Page 32 of Lost Hours
“That’s possible, I suppose.” Nolan ran his light over the room. “Or another woman has recently been in his house. Was he dating?”
“Not that I’ve heard.”
“Maybe a secret relationship. An affair with a married woman?”
“I don’t think Mayor Sutton was that kind of person, but then we don’t ever know what goes on behind closed doors until something like this brings it out into the open.”
Nolan nodded. “We really need to talk to Becca, but until we find her, the next closest person to the mayor would be his assistant. If he was dating someone, Daisy would know.”
“First thing in the morning, then. We’ll interview her about that and everything else going on in the mayor’s life that might’ve gotten him killed.” And hopefully find something to go on because right now they had nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Outside Becca’s front door, Nolan put on a pair of booties and gloves. Since they hadn’t found her in immediate need of assistance, they’d returned to her house to do a more thorough search. Mina gloved up, too, but she was more proficient at it, which made sense since she handled crime scenes all the time. Not murder scenes like this one, but burglaries, auto accidents, assaults, and other minor scenes.
Was she up to managing a murder scene? He would assist her, but he’d never run a murder investigation. Since he’d formed the agency, he’d headed up several missing persons investigations. Meant he would be better off looking for Becca and not working the murder investigation.
Something he felt compelled to tell Mina.
He stepped inside and waited for her to enter. “Looks like we have two investigations going on now. Murder and a missing person. I think it would be a good idea to turn Becca’s investigation over to my team.”
She cocked a hip. “I can’t turn over any investigation to a civilian team.”
Her posture was meant to reinforce her statement, but he just found it cute. “You could deputize all of the team. Or even a few of them. They could then do what we are exceptional at doing, and you can focus on the murder investigation. You would of course be in charge, and we could give you daily or even more frequent updates.”
“I don’t know.” She put her hands on her hips. “That would be like publicly declaring that my team wasn’t up to the job. I don’t want to do that to them.”
“Realistically, how many deputies can you afford to assign to either investigation and not compromise your patrols?”
“One, maybe two at the most.”
“So assign them to the murder investigation. Or you could even embed someone in our office who could be your eyes and ears.”
She tilted her head. “Embedding someone might work. Question is, who to have do it. I could assign Abe, but he’s really needed in day-to-day operations. I have one detective on staff, and I believe she would be most put out if I took her off the murder investigation. I do have a deputy who just passed his sergeant’s exam, so maybe he’s the one to include. I’ll think about it. But for now, we need to look at the scene in regards to both this murder and a missing person.”
“Agreed.”
She proceeded into the room and squatted near the pool of blood. “Footprint is small. Narrow.”
He crouched next to her. “Woman’s?”
“Could be Becca’s.”
“So maybe we’re wrong. Maybe she’s not missing, but she was shot here and her body taken.”
“Or she was standing with the mayor when he was shot. Or she simply came through the room and stepped in the blood on her way out the door.”
“If so, there should be a bloody footprint heading toward the door.”
“You’re right, and there isn’t one.”
“What if the rug suggested by the dirt outline was used for Becca? Or used for the mayor, then brought back for Becca or the other way around?” He stood. “Or if they’re both dead, both of them at one time?”
“Any of those scenarios could be possible. All we can do at this time is speculate. We don’t have enough evidence to make a determination.”
“One thing is sure,” he said, “Becca’s missing person case could also be a murder investigation, and we have to look at it both ways.”
“You’re right again.” Mina narrowed her gaze. “Maybe Ishouldput my detective on your team after all. I can handle the mayor’s murder investigation without her, and if we do determine the mayor was killed here, then it’s likely our leads and forensics will intersect with each other.”
Nolan nodded. “First step is to find out whose blood we’re looking at. We should be able to get a sample for the mayor from his place for a DNA test. Same for Becca, but it’ll take time to get the results back, and we don’t want to sit around waiting for days.”
