himself. “The daughter’s words, not mine.”
Jack sank back into his chair and rubbed his temples, where a dull headache lurked. He definitely should have caught that sooner. But Randy was wrong about why Jack was so distracted.
The only reason he’d even remembered the captain’s hospital stay and subsequent rehab was because Frankie had mentioned it and he’d been busy thinking about Frankie.
The way she’d looked the day she’d arrived to run interference for her residents with the police, all friendly professionalism and no-nonsense business.
The way her cheeks had flushed in embarrassed pleasure when she’d run into him at Wal-Mart.
The way her gray eyes had flashed when she’d thought he’d been accusing her residents of…what had she said that day?
Bonnie and Clyde.
He almost smiled. He might have appreciated the humor more had his preoccupation with Frankie not had him missing the obvious. Jack was many things—single-minded and career focused among them—but he was not sloppy. Right now he needed to be on the top of his game because this investigation needed to be yesterday’s news. He wanted to explore why one lovely woman was preoccupying him in a way he’d never been preoccupied before.
The first measures of the national anthem blared over the background noise of the station and into his thoughts. Jack glanced in the direction of the sound as Randy snatched his cell phone off his desk.
“My son,” he said in explanation as he snapped the phone opened and asked, “Hey, what’s up?”
Jack glanced back at the stacks of information covering the table that served as his workstation. Scanning the hard copies of collected data, he pulled the Greywacke Lodge resident list from the stack and tuned out the sound of Randy’s conversation.
The time had come to refocus the investigation, and the place to start was with this list. Using his laptop, he pulled up Credit Alert, a national law-enforcement database with a feature that would grant him access to a view of a person’s credit status, a handy tool for law-enforcement agencies, even if it didn’t provide detailed information.
A superficial view was all Jack needed right now, just enough information to know whether or not he needed to worry about
“We’ve eliminated all the obvious suspects.”
“And wound up with nada. ” Randy didn’t bother trying to hide his frustration.
“You didn’t think this would be easy, did you?” If this case were going to be easy, Jack wouldn’t be working it. This meant he wouldn’t have met the beautiful director of Greywacke Lodge. Funny how things worked out sometimes. Wasn’t that what Frankie had said? “Look at these lists of purchases. I don’t see service people jetting around the country buying high-ticket items then racing back to Bluestone to clock in.”
“My money was on the family.”
That got Jack thinking. “You know, Francesca mentioned Captain Hickman had been in the hospital recently. He also did a stint at the nursing center for rehab. We need to check out who had his wallet during those stays.”
“Way ahead of you, chief.” Randy’s suddenly upbeat tone made Jack brace himself. “You’re spending too much time parading around in those dress blues. Thought of that already. Had an answer within an hour.”
“And,” Jack prompted.
“Hickman’s daughter took all her father’s personal items when she met her parents in the emergency room. She brought everything home and locked it in her own fire-safety box. Only she and her husband have keys, and both of them checked out.”
“Interesting that she didn’t give those things to her mother.”
“Her mother’s loopier than her father.” Randy looked pleased with himself. “The daughter’s words, not mine.”
Jack sank back into his chair and rubbed his temples, where a dull headache lurked. He definitely should have caught that sooner. But Randy was wrong about why Jack was so distracted.
The only reason he’d even remembered the captain’s hospital stay and subsequent rehab was because Frankie had mentioned it and he’d been busy thinking about Frankie.
The way she’d looked the day she’d arrived to run interference for her residents with the police, all friendly professionalism and no-nonsense business.
The way her cheeks had flushed in embarrassed pleasure when she’d run into him at Wal-Mart.
The way her gray eyes had flashed when she’d thought he’d been accusing her residents of…what had she said that day?
Bonnie and Clyde.
He almost smiled. He might have appreciated the humor more had his preoccupation with Frankie not had him missing the obvious. Jack was many things—single-minded and career focused among them—but he was not sloppy. Right now he needed to be on the top of his game because this investigation needed to be yesterday’s news. He wanted to explore why one lovely woman was preoccupying him in a way he’d never been preoccupied before.
The first measures of the national anthem blared over the background noise of the station and into his thoughts. Jack glanced in the direction of the sound as Randy snatched his cell phone off his desk.
“My son,” he said in explanation as he snapped the phone opened and asked, “Hey, what’s up?”
Jack glanced back at the stacks of information covering the table that served as his workstation. Scanning the hard copies of collected data, he pulled the Greywacke Lodge resident list from the stack and tuned out the sound of Randy’s conversation.
The time had come to refocus the investigation, and the place to start was with this list. Using his laptop, he pulled up Credit Alert, a national law-enforcement database with a feature that would grant him access to a view of a person’s credit status, a handy tool for law-enforcement agencies, even if it didn’t provide detailed information.
A superficial view was all Jack needed right now, just enough information to know whether or not he needed to worry about
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