“Sleep would help.” Adam flashed a cherubic smile.
“You won’t let me go home yet.”
“Leigh said you could go to her house.”
“I’ll think about it. But for now, let’s see what we’re dealing with.”
Adam frowned at her, but he retrieved the box he’d carried in and placed it on the desk in front of her.
She pulled three flash drives and a tablet from the box. “This is it? This is all you found at the victim’s house?”
Adam nodded. “I was there last night. The flash drives were in a little bowl on her dresser. The tablet was on her bedside table. If she had anything else, we haven’t found it yet.”
“Hmm.”
“What’s bothering you about this?”
“Is forensics going to look everywhere?”
“I should hope so.” Adam tapped the desk. “That’s what they do.”
“I’m not talking about desk drawers, or even under the mattress. I’m talking about inside cereal boxes, food in the fridge, bottles of lotion that may or may not contain lotion.”
“You think she hid something in a bottle of lotion?”
“I don’t know. But this is a small digital footprint for someone who made her living on a computer. One laptop, a tablet, and a handful of flash drives?”
“You think we’re missing something?”
“I know we are.” So many things. “To start with, where’s her phone?”
“We don’t know. It wasn’t in her purse, and it wasn’t in the car. We got the search warrant for everything last night, and I ran a search for her phone. The last place it pinged was a tower in the vicinity of her home. But that doesn’t mean she didn’t turn it off. Anissa and Ryan are going to search the lake for it today. We didn’t find it yesterday, but we didn’t finish the search grid either. We ran out of manpower when Gabe and I both had to focus our attention elsewhere.”
“They aren’t going to find it in the lake.”
“What makes you say that? The guy who went down there and pulled her out could have dislodged it.”
“Do you really think her phone floated away?” she asked. “The car was submerged overnight. Given the nature of the trip down the embankment and into the water, it’s unlikely the phone would have remained on the seat. And even if it did, phones don’t float. If her phone was anywhere in the car when it entered the lake, it would have settled on the floorboards.”
“I think we would be foolish not to look for it, regardless of whether or not I think that’s what happened.” Adam paced around the desk. “We can’t make assumptions at this point in the case. It would be irresponsible not to finish searching the grid we laid out. We might find something we weren’t expecting. You never know what might break a case open.”
He had a point. “Fine. I’ll agree with that. But where are the external hard drives? There’s no way she didn’t have some.”
“We didn’t find any. Maybe she used the cloud.”
“I’m sure she did, but there’s no way she didn’t have some hard—”
“Not everyone is as tech savvy as you are,” Adam said. “Lots of people are walking around without any kind of backup for their computers, phones, photos.”
“I don’t understand people like that.”
Adam laughed. “I know.”
“Does she have a safe deposit box?” Sabrina asked.
“No record of one. But that doesn’t mean we won’t find something later.”
“What about an office?”
“She’s worked from home for five years.”
This didn’t make sense.
“Sabrina, what are you thinking?”
“What?”
“You have this frustrated look on your face.” Adam’s smile was gentle, not teasing. He did tease her from time to time, but he was very careful about it. “Please tell me what’s bothering you.”
“It’s this,” she said. “Three flash drives and an iPad? Even if she used cloud storage, she should have more than this. I bet your grandmother has more than this, and she’s not an accountant. There should be a desktop. Multiple monitors. The laptop you found was a nice enough machine, but it’s too small to do a lot of work on.”
“Maybe whoever killed her took it,” Adam said. “Although Gabe was right. The house didn’t appear to have been tossed. It was more a feeling. Like something was off, but since we’d never seen it before, we didn’t know what we were looking for.”
“Maybe they knew what they wanted and didn’t bother with anything else.”
Sabrina tried to slow her swirling mind. Many possibilities floated before her, but now wasn’t the time to explore them. They didn’t have enough information. She needed to focus on what she could do in this moment and leave the loose ends alone until she could do something with them. And until she wasn’t muddled by pain.
“One more question. And I promise I’m not complaining or trying to be difficult, but why is Gabe insisting that I look at this?” She palmed one of the flash drives. “Forensics can handle it.”
“The captain thought it was a good idea for the sake of continuity. And forensics is backed up, so it might be a week before they get to it.”
Sabrina was itching to get to work. Maybe focusing on digging through the files would take her mind off her pain and fear. “Fair enough. Are you headed back to the office?”
“Not a chance.”
“That blow to your head must have shaken a few extra screws loose if you think I’m leaving you alone,” Adam said. He blinked away the mental image burned in his brain after Pete’s recounting of the morning’s events. The very idea of Sabrina lying on the cold ground in a pool of blood . . .
“I’m perfectly safe in this room.”
She couldn’t possibly know how adorable she was when she got all stubborn and stuck her chin out. “Assuming you don’t pass out,” he said.
“You have work to do.”
She had him on a technicality there. Although . . .
