Page 87 of Night Hawk
“And your only sister is missing.”
“Yeah.”
“I might be known for being blunt, but I didn’t mean to be insensitive. It’s gotta be rough for you right now.”
“It is.”
“Then let’s get back to work. And remember. Clay’s a great guy.” He grinned. “Almost as wonderful as me.”
She smiled back as she knew he was hoping for when he made the joke. “You, Drake Byrd,area great guy and quite a catch too.”
His mouth dropped open, as she’d hoped, and on that note, she spun and marched over to her computer. Somehow her talk with Drake put things with Clay in perspective for her, and she could now settle down and do her job. Be sure her father’s killer was prosecuted and find her sister. Then, she would seriously consider her conversation with Clay, and maybe, just maybe, she would become part of this very special family in the future.
21
Sierra yawned as she drank her tea across the dining table from Clay at six a.m. His parents were still sitting on the couch, and everyone else was vying for a shower. Thankfully, Clay had gotten in the guy’s bathroom first.
Sierra’s phone dinged.
“Who’s texting this early?” Clay asked. “Let me guess. Reed.”
“Nah, I talked to Reed while you were in the shower. It’s Chad.”
“Anything interesting?”
“He got the twine samples from both agencies. They’re a match.” A victorious smile lit her face.
“That’s great.” Clay considered grabbing another of his mother’s cinnamon rolls sitting in a container within reach. “Anything that sets it apart from the average twine out there?”
“It’s a common polypropylene sisal tying twine, but here’s the thing.” She paused and a self-satisfied grin crossed her face. “It’s made locally and specifically manufactured to be used in machines to bind Christmas trees for bulk shipping.”
“Christmas trees?” Clay’s excitement piqued. “Then I wonder if Trent’s people recovered any twine at Sharkey’s place. Or even Raders.”
“I wish we had access to all the evidence,” she said. “Would make things so much easier.”
His sentiments exactly. “You’re taking pictures for Kelsey today, right?”
She lifted a hand. “Don’t even ask me to tell you what I see.”
“I wasn’t planning to,” he said, but maybe she knew him better than he knew himself. Maybe hewasgoing to ask. He was desperate for official information, that was for sure.
Frustrated, he planted his hands on the table. “The only thing left to do is review more videos, but they’re not telling us anything. It would be great if we could interview the families of the missing girls we identified, but I won’t do that.”
Sierra set her mug down. “Why not?”
“They need to hear about their missing daughters from law enforcement. Not us. And I don’t have much else to go on. I had Erik and Nick both hunt for any connections to Hibbard. Both struck out.”
“Sounds rough.”
“You want to hear rough.” He snapped forward. “Let me tell you about the countless videos we watched. Defenseless young girls violated by a monster. Hibbard in all of them. And he’s still free to keep doing it. This is now just as much about stopping the abuse than anything. I have to stop it. Don’t you see? Just have to.” Exhausted from his tirade, he leaned back.
Sierra squeezed his hand. “I’ll pray for the girls and all of you. I’m sorry you’re going through this. Those videos must’ve been horrible to watch.”
“It was worse for Toni, but of course she was adamant about reviewing her share. The whole time she had to be imagining what happened to Lisa. I wanted to protect her, but she’s an equal partner in this investigation, and I need to respect that.”
“I get it. Reed still keeps trying to shield me from the bad things I see, but it’s the profession we’ve chosen, and you both have to let us do our jobs.”
“But I don’t have to like it.”
