“Looks like it. Someone trying to hide prints? Evidence?”
“That’s what my gut says. But I want to let Bruno take a sniff. He’s been trained in more than just finding dead bodies. Let’s see if he alerts to anything.”
“Like what?”
Luke shrugged. “I don’t know. If it’s been wiped clean, there may be traces of evidence left that we can’t see, but Bruno can smell.”
“Like blood,” Finn said flatly.
“Yeah.”
Finn nodded. Luke avoided eye contact with those watching, got Bruno and brought him over to the vehicle. “Go, boy,” he said softly. “Search.”
Bruno hopped into the vehicle and went to work. His head bobbed and weaved as he examined the front seat, then Luke let him out and into the very back where Snapper would have been in the kennel box. Bruno took one sniff near the front of the box and sat.
“He found something,” Luke said.
“What?”
Luke climbed in and used the light on his phone to illuminate the area Bruno had alerted to. He sucked in an audible breath.
“What is it?” Finn asked.
“A dark stain. On the bottom of the door. It’s dried, but it could be blood. Let me get the luminol and we’ll find out for sure, then see if there’s any evidence of more and whether someone tried to clean it up. We’ll get this sent off to the lab and processed ASAP. If it’s blood, I want it compared to Jordan’s.”
Luke climbed out of the vehicle and shot another look over his shoulder. All three brothers stood silent, arms crossed, eyes intense. He sighed and rose. Zach raised a brow, questions all over his expression.
“Just getting something from my trunk,” Luke said.
“What?” Sophie asked.
Luke hesitated.
“Spit it out, man,” Zach said. “There’s no way we’re having secrets.”
“I’m going to get some luminol to take a sample of something that could possibly be blood.” Zach paled. Luke held up a hand. “It’s only a small dark stain. Could be from anything. It’s not enough to scare me, but we’ve got to process it and the rest of the vehicle.”
Zach swallowed hard. Sophie’s fingers curled into fists. Luke retrieved the luminol and other items he needed for the sample and passed them to Finn. If someone had cleaned up the vehicle and tried to get rid of any other blood that had spilled, Finn would find it and then CSU would take over when they arrived.
“When you’re finished, we’ll let one of the officers run it to the lab so they can get started on it ASAP.”
“Good idea.”
Ten minutes later, a uniformed officer sped away, siren wailing. Luke drew in a deep breath. “Have Noah or Carter found anything?” he asked Zach. The young man shook his head. “All right, then. I think it’s time to join in with Carter and Noah and search this area again. If his vehicle is here, maybe Jordan is, too.”
Unfortunately, he was deathly afraid that if Jordan was here, they were way too late to be of any help.
SIX
Sophie bit her lip and watched as the cruiser took the evidence away, then turned her attention back to the action in front of her. Luke’s phone rang, and he answered it while Finn readied Abernathy to start searching.
“Right. Okay,” Luke said into the phone. “Thanks, Dani.” He hung up and turned to them. “Dani’s gotten some surveillance video from the guy who kidnapped Sophie and says she knows how he managed to disappear after the wreck.” He nodded to Finn. “We’ll check it out after we’re finished here.”
Finn held Jordan’s shirt from yesterday so Abernathy could get a good whiff of it. The dog sniffed it and stuck his nose to the ground, then in the air as he paced back and forth near Jordan’s SUV.
When he caught the scent, he took off down the trail weaving back and forth on the asphalt but heading deeper into the wooded area away from the trail’s entrance. Finn hoofed it after the dog, followed by Jordan’s brothers.
Sophie hurried over to Luke, who stood still and silent. Watching. “What is it? Aren’t we going?”
He blinked as though she’d pulled him from some deep mental place. “Yes.” But instead of following the others, he walked to his vehicle, grabbed his evidence duffel from the back and let Bruno out.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “This isn’t a job for Bruno. He finds dead people, not living ones.”
“He needs to walk and find a tree. We’ll stay far enough behind that he won’t be a distraction to Abernathy.”
