Page 53 of Lost Truth
“Precisely our dilemma.” She put another bite of the muffin in her mouth.
Hayden passed the bag down the table so each team member could look at the handkerchief.
Mina finished chewing. “Problem is, I need to resolve it soon, as we have to notify the owner he’s in violation of the Abandoned and Derelict Vessels Law. The Oregon State Marine Board contracts with us for marine law enforcement services. So this ismyproblem, and I haven’t been able to seize the boat without proper notification to the owner.”
The handkerchief reached Abby. “Oh, wow!” Her eyes widened in a lightbulb-gone-off moment. “Cody Palmer.”
“Palmer?” Hayden closed his eyes for a moment to think. The man owned Tidewater Mansion. A few months ago the team had been accused of stashing Mayor Sutton’s body there after they’d supposedly killed him. “How could he be connected to the boat?”
“I don’t know that he is.” Abby handed the bag to Jude. “But remember I organized all of the records for Mayor Sutton’s investigation. That included contracts for Tidewater Mansion, all signed by Palmer. His signature included his middle initial.”
“Let me guess.” Gabe smirked slightly. “It was A.”
Abby nodded. “It could just be a coincidence, but I really don’t believe in coincidences.”
“Neither do I,” Mina said. “Nor do most law enforcement officers.”
Nolan shifted his attention to Mina. “Do you think Palmer could be the boat owner? The man behind the shell corp?”
She set her coffee mug on the table, her eyes alight with enthusiasm. “It’s possible. When we interviewed him about Tidewater Mansion, he was overly antagonistic and evasive, like he had a thing against law enforcement.”
“He’s also a lawyer and a pretty sharp dresser who might carry a handkerchief,” Nolan said.
Gabe planted his hands on the table. “And he didn’t have security cameras at the mansion because he said his guests needed privacy. Could be because his guests are involved in illegal activities with him.”
Mina rubbed her thumb around the top of her coffee cup. “The more I think about it, the more it seems possible Palmer could be the owner and was using the boat for no good. I’ll get El on it right away and see if she can link him to the company or find any indication that he’s a boater.”
“This might be a long shot,” Cady said, “but whoever the owner is, Palmer or someone else, could be using this boat for ferrying people from a ship to shore as my dad said in his video.”
“If we embrace your theory,” Mina said, “Palmer could be connected to Wade Collins. I’ll have El look into that too.”
Hayden started to warm to the idea. “You have Palmer’s fingerprints and DNA on file from the mayor’s investigation, right?”
She nodded. “We do, but we searched databases at that time, and he doesn’t have a criminal record.”
Abby leaned forward. “What about prints and DNA from the boat?”
Mina frowned. “We have prints, but we didn’t get a database match, and we only lifted potential DNA samples. Unfortunately, our budget doesn’t stretch to processing them when we don’t have a known suspect for comparison.”
“But we could have Veritas run the DNA and prints from the boat against the earlier samples they have from Palmer,” Hayden said. “We could also have Nick do a deep dive on Palmer to see if he can find a connection to the shell corp.”
“Sure thing.” Mina frowned. “Only if you all plan to pay for it. I can’t see them doing another pro bono job after agreeing to do the surf shop and cave.”
“Nick already agreed to crack the drive from Kai’s place at no charge, so I think he’d agree to the additional work.”
“It’s worth a try.” Mina continued to look at Hayden, but lifted an eyebrow. “I expect to be looped in on any information Veritas discovers.”
“Of course,” Hayden said and glanced at his teammates. “To that end, I need someone to take the drive to Nick.”
“Road trip.” Jude pumped up a hand and grinned at Reece. “You game?”
Hayden wasn’t surprised Jude asked Reece to join him. The two of them had a deep friendship going back to their college days. At one point, the rest of the team thought their connection was romantic, but they both emphatically put an end to the notion.
She offered him one of her easy-going smiles. “If it keeps you out of trouble, then I’m in.”
“Sweet!” His smile widened. “If we leave right after we break up here, we can be back by six.”
Reece wrinkled her nose. “You’ll be pushing it, but with the way you drive, I can believe it might be sooner.”
“I did not just hear that.” Mina laughed but quickly sobered. “It’s always good to have a well-respected group like the Veritas team on our side. Too bad we didn’t figure out the initials when the boat ran aground, or we could’ve used them to process that scene. I’m sure Sierra and her forensic staff would’ve given us better forensics to go on.”
“We could ask them now, right?” Cady asked.
Mina frowned. “We could, but the scene hasn’t been secured, and despite our warning signs, people will have boarded it to check things out.”
She had a point, but they couldn’t have a do-over, and Hayden wouldn’t spend any time thinking about it. “Let’s stay positive. The important thing is we have a world-class forensic team to help us.”
Now, all they had to do was hope any information the Veritas staff provided would give the team a viable suspect and a lead on Kai’s whereabouts.
