Cold Dawn

by Susan Sleeman

  “I can read you, Griff,” she said quietly. “See in your eyes what you think. See it in your expression. The way you hold your body.”

  “Is that so?” He smiled. “What am I thinking right now?”

  She held his gaze. “That you want to kiss me, and you wished everyone in this room would disappear so you could.”

  “Dang.” His lips tipped up higher. “And here I thought my SEAL training made me able to hide my thoughts.”

  “Maybe with others, but you’re an open book to me.”

  His gaze intensified. “And what do you think about my wayward thoughts?”

  She stepped even closer. “Kissing you? Yeah, that would be great, but I’m not going to let it happen.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I have to learn to accept my life as is before I can kiss any man again. Even you.”

  19

  Tina Lowe surprised Griff when she readily agreed to meet with him and Sam the next morning. It meant another helo ride to Portland and a risky landing, this time in the hands of a less-experienced pilot, but Riley proved his worth when he set them and Jackson down gently in the small circle.

  Jackson jumped down first and went straight to the old truck parked in the same space. Griff would drop Jackson at a car rental agency, and he would check out Scanlon’s prior address then stake out his attorney. Griff and Sam would head to Starbucks to meet Tina. Depending on how that went, they would then decide how to move forward in the investigation.

  Griff fired up the truck and worked hard not to notice Sam’s jean-clad leg pressing against his. Jackson kept up small talk all the way to the rental place. The minute he exited the truck, Sam slid as far away as possible and rubbed the side of her leg as if she was rubbing his touch away.

  He wasn’t big on sighing, but as he got the truck moving again, he sure wanted to. He didn’t know if she’d ever get past her issue with her dad on her own, and Griff wanted to help. He was a fixer. Give him a problem and time to plan, and he could fix most everything. But not this. Only Sam could fix it. And he felt helpless.

  “Do you think Nobles is ever going to meet with his arsonist, or do you think we’re all wrong about that? That he torched the place himself?” Sam was referring to the wasted hours yesterday as they tailed Nobles with no success.

  “I still think his hands are technically clean, but my gut says he’s behind the arson.”

  “So maybe he knows we’re tailing him.”

  “Or he has no reason to meet with the guy.”

  “Yeah, could be that.”

  “He’s going to eventually slip up.” Griff swung the truck into the packed Starbucks parking lot. “The problem is, I might need to go back to work before that happens.”

  “Even if you do, we’ll keep after it.”

  “Yeah, that’s what worries me.”

  She fired him a shocked look. “You don’t trust the team to catch Andy’s killer?”

  “No, I do. Totally. But the thought of you being in danger and me being in another town cuts me to the quick.”

  She didn’t respond, and he suspected she was trying to keep things out of the personal realm. He would not only respect that, but encourage it by letting this go.

  He parked and did a quick surveillance of the area. “Tina seems to be legit, but this could be a trap. So we head straight inside, okay?”

  Sam nodded and instead of waiting for him to open her door, she jumped out and bolted for the building, her head on a swivel.

  He spotted Tina right away by the way she’d described herself—short curly black hair and big black-framed glasses. She stood to greet them. “Andy mentioned you both. Said you were people he could count on.”

  Griff pulled the chair out for Sam and encouraged her to take a seat. “Is that why you agreed to meet with us?”

  Tina sat, too, and nodded. “That, and I want to know what happened to Andy. What really happened.”

  Griff remained standing, facing the door to keep an eye out for danger. “So you don’t buy the fact that he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time?”

  Tina shook her head and tears formed in her eyes. She was obviously one of the few people at Flint Accounting who truly liked Andy.

  “Can I get you a drink before we start?” he asked.

  She pulled out a tissue and dabbed at her eyes. “Sure. A mocha would be nice.”

  “And you, Sam? Plain black coffee?” he asked, as he knew she hated what she called “girly drinks.”