Sophie frowned, anxiety notching up. “You think we’re going to need Bruno, don’t you?” she asked quietly. Tears and hysteria welled, and she squelched both with a massive dose of willpower.
“I sincerely hope not,” Luke said, “but I can’t deny that I have a feeling—”
“What? What kind of feeling?” Why was she asking? She already knew the answer. She supposed she wanted him to deny it.
He glanced at the trail and shook his head. “Never mind. You ready?”
“I am.” The three started off at a fast clip with Bruno leading the way. “What kind of feeling?” Sophie asked again, unable to resist pressing for an answer.
“It’s probably nothing.”
“You don’t believe that.”
He shrugged.
“Fine. I don’t want to speculate on that either, so let me run this by you.”
“Sure. What?”
“I’ve been thinking,” Sophie said.
“About?”
“The reason that guy decided to kidnap me. I think Gavin’s right. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think the guy planted that suicide note in Jordan’s folder and when I walked in to question him, he realized he was caught. Kidnapping me was a spur-of-the-moment, desperate act of someone who didn’t want it found out that he was there. Thankfully, you came along when you did.”
“It’s a little soon right now, but I’ll follow up on the letter in a couple of hours and see if the lab was able to find any prints.”
“Please.”
She dodged a tree limb as Bruno continued to mirror a similar path that Abernathy had taken, weaving and sniffing. It didn’t take long to catch up to the others, who’d stopped.
Finn looked up when they approached and shook his head. “Abernathy’s lost the scent. I’ll need a minute to help him get it back.”
Luke held Bruno back when the dog wanted to lurch forward. “Easy, boy.”
Sophie frowned, watching, keeping her thoughts to herself.
Noah sighed. “We’ll keep going and see if we find anything out of the ordinary. Radio us if Abernathy catches the scent again.”
Finn nodded, and Noah, Carter and Zach continued to trek the path, leaving Finn, Sophie, Luke and the dogs alone. The whomp-whomp-whomp of blades cutting through the air reached her and she looked up through a break in the trees just in time to see a helicopter make a pass.
“The media’s here,” she said.
“How’d they find out so fast?” Luke muttered.
“There are a lot of cop cars here,” Sophie said. “They know something’s going on, but probably not the details.”
“Then we need to get going on this. It won’t be a secret for much longer.” Finn held the bag with the shirt out to Abernathy once more.
“I think that Jordan was forced to write that note,” Sophie said, picking up her earlier train of thought. “Katie was absolutely right. If someone threatened her or someone he loved, Jordan would have just written the note with the intention of tearing it up later after he explained what happened.”
“I agree,” Luke said, “but my question is why? What’s the reason behind it? The motive?”
Finn glanced at her, started to say something, then went silent.
“What?” she asked. “Now’s not the time to withhold your thoughts
.”
“Could I say something without you two thinking the worst of me or getting mad?” he asked.
She glanced at Luke, who shrugged, then studied Finn for a second before nodding. “Okay.”
“While I think that what you’ve just described is a likely scenario, how well do we know Jordan? Any of us? After all, he wouldn’t be the first cop to hide his emotions, his true feelings, under a layer of professionalism.”
Sophie scowled. “Not Jordan. I saw him day in and day out. If he was depressed or struggling with something, I would have noticed.” She paused. “Or Katie would have mentioned it. We’re good friends and she wouldn’t keep something like that from me.”
“I agree with Sophie,” Luke said. “If she says Jordan was fine emotionally, then he was.” He swept an arm out. “And besides, all of this screams foul play.”
Sophie shot Luke a grateful smile. She appreciated his support and faith in her. It drew her like a magnet, but she couldn’t help a small silent caution to her heart. Luke acted like he took her seriously, but not many men did because of her age and appearance that made her seem even younger. So, for now, while she had hope that Luke saw her as someone who knew what she was talking about professionally, she’d keep her guard up on the personal front.
