Harry fell to his knees to help with the compression. He nudged Jo gently out of the way. “Press like this. I learned it while I was in the Marines.”
While they waited for the ambulance to arrive, Jo felt the weight of all that had happened. Everything they’d worked for had been for nothing. Alvin wouldn’t be able to tell them anything about Thorne, and if her guess was right, Thorne had been smart enough to not have any links linking him to the murder or to Alvin. They’d look, but she doubted they’d find anything.
Kevin was bleeding too rapidly.
As if sensing the gravity of the situation, Lucy had remained off to the side. She inched forward, resting her head on Kevin’s thigh, careful to stay out of their way. She whined and looked up at Kevin, her whiskey-brown eyes darting from his face to Jo’s.
Jo hoped Kevin wasn’t beyond feeling the comfort of Lucy’s head on his leg.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Three days later…
* * *
“I’m truly sorry about Officer Deckard.” Bev Hatch’s face was creased with genuine concern. “How’s his outlook?”
“Not good, I’m afraid.” Sam’s voice was scratchy. Jo glanced up at his haggard face. She guessed she didn’t look much better. Between processing paperwork, searching Alvin Ray’s place for evidence against Thorne, and late-night vigils at the hospital, neither of them had gotten much sleep.
“He’s still in a coma. Doctor said he lost a lot of blood and has minimal brain function.”
“You guys could have called me in,” Wyatt said from his desk at the other end of the room. He’d been standoffish since that night at Alvin Ray’s. Jo wasn’t exactly sure why.
“We didn’t think there would be any reason for backup. We were just going to talk to him,” Sam said.
“Yeah, I get that. But I keep thinking maybe having an extra officer would have prevented one of them from getting shot.” Wyatt glanced from Sam to Jo then sighed. “Can’t change that now, I guess.”
Jo got the impression he was studying them, trying to figure something out. She was overtired and probably reading more into it, but it almost seemed as if he sensed there was more to these cases than they were letting on. Rightly so, because there was more. Maybe Wyatt was more perceptive than she had originally thought.
Jo felt huge relief that they’d tied up both Tyler’s and Dupont’s murders. That meant they wouldn’t have to keep covering for the things they’d done. Even though those things were done with good intent, she still didn’t like hiding them.
Now there’d be nothing to keep secret. Well, except for Tyler’s box, but no one needed to know about that. They could keep that secret safe and still close his case now that everything had come out about Scott Elliott. His fingerprints in the car at Tyler’s murder scene and Alvin Ray’s confession of how they’d killed Tyler would allow them to close the case.
Everyone was silent for a moment before Bev spoke again. “At least we were able to get the evidence on Alvin. The cat hair was a match. We got it off one of the cat beds. Never did find the cat.”
“Probably got spooked by the gunshots and ran off. It’s a hollow victory, because I’m sure Ray could have given up more information on Thorne. At least we can prove he was delivering drugs, especially with these mail bins.” Sam gestured toward the plastic mail delivery bins they’d discovered in Ray’s basement. All of them had false bottoms. That was how he’d been delivering the drugs—a little bit of mail on the top, drugs on the bottom. It was quite ingenious. Ray was the only full-time postal employee, so there was no one to discover he’d doctored the bins.
“But we didn’t find anything that led to Thorne,” Jo said. After everything that had gone down, not one shred of evidence had surfaced.
“Thorne might be a lot of things, but he’s not stupid,” Sam said.
“I know you guys think he’s linked to this,” Bev said. “And I have my suspicions as well. But all the evidence we’ve collected leads me to believe that it was Alvin Ray and Scott Elliott alone.”
“Of course it does,” Sam said.
“And now they’re both dead and can’t talk,” Jo added.
“Well, at least we figured out who killed Dupont and Richardson. And I have to say it’s been great working with you guys. I knew you were a good guy, Sam. I’m glad I was proved right.” Bev shook hands with all of them.
“Congratulating yourselves, I see,” Holden Joyce said as he strolled around the row of post office boxes.
“We caught the killer, so congratulations are in order,” Bev said.
“I heard. But what about this big drug ring? Was it just two guys?” Holden taunted them.
Sam leveled a look at him. “I think you know it was more than two guys.”
“So where’s all the evidence?” Holden asked.
“Unfortunately, our biggest lead is dead, and the head honcho is smarter than we thought,” Bev said.
Holden’s eyes narrowed at Sam. “Maybe. Or maybe the police helped obscure some of the evidence. My gut still tells me there’s more going on in this police station than meets the eye.” He glanced around at all of them, his eyes stopping when they came to Jo. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of looking away, but she sensed some sort of meaning behind his look. Was it a threat? He moved on to Wyatt, and she let out a breath. “But I’ll give you this: you did catch the killer.”
“And Tyler Richardson’s killer,” Bev added.
“Yeah, about the Richardson case. There’re still a few discrepancies. Like the fake Fallen Officers Fund.” Holden quirked a brow at Sam.
“Oh no. You can’t go there,” Bev said. “I investigated that, and my forensic accountants determined that Chief Mason gave that money to Tyler’s mother out of the kindness of his heart. We followed the money trail. He took it from his retirement fund. Nothing nefarious there. She’d have been too proud to accept it otherwise.”
Holden made a face. “That may be so, but there’s also the matter of the forged logbook. Our handwriting expert analyzed it. We knew it wasn’t Tyler’s from the start, but now we know whose it was.”
“Who?” Bev asked.
“Officer Harris.” Holden turned to Jo again. “You know you can get suspended for that.”
“No,” Sam cut in. “She did that on my orders, so I’ll be the one suspended.”
Jo shot up from her desk. “I did that on my own because I didn’t want Tyler to have a black mark against his name.”
“Surely you can understand that,” Bev said. “Or have you never cared about any of your fellow officers’ reputations?”
Holden shrugged. “Sure, but where do you draw the line? It’s kind of like harassing people who aren’t suspects—like Forest Duncan.”
Sam stared at him. “We weren’t harassing. We’ve got to follow every lead. It turns out Duncan didn’t have a thing to do with Dupont’s murder.”
Jo and Sam had talked to Forest Duncan the day after the shooting. They pretended Tyler had told them about how he was working with him to set him at ease. After assuring him that anything he told them wouldn’t leave their confidence and Thorne would never find out Forest had admitted that he’d been conducting surveillance on Thorne for Tyler. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any evidence against Thorne, only against Scott Elliott.
But Sam and Jo had learned that Tyler hadn’t betrayed their trust after all. He’d done what he had to do for his sister. Funny thing was, he wasn’t the one tipping off Thorne either. Of course, they couldn’t tell Holden or Bev or even Wyatt any of this.
“Don’t be such a tight-ass, Holden. Let it go,” Bev said.
Holden stared at her, his jaw tight. His eyes drifted to Jo again. “Maybe I will let this one go. I have bigger fish. Don’t get too comfortable; you haven’t seen the last of me.” He gave them one last pointed glare and left.
“Ominous,” Wyatt said.
“Overly dramatic,” Sam added.