  She nodded, a hint of surprise in her expression. Did she think he’d forgotten she liked black coffee? They’d once enjoyed trying new coffee blends together to find the perfect one. He still bought the same Guatemalan beans to grind at home. Maybe she did, too. He went to the counter and got two black coffees and the mocha for Tina. He stopped to grab sugar for his coffee and placed the piping hot cups on the table.

  He straddled the chair across from Tina with full view of the door where he could keep an eye on people coming and going and dumped the sugar into his cup. “So, you were friends with Andy?”

  “More than.” Tears glistened in her eyes.

  “As in a romantic relationship?” Sam asked, her eyes shocked.

  “We were going to get married.” Her voice broke, and she swallowed hard. “But then Andy lost his job. He refused to get married until he had another one. He looked for months here in Portland, but Brad Flint blackballed him.”

  “And you still work for Flint?” Sam asked.

  “Brad? No. No way. I quit as soon as he fired Andy. I planned to join Andy in Rugged Point after he found a job. He would tell his family about us, and then we could finally get married.”

  Sam took Tina’s hand and smiled at her. “I’m so glad to hear Andy had you in his life. I wish he had more friends.”

  Tina tilted her head the way Pepper did when she was curious. “What do you mean? He had a lot of friends at Flint.”

  “But Oscar and Brad said…” Sam paused and shook her head. “Never mind. We shouldn’t have believed them.”

  “They lie easier than they tell the truth.” Disgust filled Tina’s tone.

  Griff stirred his coffee, feeling like they were getting to the truth. Finally. “So tell us what you know about Andy’s death.”

  Tina picked up her cup and closed her hands around it. “First off, he didn’t embezzle the money. You know that, right?”

  “I hate to admit it,” Sam said. “But at first I thought he did. Then we found work files in his storage unit. We’re having a forensic accountant review them, but it looks like he’s innocent.”

  “I’m glad you found the files. They’ll prove that Oscar and Brad are embezzling from the clients. Andy caught on to them. They found out he knew, and they set it up to make it look like he did it. They didn’t know he’d already copied all the files with proof that they were guilty.”

  “Do you think they killed Andy?” Griff asked.

  “Those guys? No.” Tina shook her head. “What’s the point? They have evidence that will convict Andy, and they never knew he copied files. The afternoon they fired him they claimed the business had a data crash that was unrecoverable, and they doctored the data before it was uploaded again. So no. They didn’t need to kill him to hide their theft. They had it covered.”

  “But you said you had information that would help us find the killer.”

  “I do. Or at least I think I do. I met Andy the day before he died. We went hiking at our favorite park.” A fond smile crossed her face, but it ended in a sob, and she clutched her cup in a death grip. “He told me he was coming into a big score. That we would be together soon.”

  “Big score?”

  “That’s what I asked. He said he couldn’t tell me about the details.” She sighed. “I was worried. Asked him if it was legal. He didn’t answer.”

  Sam leaned closer to Tina. “Do you think he was involved in something criminal?”

  “No. No, I don’t think he actually committ
ed a crime. But I think he might have gotten connected to someone who was doing something illegal and was helping him. At least that’s what I got from what he said.”

  “Could he have been helping the building owners torch the buildings?” Sam asked.

  “You can’t honestly believe he would do that, can you?” Tina frowned.

  “No, but what else could it be?” Sam asked.

  “All I know is that I think he did something stupid hoping it would give him enough money so we could be together.”

  “I wish you had more to go on.”

  “Me, too, but that’s it.” Tina sighed. “I just thought if you heard about this you could do more digging.”

  “I have a question for you,” Griff said. “Someone has tried to kill Sam twice now. Can you think of anything in Andy’s past or anything he said that would link him to Sam in such a way that they would want to kill them both?”

  Tina shook her head hard. “Tell me what happened.”

  Griff shared the incidents.

  “I can’t think of a thing.” Tina took a long sip of her coffee. “Maybe it has nothing to do with Andy. Someone could’ve tailed Sam to the cannery and set the fire to make it look like it was related to Andy but it wasn’t.”

