Page 34 of Shadow of Doubt
Dev glanced at Colin but then turned back to the house. “I might be able to help.”
“What? You want a job? ’Cause if you left Clackamas under good terms, I’d hire you on the spot.”
“No, sorry. No job. What I was going to tell you is that we’re working with the Veritas Center staff right now. Have you heard of them?”
“Who in this part of the world hasn’t?” she asked, and thankfully didn’t sound like she had a negative opinion of them, calling them boutique forensics only for the rich as many law enforcement officers did.
“They have a top-notch forensic staff and a forensic anthropologist who could handle the victim for you.”
“Would love that. You don’t know how much.” She let out another almost endless breath of air over the phone. “But they’re way too pricey for my blood.”
“I’m sure we could persuade them to handle the investigation pro bono.”
She didn’t speak for a long, tense moment, and Colin had to wonder what she was thinking. So far she seemed to be accepting Dev and could go along with him, but then, he hadn’t asked her to do anything yet.
“What’s in it for you?” Suspicion lingered in her tone. “You hoping they’ll share their findings so you can locate this Tarver guy?”
“Now that you mention it, that would be great, but I know that’s not going to happen.” Dev sucked in some night air. “They’ll sign a contract with you to provide you the exclusiverights to their results unless you tell them otherwise. They have a reputation to uphold, and they won’t violate that for anyone.”
“So again, I say, what’s in it for you?”
“If Tarver is behind this arson, perhaps your agency’s collaboration with Veritas will find him and bring him to justice. Getting him off the street is all we’re hoping for.” Dev fell silent, but Abby didn’t speak. “I can have them here before you arrive.”
She snorted. “How’s that even possible when they’re out of Portland?”
Here was the tricky part, and Colin held his breath for Dev’s answer.
“Like I said we’ve been working with their people. Give me the go-ahead, and you could have one of the world’s top forensic anthropologists recovering the body tonight and giving you insights right away. This could go a long way with your constituents, who I know want to feel safe in their own county.”
Nice one.Make her think about the people who elect her.
“Fine,” she said decisively. “Make the call, but no one goes into the house before I arrive.”
“Don’t worry. We won’t be sending anyone into the house or go in there ourselves.”
A perfect answer from Dev because they’d already directed someone to enter and would not be asking anyone else to do so. Colin was most proud of his little brother. He was handling the sheriff without lying to her and while getting her to agree to accept help that would solve this murder, if indeed it was one, sooner rather than later. That was, if the sheriff and her team knew what to do with the data they received from the Veritas staff.
“I’m about twenty minutes out,” she said. “Looks like I’ll arrive at about the same time as my deputy, but the fire crew has a head start.”
“We don’t want them busting into the house and destroying evidence, do we?”
“I’ll get on the horn with the chief and tell them to talk to you and stand down until I arrive. I figure they’d comply unless a life is threatened.”
Colin hoped the firefighters didn’t consider a smoldering fire a threat to life, but it might not matter what he said. Sometimes when a first responder was called to a scene and adrenaline took over, it was hard to stand down.
Dev ended his call and shoved his phone into his pocket.
“Great job, man,” Reid said before Colin could. “You handled her like a pro.”
“Thanks.” He wrinkled his brow. “But, honestly, it was all because I know her.”
“No matter the reason, I’ve never been so proud of my little bro.” Colin grabbed his brother and knuckled him on the head.
“And then you had to go and ruin it.” He extricated himself and laughed.
Colin should probably have laid back, but it was hard to stop treating his little brother like anything but his little brother. “We need to get eyes at the road so we know when Abby and her deputy arrive and we can all be waiting here by the van.”
“It’s a good idea, but I assume they’ll run with lights and sirens,” Dev said. “This isn’t a life or death situation, and they could cause an accident by running hot, but their adrenaline over a potential murder could overpower common sense.”