“Your systems are secure here.” He should know. Making sure the sheriff’s office and her office could communicate securely was the way he’d gotten to spend a lot of time with Sabrina in the months after they first met. He’d always been thankful he’d been the one chosen to be the liaison. “For what I need to do this morning, I can log on and work in that corner. You won’t even know I’m here.” He didn’t wait for her to agree or disagree. He settled himself into a chair in the corner and logged in.
Something about the look she gave him made him think he hadn’t fooled her, but she didn’t put up a fuss. “I’m going to my office,” she said. “I think better there. And before you ask, no, I do not need any help.”
She stood with care and eased to the glass door separating her office from the main lab. She left the door open, and he watched her until she was settled behind the bank of monitors. When he heard the tip-tap of her fingers on the keyboard, he relaxed.
A little.
They worked in silence—except for the omnipresent clicking of keys—for half an hour.
“When will your students be here?” Adam asked.
“I’m not expecting anyone today. It’s exam week. My grad students are proctoring exams, and none of my undergrads have exams with me this semester.”
“You must be their favorite professor,” he said.
Her laugh floated to him through the door. “This semester was all lab work. They gave a final presentation last week and then were done. Next semester will be an entirely different experience.”
“Your gleeful tone makes me think you might be looking forward to it a bit—”
“What in the—?” A furious pounding of keys accompanied Sabrina’s outburst. “Adam, you need to come in here.”
He was already through the door.
“When will Gabe be done?” Sabrina’s fingers never stopped moving. Her eyes never left the screen.
“They delayed the autopsy this morning, but I would think they would be d
one by one. Maybe two. He’s supposed to call—”
“Can you call him now? Will he answer?”
“Um, probably. Why?”
“I want to speak to Dr. Oliver.”
Adam had no idea what was going on in Sabrina’s brain. He’d have to find out when Dr. Oliver and Gabe did. He called Gabe. As soon as it rang, he put it on speakerphone.
Gabe answered after the second ring. “Sabrina okay?”
“I’m fine, Gabe.”
“She’s hurting,” Adam said at the same time.
“Okay.” Gabe drew out the word. “I’m going to let you two sort that out. What’s up?”
“Gabe, are you still with Dr. Oliver?” Sabrina asked.
“I am.”
“Could you ask her if she’s checked for broken bones? Not from the crash, but previous breaks that have healed?”
“I’m putting you on speaker,” Gabe said. “Dr. Oliver, I have Dr. Fleming on the phone. She has a question for you about our victim.”
“Hi, Dr. Fleming, how are you?”
“It’s Sabrina, and I apologize in advance for asking you this before you’ve finished your investigation. That kind of thing always drives me crazy, but I think it might be relevant.”
“It’s no problem, and it’s Sharon.”
“I’ll be quick, Sharon. Have you found any evidence of abuse or torture? Specifically broken fingers?”
Even through the phone’s speaker Adam heard Sharon’s quick intake of breath. It mirrored his own. “I can’t say if her injuries were the result of torture or not, but yes, the X-rays indicate five of her fingers had been broken. Badly. And probably at the same time. How did you know?” Sharon Oliver’s tone was full of nothing but respect.
“It was a hunch. Would you say this happened five years ago? Can you tell something like that?”
“I think five years is a very reasonable time frame for this,” Dr. Oliver said. “How did you know?”
The expressions flashing across Sabrina’s face intrigued Adam. She didn’t seem surprised to be right, but he got the impression she wished she’d been wrong.
“I found evidence of a dictation software that was in heavy use five years ago.”
“You got broken fingers from dictation software?” Gabe asked.
“Not exactly. It’s hard to explain. The file setup from five years ago is all wonky. Her files are extremely organized. What I would expect to see from the stereotypical ideas we all have about accountants. Orderly, logical, systematic.”
“I feel a huge but coming,” Gabe said.
“This flash drive contains a group of very specific files that go back seven years. Around the five-year mark, nothing is where it’s supposed to be. It’s a mishmash of folders, files, directories. It screamed anomaly, so I opened a few files. The number portions of the spreadsheets are probably correct, but the descriptions, labels—anything with words—are a mess. Totally unprofessional.”
“I still don’t see how you got broken fingers from that,” Dr. Oliver said. “She could have broken her arms or her wrists or had shoulder surgery.”
“Oh, sorry. Yes. I found finger strengthening exercises and a log sheet where she’d kept up with what she did, how often, even her pain level. That kind of thing.”
“Okay,” Gabe said. “Just so we’re all on the same page, you started surfing through the flash drive, found a set of files from five years ago that looked off, and when you opened them you realized our victim had been using a dictation software to populate them. And then you made the leap from the finger exercises that she’d broken her fingers. Right so far?”
“Yes,” Sabrina said.
“I still don’t get it,” Gabe said.
“Me either,” Sharon said.
“Don’t get what?” Sabrina’s crestfallen expression lampooned Adam’s heart. She shook her head in bewilderment. “You think I’m wrong?”
“No!” All the voices filled the air.
“Then what?” Sabrina put her head in her hands.
“If I may?” Adam asked.
“Go for it,” Gabe said.
