Nearly Found (23 page)

W
HEN
I
GOT TO THE FORENSICS LAB
on Tuesday, something was different. The whole place seemed too quiet. The break room was empty and the halls felt like a ghost town, everyone silently working at their desks or tucked away in their labs, like someone had cracked a whip. A woman who worked at the desk in the receiving area stopped me on my way through the door.

“Are you Leigh?” she asked with an uncomfortable smile.

I nodded.

“Doc Benoit wants to see you in his office.” My mouth was dry and my feet were heavy as I walked upstairs to Administration and knocked on Doc’s door.

“Come in,” he said in a gruff voice.

I poked my head inside. “You wanted to see me?”

Two men stood in front of Doc’s desk, wearing badges around their necks and holsters around their shoulders. They were all looking at me. I came in and shut the door.

“Detectives, this is Leigh Boswell, one of our interns. She was working with Mr. Singh when he packaged the evidence in question.” Lonny’s cell phone. Vernon must have told the DA it was missing. And now they’d come looking for it. I clutched my backpack tight against my shoulder.

One of the detectives extended his hand to me. I shook it, holding on a moment longer than I’d planned to. I’d expected he would feel suspicious. Smoky with distrust. Or even angry. That he’d come looking for some kind of confession from me. But it was his pungent anxiety that turned my stomach and bit the back of my throat.

The detectives were worried.

“Leigh,” Doc said, snapping me to attention. “A little over three weeks ago, Raj boxed up some items associated with a murder investigation involving the strangulation of a young woman: a cell phone, a lighter, a knife . . . Raj says you were with him when he packaged these pieces of evidence and shipped them back to the detectives. Do you recall the items I’ve mentioned?”

I nodded.

One of the detectives continued speaking for Doc. His voice was even and confident, but there was a sheen of sweat on his upper lip. “One of those items—a cell phone—has gone missing. The defendant’s attorney has requested to see it, and our office has been unable to locate it. We believe Mr. Singh may have misplaced the phone. That it never made it into the box with the other evidence.”

They were lying. If they believed that was true, they would be angry, or impatient, or suspicious. They wouldn’t be so nervous unless they were concerned this might be their own department’s fault. Unless there was a chance they had been the ones to misplace it. It could just as easily have been a mishandling in their evidence room. Which meant no one was on the hook yet. I just needed a little more time.

I looked both detectives in the eyes. “I was there. I saw Raj put the cell phone in the box. I watched him seal it up. The cell phone was never lost in the lab. I’m certain of it.” It was the truth. Every word. I’d only omitted the part where I took it.

The first detective swore under his breath. The other scrubbed a hand over his face.

“May I be excused now?” I asked.

Doc smiled at me, but it felt thin. Like if I touched him, he would taste worried too. “Thank you, Leigh. You’ve been very helpful.”

• • •

I raced to the Latent Prints lab to find Raj, but it was dark. And the break room was empty. I headed to Veronica’s office, hoping to find him there, but she was alone.

“Is Raj out sick today?” I asked.

Veronica sighed. “He’s here, hon. He’s just having an off day. Try the Latent Prints lab.”

“I was just there.”

“Did you try the storage closet?”

I tipped my head, certain I misheard her. “The what?”

She nodded. “Trust me.”

I went back upstairs. The lab was still dark and empty. This time, the soft blue glow under the closet door caught my eye. I rapped gently.

“Raj? Are you in there?”

“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for. Go away.”

“Um . . . okay. Does that mean I can go home, then?”

I heard a deep sigh. Then the door cracked open. The storage room was pitch-black, except for the walls and the ceiling, which were dotted with fading neon blue lights. The effect was almost magical, despite the cloying smell of bleach. Raj sat in a corner, staring at the ceiling with a spray bottle in his hand.

“What are you doing in here?” I asked.

The blue lights on the walls began to fade. He picked up a brush, dipped it in a cup of bleach solution, and flicked it at the wall. Then he sprayed a fine mist of luminol over the area, lighting it up like the Milky Way.

“If I used blood, it would make a terrible mess and someone might try to have me committed. At least, with the bleach, there’s no cleanup. Plus, the reaction’s brighter. No sense in making a planetarium with dull stars.” He rested his chin in his hand, looking defeated. “Here,” he said, handing me the spray bottle. “You want to try?”

