Page 69 of Unraveled

Carter dropped his head back on a groan. This just kept getting better and better. “The cartel? Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“Nope.” Aiden Taylor rolled his chair over. “Got a tip from an acquaintance that the feds are on his trail.”

Carter lifted a brow. “Nice of them to join the party.”

The former FBI agent’s lips quirked up in a wry smile. “Don’t expect too much. It could take years to build a case.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.” Carter crossed his arms over his chest. “This is a nightmare.”

“Anyone else with motive?” Knox asked Carter.

“Not that I can think of, but Audrey was pretty adamant it’s someone with medical experience.”

“So, we’re operating under the assumption that she overheard something she shouldn’t have? Maybe Raines and Kellerman were working together.”

“That’s my best guess.”

“But Kellerman was cleared,” Mason reminded them, “so either they didn’t find any evidence, or he really was clean.”

“I’m guessing clean,” Carter replied. “Why else kill him, unless he was on to whoever was responsible?”

Taylor glanced between the three of them. “Do we think Raines is involved in the smuggling ring, or maybe someone else Kellerman worked with? Another doctor from the VA, maybe?”

“Possibly,” Knox spoke up. “But she works there every day. If it was someone from there, she most likely would’ve recognized them. Plus, why wait so long?”

“But for what purpose?” Carter said as he raked one hand through his hair. “She hasn’t done anything.”

“Doesn’t mean someone doesn’t think she saw or heard something she shouldn’t have,” Knox spoke up. “It’s just a matter of figuring out what.”

Taylor nodded. “I’m running background on employees at the VA right now. They were completed at the time of hire, but God only knows how long ago that was for some of them.”

With the number of people Audrey interacted with on a daily basis, Carter had a feeling it was going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

CHAPTER

THIRTY-SIX

Audrey peeked out of her office and glanced up and down the hall, but everything was clear. Everyone else had already left, and she had seen Magda come in just a little bit ago to begin cleaning. She left the room and started down the hallway toward the offices.

Carter had texted a little while ago and told her he was running late, so she decided to do a little digging of her own. She tried to justify it by telling herself it wasn’t that bad. All she wanted to do was find out if Kellerman had kept any records anywhere, any indication of who may have been responsible for his death. By now, they all assumed that it was tied together. Like the police said, it was probably someone they both knew.

She rounded the nurses’ station where Magda stood disinfecting the counters. “Hello, Dr. Stanton,” Magda greeted her.

Audrey shoved her hands in the pockets of her jacket and smiled back. “Hi, Magda. How are you?”

“Fine, thank you. Such a shame about Dr. Kellerman,” the woman clucked. “Such a nice man.”

Sympathy seized Audrey, along with shame for what she was about to do. “I know. I feel terrible. I’ll be taking over a few of his patients, and I need to get a few things from his office.” She prayed the woman wouldn’t read into it and wouldn’t question her for being in his office instead of her own.

“Well, don’t let me bother you,” Magda said. “We weren’t sure what to do with it, so we just left it alone.”

Audrey nodded, grateful that HR had decided not to clear it out just yet. She wondered if the police had searched it, or if they would need to now that he’d been killed. That made her feel even worse, but she was tired of waiting around for something to happen. “That’s perfect. Thank you.”

Leaving Magda to her work, she meandered down the hall to Kellerman’s office and veered straight to the window. After the blinds were in place and she was sure that no one could see inside, she crossed the room again and flipped on the lights. Leaving the door open so as not to raise any questions, she glanced around the space.

It felt oddly empty without Kellerman there, and the realization that he would never sit behind that desk again sliced through her. Though she hadn’t known him all that long, he’d been a nice enough man. She still wasn’t sure if he was involved in whatever was happening; they might never be sure. It only made her reason for being there more resolute. She was determined to find anything she could to help the investigation along.

She pushed down the guilt she felt at snooping around the dead man’s office, and with a deep breath, she dived right in, starting with the desk first. She sifted through the contents of the drawers, inspecting everything, unwilling to disregard anything. The drawers were cluttered with paraphernalia, from notepads and pens to nail clippers and stock supplies like fabric tape and bandages. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to his storage methods, and the next three drawers were almost identical.