Page 48 of Night Hawk
He made the call and explained to Sierra about the scene and the helicopter that afternoon, then arranged for her to coordinate the twine forensics between the two teams. He smiled and lowered his phone. “Sierra’s coming and will handle the twine comparison if we get buy-in from the other teams.”
His phone dinged in his hand, and he looked at it. “Blake’s a go too.”
“We’ll have a full house,” Brendan said.
“Not any more people than when the whole family is here.” Erik touched his index finger to his nose. “Not it. I’m not sleeping with any of you in Mom and Dad’s bedroom.”
Toni watched in amusement as they all tried to beat each other to touch their noses and claim “not it.” Drake was lightning fast, Brendan next. Clay flashed his finger to his nose, but Aiden took his time.
“No way I’m listening to you snore,” Clay said. “I’ll take the couch.”
“Was my plan all along.” A smug smile crossed Aiden’s face.
Clay groaned. “Just for that, I should change my mind.” He glanced at his watch. “Erik, get started on those photos. If you have downtime while waiting for things to process, keep digging for info on Lisa and her grandparents.”
“Understood,” Erik said.
Clay shifted to face Aiden. “Call the owner of the beach house Jason rented. Offer to pay them whatever it takes to keep them from cleaning the place and reserve it for us. The rest of us can divvy up the items on the board and work on it until I run to Gage’s place to pick everyone up.”
Toni didn’t even bother asking to go with Clay. She needed some time alone to regroup before everyone got here. She wasn’t used to a big, boisterous family like his. Add more people when she was already stressed, and she might lose the sanity she was barely hanging onto.
12
Several hours later, Clay drove through the security gate at Blackwell Tactical and pulled up to Gage’s house. Clay slid out and walked through the foggy night to the brightly lit ranch house. He knocked on a vibrant yellow door and stood back. A young boy with fiery red hair cracked it open.
“Come in,” he said and fled back into the house.
“David.” Hannah’s voice sounded from the room on the right. “That’s not the proper way to welcome a guest.”
David slunk back to the door. “Sorry. We’re playingMario.”
“Hey, I get it. I was young once and lovedMariowhen I was your age.”
He stared open-mouthed at Clay. “They hadMarioback then? That musta been a long time ago.”
“David!” Shaking her head, Hannah came into the entry, an adorable little girl with the same hair color toddling after her.
Clay laughed.
“What, Mom?” David protested as he turned back to the family room. “He doesn’t care. See. He’s laughing.”
Hannah swung the girl onto her hip and eyed Clay. “Don’t encourage him.”
“Sorry, but it doesn’t seem like that long ago when my mom was in your place.” Clay smiled.
Sierra joined them. “What are you saying? With five brothers, I can tell you our mom still does it.”
“True that.” Clay grinned.
Sierra rolled her eyes. “Just don’t sound so proud of it.”
“You better get used to it, Sis. You’re having a boy, after all, and the male genes are strong in the Byrd family. The little guy’s bound to take after his uncles.”
“I’m choosing to think he’ll take after his father.”
Hannah laughed. “I love hearing the two of you spar. I hope our kids are the same way when they get older.”
“It’s my turn.” David snapped the controller from a girl with dark hair who was about his age.
