Page 67 of Night Watch
“Congratulations on the upcoming wedding.” Kennedy gave Clay a luminous smile. “I’m so happy you found someone who makes you smile like you do when you talk about her.”
“Oh, he’s hooked all right.” Erik laughed.
“And proud of it.” He punched Erik in the arm. “Time you took the same plunge.”
Erik opened his mouth to protest but Clay started across the room and down the hallway.
“He really looks happy.”
“He is. As are all my siblings right now. Family gatherings are almost enough to make you want to gag,” he said, but honestly, he enjoyed seeing everyone happy.
Odd that he really hadn’t been jealous until that moment. Until Kennedy came back into his life. But that wasn’t something he would dwell on.
“You should know,” Erik said as he went to the end of the table and lifted two of the three boxes onto it. “I researched Tile trackers while Sierra and Grady did their thing and found out that they don’t have serial numbers, just a Bluetooth ID. Once we know who put the device in your bag, we can tie the account to that person via that ID, but it won’t allow us to trace the trackers back to the owner now.”
“Another dead-end then.”
“For now, yes.” He slid one of the boxes over to Kennedy. “Let me grab gloves in case we find something important.” He dug in his computer case for two pairs, then handed one to Kennedy.
She opened a box, and he lifted the lid on the one next to it. He started digging to find it contained mostly awards, desk supplies, and old journals, which he set on the table. In the bottom of the box, he found a leather-bound book that raised his hope for a lead.
“Calendar and diary,” he said to Kennedy and sat down to look through it. He set the book on the table and it opened in the middle.
“See this.” He pointed at the paper near the spine. “Someone ripped pages from the book in the diary section.”
“My mom could’ve done it.”
He met her gaze. “Yeah, or someone who didn’t want anyone to read what she’d written.”
“What’s before and after the missing pages?”
He turned back a few pages. “Before it are notes about student labs she wanted to include in her curriculum.”
“And after?”
He flipped more pages. “She was going to propose a research project for her advanced students. She’s made a list of pros and cons she would use to get her supervisors on board with it.”
“Does she say what they would research?”
“Medicinal chemistry and blood cancers.”
Kennedy rubbed a hand on her forehand. “I didn’t know she was interested in that.”
“Did she know anyone with a blood cancer?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Do you think she might’ve had cancer?”
Kennedy’s eyes flashed open. “Wouldn’t they have found that in an autopsy?”
He shrugged. “That’s a question we need to ask a medical examiner.”
Kennedy shook her head. “Surely if she was sick, Finley would’ve seen it. It’s too late to ask her about it tonight, but I will first thing in the morning.”
“And speaking of morning, we need to get to work so I can get at least a few hours of beauty sleep before interviewing the guy in the photo.” Erik chuckled.
Kennedy’s narrowed eyes said she found no humor in his comment. “You don’t even know his name.”