  “Could be,” Griff said.

  Sam’s phone rang, and she glanced at the screen. “It’s Emory.”

  She quickly answered and stepped away from the table. She paced as she talked, but suddenly spun and hurried back to the table. “Emory has the results for the DNA she recovered from Andy. Is it okay if we stop by the Veritas Center to talk to her?”

  “Of course,” he said, but his thoughts remained on Tina’s comment that the person trying to kill Sam may not have anything to do with Andy.

  Could they actually be looking for a second killer? Someone like Scanlon. Griff believed there was a very good possibility that the guy wanted revenge.

  Question was, did he want it badly enough to risk getting caught and going back to prison?

  Sam smiled her thanks to Griff who opened the door for her to the Veritas Center. She spotted the same receptionist at the desk and nearly frowned. But Sam had been terse with the young woman on the last visit, so she put on the biggest smile she could muster and approached the desk.

  “You’re back,” Lily said loudly drawing the security guard’s attention.

  Great. That was all Sam needed. To have the guard throw them out.

  “I’m sorry about the last visit,” Sam said sincerely. “But Emory’s expecting me this time so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  Lily cast Sam a skeptical look but smiled at Griff and set the iPad in front of him.

  “I really do apologize if I was terse the last time I was here.” Sam smiled. “I hope I didn’t offend you.”

  The young woman offered a conciliatory smile as she picked up her phone and talked to Emory. “Go on up the stairs. Ms. Steele will be right out.”

  “Thank you, Lily. And thanks for being so understanding.” Sam started up the steps with Griff.

  Emory opened the door. She’d always told Sam she thought she looked like a science geek, and with her thick black glasses, Sam could see how she might think that, but the frames also accented her deep brown eyes. And even in clinical attire she looked feminine with the softest red hair framing her face.

  “Let’s head to the lab,” she said wasting no time.

  Sam was thankful as she wanted to hear the news as quickly as possible. She and Griff hurried after Emory to a sterile room with tall lab tables and metal stools. Sam recognized the top-of-the-line DNA machine that resembled a printer and must have cost a quarter of a million dollars. It processed samples in ninety minutes and was the latest in DNA technology. All the tech had to do was put the swab in the machine and the machine cross-referenced the sample with CODIS—Combined DNA Index System—that was managed by the FBI.

  But Emory walked right past the machine to her desk in the corner. She sat in a wheelie chair, rolled over to the side, and grabbed a stack of paper while Sam and Griff stood nearby.

  “I recovered several samples from Andy’s face, his arms, and hands. And I located two different DNA profiles.”

  “Two?” Sam asked. “Interesting.”

  Emory handed the reports to Sam.

  “Didn’t you use the RapidHIT?” Sam asked before studying the DNA profiles. “I mean, if I paid that much for a machine, I’d use it all the time.”

  Emory shook her head. “First, for purposes of uploading or searching CODIS, rapid DNA systems aren’t authorized for use on crime scene samples. They aren’t compliant with the FBI Director’s Quality Assurance Standards, so they can’t be uploaded in CODIS. Only buccal cheek swabs are allowed.”

  “Why’s that?” Griff asked.

  “Because buccal swabs always contain sufficient quantities of DNA, and they don’t have potentially mixed DNA profiles that require a scientist to interpret. But even if the crime scene samples were allowed, I was hired by Blackwell, not an official law enforcement agency to process this DNA. So I don’t have the authority to run my findings through CODIS. You’re going to have to give this information to the sheriff for comparison.”

  Sam sighed. “So what you’re saying is we have DNA from two—” She paused to look at the reports. “Two males, but no CODIS match because you can’t run it through the database?”

  “Sorry. I should have warned you, but I thought you might realize.”

  “Yeah, if I’d thought about it I would have.” Sam took a long breath. “But thanks to you we have these profiles, and Blake can input them into CODIS. Problem is, he won’t share his findings with us.”