“We’re in agreement with what you’ve said, and we can see how you made those connections, but what’s baffling to us, or to me at least, is why would you assume she was tortured or abused? Why not assume she got her hands slammed in a car trunk or fell off a horse?”
“Adam’s right, Sabrina,” Sharon said. “There are myriad ways to break fingers. Why are you sure she was tortured?”
Sabrina lifted her head, eyes clear of their earlier frustration. “I’ll admit it was a leap, albeit I believe a reasonable one given what we know.”
“And what is it that we know?” Gabe asked.
“She was laundering money. Millions of dollars, by the looks of it.” She pointed at Adam. “Your forensic accountants are going to have their hands full, but when we find the files, you’ll see.”
“Um, sorry?” Gabe said.
“Money laundering,” Sabrina said. “Not her money, obviously. But you don’t deal with this much money unless you are up to your neck in it with some very bad people. Probably drugs or human traffickers. Someone who has way more money than their legal businesses can account for. I’ve actually seen this tactic before. My guess is she went to work for someone legitimately and learned of their illegal side ventures, and they decided to let her live as long as she continued to work for them. They probably threatened her parents. Oh, Gabe, you should check with her parents. See if they had some sort of accident or trauma about five years ago.”
“Okay, but what files do we need to find?” Gabe asked.
Adam bit back a smile. Keeping up with Sabrina’s mental gymnastics was always a workout. Gabe was a smart guy. Smarter than he generally let on. But Sabrina was . . . well, she was on another planet when it came to this kind of stuff.
“Right. Sorry. I only have hints of files here. The real files must be somewhere else. They may be on the laptop, although I doubt it. My guess is they’re on an external hard drive we haven’t located yet.”
“Awesome. You’re sure she was laundering money, but we can’t prove it until we find the files.” Fatigue and frustration laced Gabe’s words.
“Exactly.” Sabrina’s voice, however, held an edge of excitement. He’d seen her like this before. She did enjoy the thrill of the hunt. “One more question, Dr. Oliver, and then I’ll let you go. I realize this was very rude of me, but I got excited.”
“Don’t apologize,” Sharon said. “I’ve found it quite fascinating.”
Sabrina either ignored or didn’t catch the compliment. “Is it too soon for you to know if there is any form of disease present in the victim?”
“What?” This time Sharon sounded like she was choking on a frog.
“I’m wondering if there could have been something . . . possibly colon cancer?”
“How . . . ?” This time Sharon sounded a little winded.
“Is that a yes?” Gabe asked. “Did she have colon cancer?”
“Yes,” Sharon said. “Quite advanced.”
“Untreated?” Sabrina pressed.
“As far as I can tell.”
“Thank you, Dr. Oliver. I mean, Sharon,” Sabrina said. “And again, I apologize for asking for information while you’re still gathering your data. But this has been most helpful.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Adam, you still there?” Gabe asked.
“Yes.”
“I’m coming to the lab when I finish here.”
Adam wasn’t surprised. Gabe’s head was probably whirling. For that matter, so was his. “We’ll be here. Text me when you head this way. I’ll order lunch.”
“Fine.”
Adam ended the call and slid the phone into his pocket.
“I shouldn’t have done that.” Sabrina’s self-chastisement sliced through the air. “It was unprofessional. I came across . . . weird. Didn’t I?”
“You came across as a genius,” Adam said. “You’re
going to have to show me how you came up with those conclusions, because right now I’m pretty sure Sharon Oliver and Gabe are convinced you’re a mind reader.”
7
How could she explain something when she didn’t know how she’d done it?
“It’s hard to explain,” Sabrina said.
“Let’s start with what you’ve been doing over here.” Adam waved a hand at the monitors.
“I’ve been looking,” she said. “The hard drive from the laptop isn’t ready for me to try to get anything off it yet, so I duplicated all these flash drives and the information from this tablet, and I’m looking for anything that might give us a clue.”
“I would tell you this isn’t the best use of your time,” Adam said. “But given that you just accurately predicted the results of an autopsy, I’m going to go with the idea that you can do whatever you want right now.”
“I do think it’s the best use of my time. These files were encrypted. You wouldn’t have seen them if you’d looked at this. No offense.”
“None taken.”
Adam knew his way around a computer better than most, but he wouldn’t have been able to follow the file paths she’d followed.
“But your expertise is in the computer itself—the act of getting the files off the hardware. No one expects you to analyze the data.”
“True, but I have a very analytical mind. I would never presume to tackle the forensic accounting required to sort through everything. Or for that matter, to claim I’ve found everything there is to find. I have a colleague who I’m going to have look at this. I won’t be surprised if he finds another layer of encryption and files I’m not even seeing.”
Adam didn’t look pleased at the idea of her bringing in a colleague.
“Mike’s great,” she said. “I trust him. He’s incredibly skilled and has been thoroughly vetted by the department.”
“I trust your judgment,” he said.
“You look unhappy.”
He quirked an eyebrow at her.
“Am I wrong?”
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. What was he trying to hide from her? “Adam?”
In Too Deep Page 8