I chose a dark swath of concrete, and flicked some bleach at the wall. When I sprayed, the luminol revealed brilliant blue constellations. My breath caught, and for the next thirty seconds, while I watched the lights fade, so did everything else . . . the murders, the messages, Lonny’s case. It was beautiful and mysterious, and suddenly I understood Bao’s desire to have his own luminol. And Raj’s choice of hiding places. When the lights were off, the spray illuminated a whole other world, a peaceful one. And when the lights were on, no one was the wiser. Raj’s secret was hiding in plain sight.

“Raj,” I asked quietly, “why are you in the closet?”

He cleared his throat. “Doc put me on probation, pending an internal investigation. The police think I lost a piece of evidence.” He shook his head, his voice cracking. “I don’t know what happened. I logged it out myself. But the detectives said it wasn’t in the package with the rest of the evidence when they signed for it. I think Doc would have gone easier on me if the case wasn’t such a sensitive one, but the detectives raised holy hell. They said the guy might walk if we can’t find it. I turned this place upside down. I looked everywhere. It’s not here.”

My heart clenched. The stars and spots had all faded and we sat in silence in the dark. I’d thought I was risking my internship when I’d taken Lonny’s phone. I’d never considered that I could implicate Raj too. And now there was no way to fix it. Not without getting in Philip Vernon’s way. And I needed this plan to work.

“I know. I was just in Doc’s office, talking with the detectives. I told them I saw you put the phone in the box. That I watched you seal it up. Doc can’t keep you on probation forever.”

“Thanks.” He rested his head against the wall. “You know, I only remembered you were with me that day because that case really seemed important to you. I’d never seen you so upset before.” He looked at me thoughtfully. “You didn’t, by any chance . . . ?”

A knot tightened in my throat. A bright curiosity lit his eyes, then faded like a luminol star.

“Never mind. It was a ridiculous question.”

“I’m sure the evidence will turn up,” I reassured him.

If Raj had taught me anything, it was that nothing stayed hidden forever. And we were all running out of time.

• • •

On Wednesday after school, I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I was to see Lonny standing in the open door of the chemistry lab. I let out a relieved breath. Vernon had done it. Lonny was out on bail, using the money my father had left me. It had taken every penny, but as long as Lonny stayed in town and showed up in court when he was due, I wouldn’t lose it. When I’d met Vernon to sign the papers, making myself Lonny’s indemnitor, I’d given him an envelope for Lonny, with cab fare and a firm directive to come here before returning to his trailer in Sunny View. Before he could pack a bag and run. Vince, Eric, and Jeremy turned in their chairs, and Anh scooted a little closer to Jeremy. Reece sat on the counter under the window on the far wall with his arms crossed.

• • •

“Someone mind telling me what I’m doing here?” Lonny asked, staring coldly at Reece.

“Have a seat,” I said. Lonny turned slowly in my direction, tattooed knuckles curled into fists at his side. Then back to Reece, some stupid game of chicken playing out in the space between them. “Both of you,” I added.

Reece kicked off the counter and sauntered to a chair, a small satisfied smile on his face.

“A word, Boswell?” Lonny glared at me. He waited for me to follow him into the hall.

“What the hell is this all about?” he asked when we were alone. He hovered over me, close enough for me to smell the jail cell he’d just been released from.

“I need your help if we’re going to catch the guy who killed Adrienne.”

A slow cynical smile stretched across his face. He scratched his jaw, where his scruff had filled the space between his long sideburns and his goatee. “That’s funny. I’m pretty sure you just bailed him out.”

“You’ve been charged. That doesn’t mean you’re guilty. We have time to figure this out.”

“Ain’t nothing to figure, Boswell. I told you. They’re going to make this case stick.”

“Not if we can solve it first.”

He leaned against the wall, resting his head against it and looking at me with something that could almost be admiration. “You paid your dues, Boswell. We’re even.”

“We’re nowhere close to even! You have no idea how much this is costing me!”

Lonny straightened, taking in every tensed muscle in my body. His eyes darkened and his brow furrowed deep, like he was watching me drown and it was too late to save me. “The lab didn’t lose the phone, did they?”

I blinked hard, determined not to cry. “Reggie Wiles is out on parole. I’m willing to bet he was the one who killed Adrienne. I’m certain he burned down the Bui Mart. And I think he killed Emily Reinnert too. I won’t let that monster take anyone else.”

