Page 96 of Night Hawk
Clay didn’t add that he and his brothers had already looked at those photos. “So that brings us up to date on the murder at the high school and the girls presumed murdered at Rader’s house, but where do you stand on the beach house?”
Trent wrotebeach houseand the initialsRSLunder Jason Rader’s name. “Your sister lifted prints from the note and sent them to Veritas for her assistant to handle. No match in the databases. No additional evidence. Though Sierra did lift other prints and DNA, and they’ve also been transported to Veritas.”
“Did she locate any twine at the scene?” Clay asked. “Or did Kelsey find twine in the backyard graves at Rader’s place?”
“Twine?” Trent’s dark eyebrows went up. “No, but Kelsey’s not done recovering the bodies. Why?”
Clay explained how the twine connected Heidi and Naomi Dawson with Rader and Sharkey’s Christmas tree operations.
“One of those details no one shared with me.” Trent shook his head and addedtwineunder Sharkey’s and Rader’s names and put Heidi’s name under Hibbard’s listing. “What else have you been holding back?”
Clay told Trent about the unique carving on the bedposts that matched the bed in their prior investigation. “So Hibbard is very much a suspect in all of this.”
Trent jotted it down under Hibbard’s name. “The videos we found on the SD cards from Sharkey’s house also indicate Hibbard’s involvement.”
“Have you made any progress in locating him?” Erik asked.
“I had the Portland police check out his last known address. Place was vacant. Looked like no one had been there in a long time.”
“Guessing they went to the Hillsboro address on Baseline,” Clay said. “He moved out of there over a year ago.”
“I’ve put out a statewide alert,” Trent said. “If he shows his face, we’ll find him.”
“Mind if I suggest some of his prior hangouts for PPB to look into?” Clay hoped officers could check out the locations and ask a few questions.
“Already did that.” Erik leaned back, a smug smile on his face. “I’ve had one of my contacts at PPB scope them out the last few days. No sign of Hibbard.”
Clay looked at his youngest brother. “You didn’t tell me that.”
“Didn’t figure it mattered if they didn’t find anything. Besides, we all think Hibbard’s moved on to this area.”
“And yet, there hasn’t been any sightings of him or any sign of his business dealings.” Trent set down the marker.
“What about doing a public appeal?” Brendan asked.
Trent planted his hands on his hips. “Could send him even further to ground.”
Brendan crossed his arms. “Or someone might’ve seen him and come forward.”
Looking confident, Trent glanced around the table. “Who’s in favor of the public appeal?”
Everyone raised their hands, and Clay watched Trent to see how he handled being outvoted by his deputies.
He gave a sharp nod. “I’ll schedule a press conference today and get his name and picture out there.”
“I would’ve agreed with you if we hadn’t been looking for the guy for years,” Clay said. “I think it’ll take someone rolling over on him to catch him.”
Trent nodded again. “That’s settled. Let’s talk about Sharkey. I’ve interviewed him, but he continues to say no comment. It looks like it’ll take a deal to get anything from him. I don’t think the DA wants to offer a deal to a guy who possesses photos that seem to point to his guilt in multiple murders. Not to mention that he’s in possession of child pornography and the bird had Sharkey’s DNA on it.”
“Gives Sharkey a solid connection to Rader and puts him at the murder scene,” Clay said. “Plus, Sharkey has the strength to strangle Rader. We just need to prove motive, and we got Sharkey on this one.”
“Agreed,” Trent said.
“And we haven’t even mentioned Lisa Long’s disappearance. Her clothes found in Rader’s garage connects him there too.”
Trent ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve been considering reopening the Long investigation but there’s not enough manpower.”
“We’ve already reviewed Ziegler’s records,” Blake said. “Looks like he did a thorough job. Only oddity was that Sheriff Raintree was very active in the investigation. From what I’ve heard about him, that was unusual. Could be an issue to look into or it was a matter of a child going missing and he couldn’t sit back and do nothing.”
