Page 84 of Solid as Steele
She took the card and nodded.
She marched through the grass toward the side of the house, and Owen went back inside. He told the sheriff and Mackenzie about Della King and shared the information she provided.
Owen faced the sheriff. “Do you know this woman?”
Wheeler shook his head. “I’ll run her name. See if we get any priors.” He stepped out of the room.
Owen faced Mackenzie, glad to note the dogs had quieted. “I also found a cabinet full of weapons. I’m certain one of them uses .308 Win cartridges. We don’t need to call the Veritas staff out here to collect evidence. See no sign of a crime here, but we should ship Leach’s weapons to Veritas along with the slugs and casings from when Leach fired at us. And spring for the cost of a morning delivery so we get results sooner.”
“Agreed.” Mackenzie’s phone rang. She looked at the screen, and her eyes lit up. “It’s Emory Jenkins. Veritas DNA expert.”
“Has to be our DNA results from the remains.” Owen wanted the report to confirm Cassie’s death, but he should’ve already faced facts and accepted them.
Cassie was dead.
“I’m putting you on speaker, Emory,” Mackenzie said. “So Owen can hear the news.”
“No problem,” Emory said. “I’m sorry I’m later than we promised, but I’ve finished processing the DNA results from Cassie’s crime scene.”
“And you’re going to confirm that Cassie is the victim.” Owen’s shirt collar threatened to strangle him, and he had to breathe deep for air.
“Actually, no,” Emory said. “It’s not that straightforward.”
“How’s that?” Owen asked.
“Processing of the DNA from the recovered remains was pretty straightforward, but I got hung up when I went to compare my results to the report on file from when she went missing. I noticed some oddities in the original report that makes me question if it was processed correctly.”
“And?”
“And I think before we discuss any results, it would be good if you could bring me Cassie’s toothbrush or hair sample if you still have them so I can run the DNA again.”
How could this be? More waiting. “I’m guessing my parents still have those items.”
“Could you confirm that and have them deliver it to my lab as soon as possible?”
“Of course, but what do the preliminary results tell you?”
“I’d rather not speculate. Not when discrepancies are skewing any results. I’m sure once I process the items from your parents, the results will be clear-cut.”
Owen couldn’t be more frustrated with what he thought would be a concrete answer to the DNA question. “So they must not match if you have a question, right?”
“I didn’t say that.” Emory was talking in riddles. Hinting at the fact that she believed the remains to be Cassie’s but not coming right out and saying it. Owen wanted to keep pressing her for details, but she was doing this as a favor, and he didn’t want to make her mad.
Besides, he didn’t think she would tell him anything more, and he was just wasting time. “I’ll ask my parents about the items you need, and Mackenzie can text you their response.”
“Sounds perfect.” A smile was back in Emory’s tone now. “We also recovered DNA from the slug extracted from the rock outcropping. We ran it through CODIS. No match.”
“Makes sense as neither of our prime suspects have a criminal record and won’t be in the database,” Owen said. “We’re hoping to have a suspect in custody soon, and we’ll overnight his DNA swab to you, if that’s okay.”
“Of course. I can compare the results to the bullet sample, and by the time we have that processed, the DNA recovered from bullets fired at Mackenzie’s rental property will be ready.”
“We have another crime scene too.” Mackenzie told Emory about Leach shooting at them in the desert and the guns in this house. “Those slugs and casings will be overnighted along with the weapons we found here.”
“You can count on us to process it all as quickly as possible while maintaining our accuracy,” Emory said.
“Perfect.” Owen let go of some of his frustration.
They would know within forty-eight hours if Leach shot Cassie and then fired at Owen and Mackenzie. That was assuming, of course, that the overnight service delivered the items in the morning, and he located and arrested Ned Leach for shooting at them in the desert.
