Page 19 of Night Hawk
“I totally get that. I want to get a dog someday, but I’m not home long enough even to feed a goldfish.”
“Erik got a dog,” he said as if his brother’s actions proved anything. “Erik’s really into vintage video games, so he named the dog Pong. He’s trained as a sniffer dog for electronics.”
She leaned back and tipped her head, looking casual. “Sniffer for electronics? Never heard of such a thing.”
“Not a lot of these dogs in the service.” He rested against the wall. “You remember when that spokesman for the fast food place was found guilty of possessing child-porn and having sex with underage girls?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Over a dozen federal agents missed a key piece of evidence at Fogel’s place that a trained K-9 found. The flash drive containing child-porn images would never have been located without a sniffer dog. We haven’t used Pong on the job yet, but who knows? He might come in handy someday.”
The doors opened, and they stepped into the hallway.
She turned to look at him. “Be honest with me. Do you think whoever put the snake in the closet and started the fire really wanted to kill us?”
He glanced at her. “I’d rather not think we have a target on our backs, but there’s no other good explanation.”
“But they couldn’t know we’d come alone.”
“True, except the note told us to do so if we wanted to get the information.” He opened the lobby door. “Is your note in the boxes?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I’d like to give them to Sierra to analyze. Maybe she can find the lead we need to really move this investigation forward.”
5
Being in law enforcement, Toni had heard great things about the Veritas Center and always wanted to tour the place. But, man, the building was even more impressive than she’d imagined. She hadn’t even been able to find the words to say how great the glass-enclosed skybridge was that connected two six-story towers at the top, and the warm feeling of the lobby that sat between them on the ground floor. It was all so unexpected for a place that processed crime forensics.
But the lab vibe came through loud and clear as they walked down the hallway in the lab tower, planning to leave their letters for Sierra to process in the morning. Clay pressed his fingers against print readers to get the door unlocked and opened it. She heard fans humming in the background, but still, a hint of caustic chemical smell rose up to meet her. The place held more high quality machines than most local police labs. It seemed to be on par with the FBI’s national lab in Quantico, Virginia, although much smaller.
“What are you still doing up?” Clay marched straight over to Sierra, who was sitting at a table in the middle of the room.
Dark circles hung under her eyes, and strands of hair had escaped her ponytail.
Clay lifted her from her stool by the elbow. “Come on. You look awful, and you’re going to bed.”
“Gee, thanks.” She eyed her brother. “I wanted to get through my photos from the high school.”
“I thought you turned everything over to the Bureau forensic team,” Toni said.
“I made a copy of the pictures before I gave them the memory card.” Sierra grinned, and Toni looked for a resemblance to Clay’s bright smile but didn’t see any at all.
Clay crossed his arms. “Resting for the baby is more important than reviewing the pictures.”
Sierra opened her mouth, looking like she planned to argue.
Clay moved closer. “Don’t make me wake Reed up. You know I will.”
“Fine. I’ll leave right after I lock up this evidence.” She grabbed three bags lying on a table covered in white paper. “You go ahead and get Toni settled for the night. I can find my own condo.”
“And have you go back to work the minute we leave?” He eyed his sister. “Not happening.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Not purposefully, but I can just see it. You discover or think of something on the way to the evidence lockers and forget you were on your way out.”
“Fine, then. Hold on.” She took the bags across the room to the lockers.
