Page 46 of Final Inning

They’d already established that Lindhour was required to do a patrol round at one-thirty p.m. every day she was on the clock. It took approximately two hours and ten minutes. Lindhour was definitely a creature of habit, that girl. She probably needed to vary it up a little—just to be on the safe side. People could learn her routine far too easily.

That was never good.

“Hello, Danielle.”

Oh, the man said her name in a really shivery way. “Hey, Ward.”

“I’ve found something. I’ve found another victim.”

“What? Give me details.” Dani pulled up a search window on her database. “I’m ready for all you have.”

“That has so many meanings.”

Yikes. Well, she supposed he was right. “Give me details, Agent Doctor Ward.”

“Twenty-eight years ago. Nineteen-year-old. Louis D. Stephens. BFT. Murder weapon found next to the body. He had been working on his truck at the time. Crowbar.”

“That doesn’t really match Kevin and Harper, though. Other than method of death.” But she wasn’t a profiler. Ian was. “What makes you think he’s related?”

“That’s just it. Related. Related.” Ian’s phone cut out a little. She waited. “He was living at the trailer park right there by the ball field. The closest unit. Just three hundred feet from the third base line behind field three. There was a game going on. He was found during the final inning.”

Dani was typing. But… “There are at least four Louis D. Stephens in Helery County alone. A senior, and a junior, still. But…statewide…a lot. I need more to go on.”

“Related, Danielle. He was Sheriff Ted Johnson’s stepbrother. Johnson was listed as next-of-kin. And he inherited the victim’s estate. Acreage at the edge of the county. Parents were both dead. Before Johnson was a cop.”

“Well, just…isn’t that nifty.”

“I have all the autopsy reports. There was one for Harper Wycoff. It matches the one Lindhour has. But…nothing on Kevin Adams, except the private one. I’m suspecting one wasn’t even requested by Johnson. I am bringing copies back with me. I have uploaded them for you. We need to focus on Louis Stephens and Sheriff Johnson. He’s the only real commonality with all of them.”

“Miranda is there in Helery County with Johnson. Not feeling so secure here, Ward. I am just not.”

“Likewise. I am on my way back. Maybe…just…maybe…find out who else PAVAD has nearby. Someone may be close. Until Knight and I can get back there. Just in case.”

Dani would do that. She was feeling a bit antsy here. She clicked the link to the reports Ian had just uploaded. And began reading.

When a blonde woman in glasses came into the lab, Dani looked up. Well, wasn’t she just handy? “Hi, Dr. Reynolds. You have a minute? I have some questions here. Autopsy reports so aren’t my thing.”

“I’m just waiting for Kelly to get back before we head out for the day. I’ve got a few minutes. What do you need?”

Dani printed out copies. It was time to get started.

Chapter 36

Knight strongly suspected Miranda would love the looks of the 1980s vintage diner he found himself in now. If she hadn’t already been there. She’d been to Finley Creek numerous times to visit a cousin, he believed.

He was waiting when a young woman he recognized from Kevin Adams’ file came up to his table. “Dr. Knight? With…the FBI?”

Knight stood, and held his hand out to her. She shook it quickly. Confidently. Knight studied her. She was about six inches shorter than Miranda’s five-eleven, he estimated. She was athletically built, with reddish blonde hair, dark blue eyes, and dimples. The jeans she wore fit her well, and the apple green T-shirt proclaimed W4HAV. Ramey Adams was a very attractive woman who would garner attention. She was in her mid-twenties. She’d been thirteen when her father had been killed. She was unmarried, worked for a foster charity that operated out of Finley Creek, and lived in a townhouse on Seventeenth Street.

And Dani had sent him a report that she had barely escaped a sexual assault attempt when she’d been in college, at the age of nineteen. She was passionate and vocal, and she did talks to organizations about what she had survived.

“Hello, I…the woman who called said you had questions about my dad. And I talked to my brother. About Harper.”

“We understand you and Harper were old teammates.” Knight motioned to the bench across from him. He waited until she slipped into the seat before taking his own. “We have some questions. But first, I want to apologize on behalf of all law enforcement. Your father’s case was decidedly mishandled. We’re trying to fix that now.”

He had Dani searching out other mishandled cases headed by Johnson, too.

“I…know. I have always known. Sheriff Ted Johnson, great king of Helery County…anyone who thought Johnson could solve a murder—no. That wasn’t going to happen.” And there was bitterness and pain. A lack of hope. And knowledge of how the world really worked in her eyes. “Have you ever lost someone you love, Mr. Knight?”