A slow fire lit behind Lonny’s eyes. I brushed his arm as I left him standing in the hallway. He tasted like blood, and I was certain he would follow me.

He came into the lab a moment later, sliding into the last empty seat in the circle of chairs. Everyone was silent. Waiting. Looking at me.

“The club isn’t what we thought,” I said. “That’s what the message in the bottle said.”

“Obviously,” said Jeremy. “I mean, look at us. The original poker club was my dad, Vince’s, yours, TJ’s, Eric’s, and Emily’s. I still don’t understand why Anh’s family got dragged into this. Or either of you, for that matter.” Jeremy inclined his chin toward Lonny and Reece.

“There’s a common thread connecting us all. I had thought it was the poker club, but it’s bigger than that. We have to look for the motive in order to figure out what the killer wants, so we can stop this before someone else gets hurt.

“So let’s start with what we know. First, Lonny was framed for a murder he didn’t commit. Then someone dug up Eric’s father’s remains, in order to implicate mine in his murder. Anh’s store was burned down. Then Emily was killed and someone tried to pin it on Reece. Someone blew up Vince’s car. We’ve all been made victims.”

“Why?” Jeremy asked. “I still don’t understand what we all have in common.”

“We all hurt Reggie’s family. Reece, Lonny, Anh, Vince, Emily, and I all came forward as witnesses against his son. We helped put TJ behind bars.”

Lonny jerked his chin toward Eric. “I don’t remember him being involved in TJ’s conviction. What does he have to do with this?”

“Eric’s father was the one who reported Reggie to the police five years ago. Karl Miller was the one responsible for Reggie’s arrest. I stand by my theory,” I continued. “I think Reggie Wiles is behind this. He and TJ are the only people who have a reason to hurt all of us. And there’s no way TJ could have done this. Not alone.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
This is about revenge. And the only person capable of this, with a strong enough motive to exact revenge, is Reggie Wiles.” Lonny made a subtle gesture, as if tipping his hat to me.

“But what about me?” Jeremy shifted in his seat. “I never did anything to those people. I mean, sure, I was in the cemetery the night TJ was arrested, but I couldn’t even provide a statement to police. I was knocked out cold. I wasn’t awake for any of it. I never hurt anyone.”

“You did hurt them,” Eric said. “You said it yourself.”

Jeremy looked confused.

“You were the one who took the photo of me and Emily,” Vince said. “You were the one who told him she was being unfaithful.”

“But he had a right to know,” Jeremy argued.

“So you did it out of the goodness of your heart?” Vince narrowed his eyes. “Bullshit! Admit it, Fowler. You did it to get one over on him. You did it to hurt him. And it did hurt him! Believe me. Emily and I were there for the fallout. Hell, you’re probably next on his hit list.”

Jeremy sunk in his chair, looking stricken. That photograph had been the match that ignited a string of murders, and now it was coming back to burn him. “You think I’m next? You think Reggie will try to kill me?”

“Not if we can stop him first,” I said.

“So what do we do?” Reece asked.

“What do you mean, what do we do?” Anh looked incredulous. “We go to the police!”

“No,” Reece said firmly. “It’s too risky.”

“Risky for you, maybe,” Jeremy said, pointing the finger back at Reece.

“Risky for all of us. They’ll never believe us.”

Lonny scratched his goatee. “Whelan’s right. If it is Reggie Wiles, the only way he’s getting away with it from inside a halfway house is with help. He’s probably got a cop in his pocket. There has to be another way. Some way we can prove he’s involved.”

“We solve it.”

They all turned to look at me with quizzical expressions.

“Reggie Wiles knows who killed Karl Miller. That’s why he dug up the body. That’s why he marked it with a code that I could decipher. He knows all the circumstantial evidence already points to my dad. But he wants me to find the proof.”

“I don’t get it,” Jeremy said. “If he knows your dad killed Karl Miller, why doesn’t he just go to the police and turn him in?” Jeremy looked hesitantly around the circle. “Is anyone else not understanding the logic here? How is finding Karl Miller’s killer supposed to bring all this to an end? Presumably, Reggie wants to hurt all of us, Leigh. How is this supposed to hurt you?”