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Styles took in the angry man glaring at him and shook his head. “Don’t you figure, when Agent Katz asked me what time we’d be through here, that I’d ask her why?” He flicked a glance at the sheriff. “She’s currently on multiple cases and has no downtime unless I agree to it.” He glanced at Dryer. “She didn’t want to give me the details, but I insisted. Just because a female agent is trying to get along with you, it doesn’t give you the right to hit on her.”
“She asked me about the nightlife.” Dryer’s eyes blazed with anger. “That was a ‘come and get me’ invitation.”
Styles shook his head slowly. “Not from where I’m standing. I’ve been working alongside her for over six months now and I’ve never seen her act inappropriately at any time.”
“Okay.” Dryer glared at Beth. “I apologize for being a nice guy and offering you a drink. My bad. Trust me, it will never happen again. You’re not my type anyway.”
“That’s enough, Dryer.” Sheriff Walker tipped his head toward the door. “Go and help out at the counter. Boone, make sure the agents get everything they need.”
Wanting to get Beth alone, Styles shook his head. “No need, we have everything we need. There’s not too much here. We’ll take a break and then finish up and get out of your hair.”
“Okay.” The sheriff looked at Boone. “There are some unpaid parking tickets at the counter. Chase down the offenders and put the fear of God into them.” He looked at Styles. “I’ll leave you to it.” He turned and left, shutting the door behind him.
Blowing out a long sigh, Styles turned to Beth. “Okay, what’s going on?”
“I found pages missing in three of the reports written by Dryer.” Beth pulled out files and handed them to him. “See, the murder books all have pages missing. The evidence mentioned in this murder isn’t in the evidence locker. These are all errors or cover-ups by Dryer.” She shrugged. “He did hit on me, that’s the truth, but honestly, I could handle him. I just needed them out of the office so we could work alone. It’s all I could think of.” She looked at him. “I know his type. Act friendly and giggle at the right time, get him alone, and he’ll ask me out.”
Shaking his head, Styles looked at her. “Are men so transparent?”
“Some are. He’s a player. He likes to be in charge, so I took a chance to see if he’d take the bait.” She waved a hand around the office. “No CCTV. You keep watch and I’ll search their computers and desks to see if they have anything hidden.”
Unable to believe his ears, Styles stared at her. “You can’t search the office without a warrant. Anything you find will be inadmissible.”
“We can’t get a warrant without probable cause and what’s the point if there’s nothing here to find?” Beth stood, hands on hips, and looked at him. “If we know there’s evidence of case tampering, and give the files as our probable cause, we’ll have him. I need to get inside his computer and his personal stuff and see if he’s keeping anything from the crimes.”
Clearing his throat, Styles leaned one hip against a desk. “Taking souvenirs from the crimes? Why would he do that?”
“Maybe he’s keeping them for whoever he’s tampering the evidence for. It could be a relative or close friend.” Beth munched on a sandwich.
Thinking a beat, Styles stared at her. She had her innocent look about her right now. He’d seen so many faces of Beth Katz. She was like a revolving door of emotions, and he never quite knew which mood to expect. Although, she’d found evidence someone had tampered with the files. “You figure someone here, most likely Dryer, knows the killer?”
“Yeah.” Beth nodded. “Something like that.”
Not convinced, Styles flicked through the murder books. “How do we know it’s Dryer? Any one of them could have tampered with the files. They all have access. Just because Dryer wrote the report doesn’t necessarily mean it was him. If Boone was involved, for instance, he could have removed evidence as well.”
“The point is, one of them tampered with evidence.” She picked up an evidence book from the desk and waved it in the air. “This is evidence.” She shrugged. “Who did it remains to be proved, but we need to know how many people have access to the filing cabinets for a start.”
Styles stared at the filing cabinets and then back to her. “The filing cabinet I was working from had Boone’s murder books. They must have a filing cabinet each. I didn’t see any alterations or pages missing. We could scan Dryer’s files for prints. He’s not going to be wearing gloves in the office. It’s our best chance. Scan the pages either side of the missing ones for prints. If it comes back it’s only him, we’ll need to write that up in our report. We’re only here for a look-see. We have a case to solve, and this will need to be handed over to someone else.”
“Okay.” Beth smiled at him. “I’m guessing you have your digital fingerprint scanner tucked away in a pocket somewhere? I’ll collect all of his files and you can scan them. I’ll work on my laptop and when you’re done I’ll search for a match. The deputies’ and sheriff’s fingerprints are already on the server. They were uploaded by Wolfe yesterday.”
He set to work, meticulously scanning every page surrounding each of the local murder cases and uploading them to the server. He needed fingerprints and the actual files. It was long, tedious, slow work, checking every page and going back a spell just in case the tampering went way back. It didn’t take Beth long to find a match for the prints, and they scanned any suspicious pages and a few on either side in Dryer’s murder books. The prints all belonged to Dryer. As Beth suspected, he was the one tampering with the files. When she moved to Dryer’s computer, Styles leaned over her shoulder. Amazed how fast she had bypassed his password. “Find anything?”
“Not yet but he’s been sending crime scene photographs to another device. It may be a home computer or a stick drive. These ones taken at the hospital and mortician’s are the ones we found before coming here. They were all taken by someone’s phone. We’ll need to find out if any are missing. There may be more evidence pointing to the killer he didn’t put into the files.” Beth glanced up. “This is evidence suggesting tampering and has his fingers all over it.” She bent and went through the drawers in his desk. “Nothing of interest here. I’d love to do a forensic sweep of his vehicle.”
Concerned she was overstepping the boundaries of law and basic human rights, Styles shook his head. “Not yet. We hand over what we have to the director and see if he wants us to proceed.” He sighed. “If you recall this was a look-see just to follow a hunch. We’ve gathered evidence. Don’t lose sight of the fact the Convenience Store Killer is our main objective. We don’thave too much more time to spend chasing down a cop who covers up evidence with a mass murderer running riot in the next county.” He checked his watch. “It’s almost five. We need to put all this back as we found it and get checked into the hotel.”
“Do they have cabs in this town?” Beth was closing down Dryer’s computer. “It’s still pelting with sleet and we need to get our bags from the chopper.”
They heard voices outside and Styles added the files to the cabinet just as Dryer and Boone walked inside. He smiled at them. “We’re all done here for today, but we’ll be back in the morning. Thanks for your help. Do they have cabs in this town?”
“Yeah.” Boone frowned. “There’s a cab stand outside the hotel. You can get one from there in the morning, but I’ll call you a cab for now.” He reached for his phone and made the call. A short time later, he nodded to them. “It will be outside in five minutes or so. They don’t get busy most nights until the saloons close.”
Styles waited for Beth to pull on her coat and gather the information they’d collected over the day. He’d copied everything to the server, but Beth had made hardcopies as well.
“Are we going to speak tomorrow to everyone who handled the bodies?” Beth followed him outside, pulling on her gloves.
Styles nodded. “I have all the information on my phone. I’ll make a list tonight and we’ll work through it in the morning. We really need our own transport, but we’ll just have to walk or use a cab to get around. It would be easier if it stopped raining.” A cab crawled to a halt alongside the curb. “That’s our ride, let’s go.”