Finn nodded and controlled the suddenly eager dog pulling at the lead. “I’m just trying to cover all the bases. Truly, I don’t think Jordan killed himself. I just think, as cops, we need to look at all angles.”
“I know,” Sophie muttered. “But not this time. I was kidnapped by the guy who planted the note, remember?”
Abernathy pulled harder and Finn gave a grin of satisfaction. “We’re back on the scent. Let’s go find our boss and bring him home.”
Sophie and Luke let Finn and Abernathy get a short lead before following after them. Sophie sent up silent prayers and kept her eyes open for anything that might lead them to Jordan. Abernathy led them off the jogging trail, his tail wagging.
Bruno lifted his head and swiveled left. He pulled on his lead and Luke sucked in a breath. “No,” he whispered. Sophie’s heart clenched. She met Luke’s gaze and the stark agony there terrified her.
“Luke?”
Without a word, he followed Bruno off the trail, stepping over the underbrush and around a dense set of trees. Sophie followed, doing her best to ignore her pounding heart.
And then Bruno found a small path that led around another thick copse of bushes and trees. He followed it and disappeared from sight. And the leash went slack.
Luke pulled up short. “Stay back, Sophie.”
“What does that mean, Luke? Why isn’t he moving?” But she knew why. Bruno wasn’t moving because he was sitting—his alert that he’d found a body. She caught up to Luke and grasped his arm. “It doesn’t mean it’s Jordan.”
“I know. I’m going to find out. Just stay put.” Luke vanished.
But she couldn’t. She followed him, her eyes landing first on Bruno, who sat facing them. When she looked behind him, she let out a small cry. Dressed in his jogging clothes, Jordan sat back against a tree trunk, eyes open, staring at nothing.
Luke bit back his own cry but couldn’t suppress the low moan of grief.
“Jordy!”
Sophie’s piercing cry turned him around just in time to catch her around the waist as she hurled herself toward Jordan’s body. “No, Sophie, you can’t do anything. He’s gone.” He pulled her into a hug, holding her against his chest while she wailed. “He’s gone,” he whispered against her ear.
And had been for a while judging from the color of his skin and sightless gaze. But Luke would check. He had to. He pressed Sophie’s face into his chest, feeling the shudders wracking her. “I’m going to see if there’s a pulse.” Even though he knew there wouldn’t be, but some small sliver of hope urged him to try. “Stay here for a second, please? I mean it. We can’t mess up the scene. And...call the others, will you?”
She nodded, and he released her, pressing Bruno’s leash into her hand. From his bag, he pulled little blue booties and slipped them over his shoes to prevent tracking any foreign evidence into the area. With one last look at the trail, expecting to see Jordan’s brothers appear any moment, he turned to make his way to his boss, noting the landscape, the trampled undergrowth and broken tree limbs.
It looked like Jordan had just walked over, sat down...and died. A long groove in the ground looked like someone had dragged a stick, then stopped at Jordan’s resting place.
Kneeling in front of the man who’d been more than a boss, one he’d considered a friend, Luke clamped his lips together and pressed his fingers against Jordan’s neck, then his limp wrist.
Nothing.
The fact that his skin was cold to the touch told him Jordan had been dead for a while. Lividity had come and gone, which meant he’d probably been dead shortly after they realized he’d gone missing.
Luke dropped his chin to his chest to get his raging emotions under control. Once again, he was too late. His mother had died because he’d been late—killed by a carjacker when he was eight years old. He still blamed himself when he thought about it too long. And now Jordan. Too late, too late, too late.
“Luke?”
Sophie’s wavering voice brought him to his feet. He turned to find Zach, Noah and Carter standing back, faces twisted in stunned grief, but with faint hope that Luke would find a pulse. Finn held Abernathy back, ordering the dog to sit, his own anxious gaze matching those of Jordan’s brothers.
Luke met Sophie’s eyes, then the brothers’, and gave a slight shake of his head.
