Page 55 of Charmed Forces
“Yes, but only in the hopes of finding that kind of evidence doesn’t exist.”
“I’ll ask them.” The phone went quiet except for the muffled sound of Alice speaking and the TV running in the background. I guessed the kids were watching a film. “They said no,” she said, returning to the phone. “They can’t remember anything like that happening. No one’s approached them that they don’t know and they haven’t given Daniel anything.”
“That’s good.”
“Is it something I should watch out for?”
“Not now, but be sure to keep them with you,” I said. “Make sure someone you trust is with them at all times.”
“Now, you’re scaring me.”
“Better to be a little scared,” I said. “Are you at Mom and Dad’s or at home?”
“We came home today. I figured the kids would prefer a play day at home with all their stuff to distract them. I have to go,” said Alice. “Someone’s knocking at the door. I think it’s Captain Brandt. At least, I think it must be him. I’m sure I saw him on the sidewalk when you called.”
“Is anyone at home with you?”
“Garrett and Traci are here. Garrett said he’s persona non grata at the police station. Captain Brandt won’t even let him into the squad room.”
“So I heard.”
“And I heard him yell about Crump and Hertford being there. What does that mean?”
“Not what, who,” I groaned, remembering when the two detectives arrested me and Lily. They’d been convinced we were behind a kidnapping only to be reassigned when Maddox took over the case. Hertford was the more intelligent of the two and had seemed reasonable when he let me go, but who knew what grudge he might have harbored? Speaking of Maddox, why didn’t he return my call yet?
“Call me back and tell me what Captain Brandt wants,” I said and we disconnected. I contemplated walking upstairs to the office Lucas worked in, along with his large banks of computer equipment, but it seemed ridiculous to ask him to check up on my background searches. I was sure if there were a red flag to be found, I would find it. However, Alice’s mention of Captain Brandt reminded me of something else. If Brandt wasn’t interested in interviewing us about the assassin, we should find her ourselves. If she were the only other person in that house, she could exonerate Daniel beyond any doubt, tall order as that may be. With that idea in hand, I jogged up the stairs and punched the access code into the door panel.
This office was much larger, and had the facility to accommodate more employees. None of them did private investigator work but all seemed to be constantly busy with the security and risk work the agency brought in. The office was minimally staffed today and the one man I was looking for sat behind a bank of monitors, his blonde hair looking more unruly than ever. I wondered if he’d heard of a comb and decided I didn’t care. He was adorable in a surfer chic sort of way.
“Hey, Lexi,” said Lucas as I rounded the desk and plonked my butt on a square of free surface. “What can I do for you?”
“I need to find an assassin.”
“Why? Who’re you having killed?”
“No one.”
“You said it in the singular so you have an assassin in mind?”
“You ask me that like you haven’t heard already. The assassin who was sent after Detective Wayne at the hospital.”
Lucas blinked. “Right,” he said. “Thatassassin. Solomon called and asked me to get hold of the hospital security tapes.”
“Did you?”
“Did I?” he asked with a roll of his eyes. “Of course I did. Their security is a piece of junk. I have the tapes from an hourbeforeto an hourafterthe incident. I was going to run down to you soon and talk you through what I could see rather than leave you to wade through everything, but honestly, there isn’t much to tell. I couldn’t get a full image of her face.”
“Can you track the woman beyond the hospital?”
Lucas frowned and screwed up his face in thought. “I can but it’ll take time. Plus, I hate to say it but along with the absence of a full facial image, she has a big head start on us.”
“Perhaps Big Brother can narrow that head start down. Or even find something that can ID her?”
“If I were an assassin, I wouldn’t use anything linked to my own name until I was far away from the crime scene and she was smart to wear a hat and evade the cameras.” He looked up at me and gave a nod. “I’ll see how far I can track her but I don’t want to get your hopes up.”
“Thank you.” I started to rise.
“I should warn you that if she’s the professional Solomon claims she is, she’ll know how to avoid capture. She’ll change her hat, her hair, her clothes as fast as she can. That will make following her difficult. I’ll search for every security camera in the area and try and pick her up.”