  “Then it’s a good thing one profile matched the bottle.” She grinned and handed another report to Sam.

  Sam devoured the information. “Nobles killed Andy?”

  “He at least touched him. Nobles’ DNA came from Andy’s hand, not his mouth. Which means Nobles could simply have shaken hands with Andy. But it still connects them.”

  Sam fired an excited look over her shoulder at Griff, and he smiled back at her. “What about the straw from Nick Ogden?”

  Emory picked up another report from her desk and handed it to Sam. “The profile is also for a male, as you expected since you know the source, but it doesn’t match either of the other two.”

  “So Nick didn’t smother Andy,” Sam muttered.

  “It’s highly unlikely,” Emory replied.

  “I thought he might be good for it so I’m not much liking that news.” Sam mentally checked Nick off her suspect list leaving only Nobles, but at least they now had proof he had a connection to Andy.

  “And the bullet casing and cigarette?” Griff asked sounding eager to hear those results.

  “We’re working on those now, but I thought you’d want to know about Nobles’ match right away.”

  “Absolutely.” Sam squeezed Emory’s hand.

  She smiled. “We’ve got a few processes ahead of your other items, but I’ll get back to you soon as we have the results. And if you uncover another suspect, I’m glad to process their DNA for comparison to these reports.”

  Griff met Sam’s gaze. “Scanlon had his DNA taken, right?”

  Sam nodded. “But it’s not likely he had anything to do with Andy’s death.”

  “Anything is possible and worth checking,” Griff insisted.

  Emory’s eyes narrowed like she was looking at an interesting DNA sample. “Who’s Scanlon?”

  Sam shared the information, trying to downplay it to keep from worrying her friend. “He might be the one who tried to kill me. I can try to get his profile, but for certain Blake can request it and do a comparison.”

  “If you do get his profile, email it to me, and I’ll run the comparison.” Emory stood. “But as I said, go ahead and send me anything you need help with. You know I’ll go to any lengths to help you. Legal lengths that is.” She chuckled.

  Sam laughed with her friend and gave her a hug. “I’l
l get back to you if we need more help. And thank you for doing this for us.”

  “Anytime, my friend. Anytime.” She escorted them to the exit. “Keep me updated on what’s happening, okay?”

  “Thank you, Emory.” Sam hugged her friend, feeling sad at leaving her behind as she stepped back. “Once this is all over, let’s get together.”

  “I’m holding you to that.” Emory waved goodbye.

  Sam hurried to the truck, watching for any threats, though she doubted whoever was targeting her could be in Portland as they would first need to know she’d taken a helo ride here and then find one of their own and get to the lab. All very improbable.

  Griff opened the squeaky truck door for Sam. “Emory’s a good friend.”

  She nodded and got in, waiting for Griff to join her inside before continuing. “As part-owner of the lab, I’m sure she’d offer any of their services if we need them.”

  “Let’s hope we don’t need anything else to figure this out.”

  “I’m going to text Yancy and ask him to try to get Scanlon’s DNA.” Sam got out her phone and fired off the text.

  Griff turned the key and the old truck rumbled to life.

  Before she could stow her phone, it rang with a video call. “It’s Eryn.”

  Sam answered and held the device out between them. “Before you start, Eryn, you should know that Nobles’ DNA on the soda bottle matched DNA found on Andy’s hand.”

  Eryn’s mouth fell open. “What about his face?”

  “No match.”

  “Well, at least we know Nobles is involved.”

  “Exactly,” Sam said. “Now what do you have for us?”

  Her face brightened. “I did some analysis on the texts Andy received. The one we thought was from Oscar was spoofed. It actually came from an untraceable phone.”

  Griff gaped at Sam. “Oscar didn’t text Andy?”

  “No,” Eryn said. “Someone just made it look like it came from Oscar. So Andy thought he was going to meet Oscar at Ziggy’s, but he was actually meeting the owner of this burner phone.”