“No!” Zach’s wail echoed through the trees. He turned and punched the nearest trunk. Then clasped it and pressed his forehead against it. Noah wrapped his arms around his younger brother. Carter didn’t move, his gaze locked on Jordan’s body. His mouth worked, but no sound emerged. He took a step toward Jordan.
Luke went to Carter and gripped his friend’s bicep, stopping his forward momentum. “I can’t let you go to him,” Luke said hoarsely. “We have to protect the scene.” He left out the word crime but knew it was implied.
Carter spun away to drop his head. His shoulders gave a violent shudder, then went still. When he turned back, his reddened eyes burned into Luke’s. “Get this investigation going, Luke. Please,” he whispered, the raw anguish searing Luke’s heart.
Noah stepped forward, jaw hard, eyes harder. “I don’t know what happened, but my brother didn’t kill himself and we need you to help prove it.”
“Of course.” Luke nodded and cleared his throat. “Finn, secure the scene.” He didn’t recognize his own grief-ravaged voice, but they needed to act. Jordan deserved it.
All three brothers now stood next to one another, their eyes on Jordan. And all three held themselves back from rushing to the man, knowing they’d destroy any evidence that might be there to tell them what happened. “Carter?” Luke asked. The man shifted his gaze to Luke. “Can you, Noah and Zach search for Snapper? If Jordan’s here, so’s Snapper.”
With a jerky nod, Carter turned. He directed his other two brothers to follow.
Zach shook his head. “I’m not leaving him.” He crossed his arms and kept his eyes locked on Jordan.
Carter started to say something, but Noah put out a hand. “It’s okay.”
Noah and Carter took off down the trail, seemingly grateful to be able to focus on something other than the soul-crushing despair. Zach stayed put, still as a statue, his eyes locked on his brother.
Sliding his hands around Sophie’s biceps, Luke grasped them in a gentle grip. “Sophie?”
She looked up, tears streaking her ashen cheeks.
“I’m going to call it in,” he said. “Okay?”
She nodded. “Yes. You have to call it in.”
Her automated response came from shock and he gave her a second before he squ
eezed her arms. She drew in a shuddering breath.
“I need you to wait on the trail,” he said, “and direct the medical examiner and crime scene unit this way when they get here,” he said. “It shouldn’t take CSU long since they’re working on the vehicle, but the ME has to have a first look. Okay?”
She nodded again, her eyes fixed on his. Trusting him. Willing to follow his lead. His throat tightened. He didn’t deserve that look. Shoving aside the unwelcome wave of self-pity, he cleared the lump from his throat. “We’ve got to keep it together for Jordan, okay? Can you do that? Can you help me?” He paused and drew in a steadying breath. “Because if you lose it, I will, too.”
* * *
With a slow nod, Sophie straightened her shoulders and swiped her cheeks. “I can do that. For Jordan—and you.” She functioned on autopilot, her mind grappling with disbelief and sorrow.
But she’d keep it together. For now. Time passed in a blur of crime scene tape, pictures, the medical examiner’s appearance and the subsequent removal of Jordan’s body in the black bag. Sophie watched them go. So many questions—very few answers.
“Anyone find Snapper?” Luke asked her as Finn stepped up to join them. The crime scene unit had appeared to do their job and Sophie watched them carefully—as though just her presence would ensure their accuracy and professionalism.
“No,” Sophie said. The three of them stood about ten yards away from where the CSU worked, surrounded by trees and other spring greenery. But for her, the place had lost its beauty and it would forever have the dark stench of death stamped on it. “Which means someone took him,” she added. Finn raised a brow and she shrugged. “Snapper was Jordan’s shadow. That dog would have stayed by Jordan and probably barked his head off until someone came to investigate. You know that as well as I do. If Snapper isn’t here, then someone took him. It’s as simple as that.”
“And just as complicated,” Luke said softly.
“Yeah.”
Finn sighed. “I’ll go talk to Jordan’s brothers and fill them in.”
Justice Mission Page 7