Page 50 of No Offense

Elijah shook his head in disgust. “Why do you put up with it?”

She glanced at him in surprise. “Because, Elijah, this is my dream job. I love it. I’m alibrarian.”

Chapter Eighteen

John

“Well, that was terrible,” John said, as he and Marguerite exited Tabitha Brighton’s hospital room.

Marguerite smiled. “What’s the matter, Chief? You don’t like picking on defenseless young girls?”

“I wouldn’t call her defenseless.” He thought of the way Tabitha had spewed Larry Beckwith’s counterculture BS. “But I didn’t like doing it, anyway.”

“You knew the job was dangerous when you took it. Come on.” Marguerite elbowed him chummily. “Let’s go look at the baby. That might cheer you up. Seeing a happy, healthy newborn that we had a part in saving always cheers me up.”

Visiting Baby Aphrodite did cheer him up, a little. Especially since the baby was swaddled in a blanket with bright yellow ducks on it—one of the many donated by the public, the nurse explained. The baby’s mother—Tabitha—had directed that most of the rest of the donations be given to the island’s shelter for battered women and children.

This cheered John even more. It meant that though Tabitha hadn’t yet realized how thoroughly she’d been brainwashed by Dakota, she was at least somewhat civic-minded. This was a sign that she could still be saved.

It was later in the day when he received another piece of good news—at least good to him—though it came from a surprising source. Murray—who generally refused to work on Sundays, as that was when Sheriff Wagner had always allowed him the day off to visit his in-laws in Key West—shuffled into his office and said, “Chief.”

John looked up from his deputies’ reports that no sign of Dylan Dakota or his followers had been found anywhere in all of Little Bridge and gaped at the head of his tech department. “Murray. What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been here since Friday.” Murray looked like it, too. His uniform was rumpled, his face unshaven, and his glasses in need of cleaning. “I hope you’re going to approve the overtime.”

John frowned. “Of course, especially if you’ve got anything good.”

“Oh, I got something good, Chief. At least, I think you’re gonna think it’s good: Dakota’s hair is all over that sweatshirt they found at the widow’s house last night.”

John raised an eyebrow. He’d been expecting this, but it was still good to hear. “Hair as in more than one?”

“Either the guy is going bald or someone gave him a haircut while wearing it. I’d go for the former. Of course, I’mtalking a microscopic match only. We won’t have DNA for a while. I’m guessing it will be the same, though. But that’s not all.”

“It isn’t?”

“Nope. The primary prints on the box the librarian found the baby in? They’re his.”

John nearly dropped the cup of coffee he’d been holding.“What?”

“That’s right.” The deep lines on Murray’s face crinkled into a smile. “It was a bitch because there were so many prints on it, but I managed to isolate a couple of Dakota’s right where someone would be holding a box like that if, say, they were carrying a baby in it from the new library to the old one.”

In a million years, John never thought he’d want to hug his chief crime scene tech, but he had to hold back an urge to do so now.

“Murray. That is great. Just great. Overtime approved.”

Murray was still grinning. “Thanks, Chief. Anything to nail this guy. Can you imagine, abandoning a little baby like she was trash?”

“No,” John said, going from smiling to frowning in a split second. He was actually feeling a little choked up, and not only over the prints. Murray was finally coming around to his side from Sheriff Wagner’s. “No, I cannot. Thanks for this, Murray. Thanks for skipping your in-laws this weekend to help with this. We might actually nail Beckwith this time—if we ever catch him, that is.”

Murray nodded and turned to go. “I hope so. And to be honest, skipping my in-laws is not exactly the biggest sacrifice.”

John laughed just as his phone chimed that he had a text. He checked it, expecting to hear from Katie. She had dance practice all day, but they were supposed to catch up that night over dinner together.

It wasn’t Katie, however.

Hi, John, it’s Molly. I found something I need to show you. Can you stop by sometime today?

His heart rate sped up. Pete had told him to cool it and not blow things by seeming overeager.