“Lots of things don’t add up,” Jo said.
Mick swung his stool to face them and put his elbow on the bar, leaning in closer to Sam and Jo. “You said that the fingerprint found in the car when Tyler was killed matched the one on the leaf near the mill. The same person was at both places.”
“Yeah, but we don’t know who that is. The fingerprint didn’t match anyone in the database.”
“Right. But we do know that Tyler knew that person. And if that person was at the roadside when Tyler was killed, he is probably tight with Thorne. If that’s the case, then that person likely broke some laws somewhere along the way.”
Realization dawned on Sam. That was what he loved about Mick. He could always count on him to come up with a logical solution. “And if he did break some laws, Tyler might have covered for him.”
Mick smiled and nodded.
“But where does this Scott Elliott fit in? He’s never been fingerprinted.”
“Could be the person who was with Tyler was higher up. Elliott is low on the pole, right?”
“Yep,” Sam agreed. “We’re trying for a warrant to lift a print from his house.”
“This could be another lead,” Jo said. “We can look through Tyler’s calls to see if there was anyone he might have let off the hook.”
Sam glanced at her. “That’s a great idea. See? This case is starting to open up.”
Jo tilted her beer bottle and clinked it with Mick’s and Sam’s. “Great. I’ll get on that first thing in the morning.”
Chapter Thirteen
Jo got in early the next day. She wanted to research Tyler’s arrest records without everyone else in the office figuring out what she was doing. Too bad everyone else had the same idea about coming in early.
Sam was already in his office with Lucy, the door slightly ajar. Reese was at the reception desk, handing out permits for yard sales. Kevin was typing a report. Jo noticed he seemed a little jittery, glancing up as if she’d caught him at something whenever she walked past his desk. She guessed the case was getting to everyone. Especially her. But that might be good, because it was taking up all her thinking time, and for the first time in years, she hadn’t thought about her sister’s case. That was a good sign, a sign that it really was time to put her sister’s case behind her.
She didn’t want anyone to know what she was doing, so she sat at her desk, typing on her laptop. The squad room was quiet, the sound of laptop keys clacking and the smell of coffee permeating the air. At the front desk, Reese was trying to referee an argument between Joan Cummings and Myrtle Winters. Both Joan and Myrtle wanted to have yard sales at the weekend, but they each felt the other’s sale would take traffic away from their sale and were trying to convince Reese to deny the permit to the other.
Jo let the squabble become background noise and focused on her work. Tyler had gone on a lot of calls this past year, and some of them were a little odd.
“Is there anything I can help you with?” Wyatt’s question startled her. He leaned over to look at her screen.
Jo closed her laptop. “No, thanks.”
Wyatt gave her a funny look and then turned to go back to his desk. “Okay. Let me know if you do. I finished up my paperwork.”
As Wyatt walked back to his desk, Kevin spun around in his chair and handed him some papers. “Here. You can type these up if you’re looking for something to do.”
Wyatt took them silently and got to work.
Jo reopened her computer, her pulse quickening when she noticed a few discrepancies. There was one person Tyler had noted in a few calls, but he never brought that person in. Forest Duncan. It could be a coincidence. She needed to dig deeper to see if there was any pattern.
“Holy crap!” Reese’s excited voice carried over the post office boxes, and Jo glanced up. Apparently, the yard sale arguers were gone, because the only sound that came from over the wall of post office boxes was the rustling of papers. Lucy must have heard, too, because she trotted out, followed closely by Sam. Reese appeared around the post office boxes, a piece of paper in her hand.
“What is it?” Kevin asked.
“I got an ID on that fingerprint. The one from the crime scene. I had a flag in the system for them to fax it to me if anyone got a hit. And someone got a hit.”
“Really?” Wyatt stood up at his desk. “That’s great. We got a break in the case.”
“Yeah, part of it’s great,” Reese said. “The print did belong to that guy you were looking for yesterday—Scott Elliott.”
Jo’s spirits picked up. “I knew he was involved.” Apparently, all that work Sam had done to groom Jesse had paid off.
“Let’s go pick him up.” Sam pulled his keys from his pocket. “Where did the hit come from? I assume he was arrested and printed.”
“Figured it was only a matter of time before he’d be arrested.” Jo jumped up from her chair to join Sam.
“Yeah, that’s the part that isn’t so great,” Reese said, stopping Jo in her tracks. “You can’t pick him up.”
“Why not?”
“He’s dead.”
Sam pressed his lips together and glanced at Jo. They needed Elliott alive to find the person further up the chain. Jo glanced back at her laptop. Unless ... This Forest Duncan guy might be closer to the top. If he had been involved with Tyler and Tyler was Thorne’s son, Tyler must have been pretty close to the top, and it made sense the top minions would work together.
Maybe if they pulled Forest in, they’d get all the information they needed. Maybe it didn’t matter that Elliott was dead. But Jo couldn’t mention that in front of anyone else. If she did, she’d have to explain why they were looking into Tyler, and then they’d have to explain about the DNA paper they’d taken off of Dupont’s body. Bringing up the fact that she was looking into a pattern on whom Tyler had arrested and released would mean that they’d have to admit they’d been holding back evidence on his case.
“Dead? How?” Kevin asked.
The lobby door opened, and Bev Hatch came around the post office boxes with a white doughnut bag from Brewed Awakening in her hand. She took one look at their faces and said, “I see you’ve heard the news.”
Sam turned to her. “You mean that the print from the leaf got a hit but the suspect is dead?”
Bev nodded once. “Yeah, found in a shallow grave down in Belknap County.”
“Murdered. So he killed Dupont, and then someone killed him to cover it up.” Sam brushed his hands through his short hair. “We just lost our best lead.”
“He might not be the killer.” Bev passed Sam the bag.
“What?” Sam passed the bag along to Jo without taking a doughnut.
“It’s still early, and I didn’t get the full report, but I talked to Dean Adams, the medical examiner handling the autopsy. He said there was no gunpowder residue on Elliott’s hands.”
“Well, it’s been more than a week since Dupont was killed. I’m sure it would be gone by now,” Sam said.
“No. Elliott’s been dead for a week at least, he thinks. If he died right after the murder and he pulled the trigger, he’d likely still have residue. Look, we already knew more than one person was at the scene where Dupont was murdered. This Elliott guy was probably killed because he witnessed it. Maybe he wasn’t even working with the killer. Maybe he just stumbled on it.” Bev shrugged. “I have no idea. But we’ll work closely with the investigation into his death. Maybe we can get some leads.”
“Let’s hope so,” Sam said.
“I’m in touch with the sheriff in Belknap County, but now that we have a solid link between Tyler and Dupont, I think we need to start going over Tyler’s case again.” Bev looked at Sam out of the corner of her eye, and Jo’s heart clenched as she picked out a jelly doughnut and passed the bag to Kevin. The narrow-eyed look told her that Bev suspected something might not be on the up-and-up.
“Sure,” Sam said. “But we need to find out more about Elliott and his death and —”