Page 72 of Night Watch
When he was out of earshot, she leaned closer to Erik and lowered her voice. “You know they’re going to confirm his alibi.”
He nodded. “But we need more proof than this guy’s word that he was where he said he was.”
18
Erik checked his email after a quick lunch in his condo with Kennedy. A message arrived from Mackenzie Steele, and he clicked it open.
“Got the video from Mackenzie,” he said to Kennedy, who was sitting across the table littered with dishes from their takeout sandwiches and potato chips.
Kennedy hurried around the end of the table, and he started the video playing from the lab’s main building. The security camera caught the man who’d gone into the lab scurrying across the parking lot, then darting over the highway, barely slipping in front of a semi-truck before racing down the bank to a small aluminum fishing boat moored in the river.
“Didn’t expect that,” Erik said as the guy hopped into the boat and propelled slowly away from the shore.
“Stop,” Kennedy cried out. “He threw something in the water. Go back and zoom in.”
Erik rewound to that location and enlarged the frame. “A handgun. He’s pitching a handgun into the water.”
Kennedy whipped her gaze to Erik. “He must not want to get caught with the gun.”
Erik took a moment to calm his excitement. “Sounds likely. Attempted burglary is a class-three felony, but attempted burglary with a weapon is a class-two. Plus, he might’ve used that gun in another crime and doesn’t want it connected to him.”
“We need to get over there and recover it.” She stepped back to leave.
“Hold up. Let’s see if I can make out any boat registration details first.” He rewound the file again and zoomed in on the information on the hull of the boat as it pulled away from shore. He squinted, but the writing was too blurry to read.
Kennedy twisted her hands together and then winced and rested her injured hand on the table. “We need to find that gun.”
Erik didn’t want her going down there, and he especially didn’t want her heading to an area out in the open without a threat assessment. “It’s been three days. Other than the gun, we’d have no way of knowing if he left any other evidence behind or someone else did. And the gun could’ve washed downriver by now.”
“We have to at least look for it.” She crossed her arms. “The area isn’t heavily trafficked, so odds are good that if we recover evidence, it’ll be from him.”
“Fine.” Erik stood. “I’ll send Sierra.”
“Someone has to dive for that gun, and that someone will be me. Plus, he could’ve dumped something else.”
Erik had known this was coming. “We didn’t see him dump anything else.”
“You never know.” She tightened her arms and narrowed her eyes.
He still didn’t like this. “What about your hand? Is it a good idea to go into the water with open wounds?”
“I can wear neoprene gloves.” She pled with her eyes. “Go back to your law enforcement days. If you were investigating this case, would you find the best diver you could to do the search? If I wasn’t doing the dive, would you call someone in?”
“Yeah,” he said, wishing he didn’t have to admit it.
“And you’d want the very best?”
He nodded.
“So let’s go.”
He lifted his hand. “Not so fast. I don’t want to take you out there, but I will. To do it safely, we need to meet with my brothers and create a plan.”
She sighed. “Every minute we wait is a minute evidence could be destroyed.”
“And every minute we don’t plan is a minute you could be killed.” He planted his hands on the table. “This isn’t negotiable, Kennedy. We do it my way or not at all.”
She jerked her head toward the hallway. “I could just walk out that door.”
