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“I don’t know anything about her death,” Tad said. “I swear.”
“What about Julia?”
“Again, I don’t know.” His voice hiccupped.
“Where are they going to hit next?” Andi asked.
“I have no idea.”
“So they have no further use for you,” Joel said, then looked at Christian. “That’s a tenuous place to be.”
“I never saw them. I have no idea who they are. There’s no reason to kill me!” Tad’s rushed speech bordered on a holler.
Christian leaned forward, his gaze fixed on Tad. “You’re assuming they need a reason.”
FIFTY-FOUR
DECKARD FOLLOWEDHARPERback to the lab. They were waiting until the officer working the evidence locker on the day Andi supposedly pulled the shirt out of the locker was on shift. Arriving nearly a half hour early, Harper took the time to run Deckard through every step of processing the DNA Andi had performed that night, along with showing him the storage facility. The data from that night showed that Andi had extracted and identified the partial match to Mitch.
“If only it’d been a complete match one way or another,” he said as they wrapped up and headed out for the evidence locker.
“Andi was only one skin cell shy of a full match,” Harper said, walking beside him.
“One cell?” His step hitched. “That’s it?”
“Yep.”
“You’re saying one more cell and it would have been considered a complete match to Mitch?”
“Exactly.”
When she put it that way, it made the identification even stronger in his mind. But Mitch? Could Deckard really have misjudged him so? Could Mitch really have played him that well? His chest tightened as they scanned into the evidence building. If Mitch wasAnne’s killer, he’d find a way to prove it, but with Mitch’s conviction being vacated, there was no way to charge him with the crime again.
His muscles coiled. What if he’d put a guilty man back on the streets?
“Hey, Mack,” Harper said, greeting the man in the cage. “How you doing today?”
“Hey, kiddo,” he said. “Can’t complain.”
Kiddo?Deckard arched a brow.
“I’m the youngest on the team. Still a newbie,” she said. “You don’t make ‘full rank’ until it’s been a year. But we’re well past that,” she said playfully. “It’s been over two years. I’ve earned my stripes.”
Mack chuckled, his whole diaphragm moving. “I suppose you have, butkiddojust fits.”
“Great.” She smirked.
Mack smiled, lifting his chin. “Who’s this?” he asked, his gaze fixed past Harper onto him.
“This is my friend Deckard MacLeod. He’s really interested in how all this works.”
“Deckard Macleod...” Mack tapped his pen on the counter. “MacLeod.” He frowned. “Are you the one that busted Miranda Forester?” he asked, his voice hard and questioning.
“Oh, come on, Mack. You knew her as Andi too.”
“Fine. He worked for that Abrams guy and busted Andi.”
“You don’t sound pleased,” Deckard said.
