Page 42 of Night Prey
“Not a real lead then.”
“Blake will have Nick do a deep dive, so we’ll see.” Ian moved on to his emails and read one from the firearms examiner. “Interesting. The gun used to kill Junior only had your prints on it.”
“How’s that interesting?” Malone asked. “It’s what you’d expect with the shooter wearing gloves.”
“That’s not the interesting part. The gun was used in a gangland slaying a few years ago.”
“I don’t believe it,” Malone said, eyeing Ian. “Could Junior be the killer from back then? I mean, you tell me Junior’s not only a drug dealer, but high up in his organization. Now this? Junior never struck me as the kind of guy to have the courage to sell drugs much less be brutal enough to move up the chain or kill anyone.”
“I didn’t think so either,” Ian said. “But his mother was certain about the drugs, and in an odd sort of way, even proud of his advancement.”
Aiden glanced in the rearview mirror. “Are you thinking his murder is related to Olivo?”
“I was leaning that way, and now that we know the gun was used in a drug slaying, it seems more likely that Olivo or a rival is behind killing Junior than it being connected to Malone.”
“You’d think if the intent was to set Malone up, that the gun wouldn’t have a history,” Aiden said.
“Maybe it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.” Brendan looked between the seats at them. “The shooter saw an opportunity to deflect suspicion from his organization for a while by handing the gun to Malone.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Ian said. “But even if it’s not connected to Malone, we need to solve the murder of her parents too.”
“That’s important,” Clay said. “No doubt about that, but we need to find this shooter first. If finding Malone in the room was a surprise to him, he could be rethinking things in the light of day and be worried she might ID him.”
“I’ll text the latest info to Nick,” Ian said. “Could help in the facial recognition search. Then I’ll call Nix at the drug squad to see if he remembers the earlier shootout where the gun was used.”
Ian turned his attention to his phone and sent the text to Nick but had to leave a message with Nix. Ian wished he were closer to the precinct so he could meet with the guy in person again, but Peck’s property was coming up, and Ian needed to focus on that right now.
The Veritas van was already parked near the house, but no sign of the people from the state lab. Ian glanced at his watch. Only eleven forty-five. With fifteen minutes to kill as he waited, Ian would use that time to look the car over again.
Aiden parked behind Emory’s vehicle, and she slid out from the passenger’s seat. Blake got out from the driver’s side.
Emory slid her hand into the crook of Blake’s arm. “I brought Blake along in case we need him for something.”
“Translated, she wanted company on the drive out here.” Blake laughed.
Emory grinned at her husband. “I have never been able to fool this guy. Not from the moment I met him.”
“Actually, you did.” Blake looked at the others. “She has a twin sister who was missing a few years ago. I was a sheriff back then and tasked with finding Cait. I showed up at Veritas and almost fell over when I saw Emory.”
“I didn’t know I had a twin,” Emory said. “We were separated at birth. So I almost fell over, too, once we figured things out by looking at Cait’s DNA that Blake brought to have analyzed.”
“That’s some story,” Ian said.
“You don’t know the half of it.” Blake chuckled.
Ian heard a vehicle turning into the drive, and he spun to see the state van pull in.
“Looks like we’re all here,” Ian said. “I’ll go tell Peck and get his permission to head to the barn.”
Malone stepped over to him. “I’ll come with you in case he needs convincing.”
Emory’s eyebrows rose above her black glasses. “I thought he already agreed.”
“He did,” Ian said. “But he seems like the kind of guy who might change his mind on a whim.”
“Then by all means, go.” Emory made a shooing motion with her hands. “I don’t want our trip out here to be a waste.”
“It’s not a waste to spend quality time in the middle of a workday with your spouse,” Blake said. “And I even bought you a burger on the way.”
