Page 62 of Night Prey
“If they were in the same pocket, it could be.”
“Nothing was found in his car,” Ian said. “Junior might not have wanted to be bothered with business at the reunion, and he left it at home. If Olivo wanted the work phone, he didn’t toss Junior’s condo to find it. Or maybe they didn’t communicate by phone.”
Reed arched his dark eyebrow. “Then how?”
“I haven’t had a chance to mention that the neighbor across the street from Malone caught the package delivery,” Ian said. “A drone dropped it off.”
“Seriously?” Malone asked. “A drone?”
Ian nodded. “Olivo could’ve communicated by sending messages that way too. Might explain how he and his guys have stayed clean.”
“Not the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” Reed said. “We need to search ViCAP for any mention of drones in this area.”
The Violent Criminal Apprehension Program was run by the FBI. Law enforcement officers could enter data about serious crimes, creating a database that other officers could search using any unique criteria like drones in their investigations.
“We don’t have access from here.” Ian picked up his phone. “I’ll get Londyn on it.” He texted her before Reed could offer to have one of his buddies do the search and took over an aspect of the investigation that Ian wanted to keep under his control.
Surprisingly, the guy didn’t argue.
Londyn replied that she would do it right away, and he glanced at his watch. “If she finds anything connected, I’ll get started on it. First, I have an interview with one of the executives at Ground Floor Builders.”
“Good,” Reed said. “If our dad uncovered any kind of corruption, he wouldn’t have hidden it. And this sounds like a strong lead.”
Ian stood and looked at Malone. “I know I don’t have to tell you to stay put, but please don’t leave the building. And even avoid the lobby.”
“I’ll behave.” She cast a mischievous grin up at him.
If Reed wasn’t sitting right there, Ian might have drawn her to her feet and kissed away that impish smile. “You can get me on my cell at any time, and I’ll let you know when I hear back from Londyn on the drone.”
Reed shoved a hand into his hair. “I feel trapped. I can’t leave the building. At least not without Malone or Sierra trying to hold me down. What can I do from here?”
“Londyn is working on finding a current phone number and address on Detective Wisniewski. He seems to have fallen off the radar, and she’ll have to set it aside to run the ViCAP search.”
“The guy my parents might’ve been going to see?” Reed asked.
Ian nodded. “You could work on that and do a phone interview if you find him.”
“Oh, I’ll find him.” Reed’s eyes hardened. “You can bank on that.”
Malone had been sitting at the small desk in Reed’s guest room for over an hour and was going stir crazy. She had her work to do, but she couldn’t focus. She just kept thinking about Ian and how she could help him realize what an amazing man he was. Remind him that he’d avoided becoming anything like his parents and that would give him great odds at becoming a good life partner.
But she knew from experience that people could tell you the same thing over and over. Didn’t mean you could embrace the thing in your life and implement it. That took work to change. Hard work, and he’d believed this wrong notion about himself for years. If he continued to believe it, he could make it a reality.
A knock sounded on the door, startling her for a moment. She didn’t even know she was this jumpy, but she still hadn’t let go of the earlier threat. “Come in.”
Reed opened the door and stepped in to sit on the bed near the desk. “I talked to Wisniewski. He remembered Mom and Dad.”
“Were they on their way to see him that day?” she asked eagerly.
He gave a solemn nod.
“What about?” She held her breath.
“He didn’t know. Dad had called him and said he located something they thought the police needed to know about, but he didn’t want to talk about it over the phone.”
She let out her breath. “The drywall?”
“Most likely, but I don’t know why Mom was with him. Unless Dad wanted her to come along for moral support.”
