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“No, but it leaves motive and opportunity for Thea to be the killer.”
“Well,” I said, blowing out a sigh. “That throws a wrench in things.”
Jack called Cole and put him on speaker. “Did we ever get confirmation that Cami went to the courthouse the night she was murdered?”
“She clocked in at 11:02 p.m.,” Cole said. “Clocked out seven minutes later.”
“Thanks, Cole,” Jack said and disconnected. “We’ve got about fifteen minutes before Toby arrives. I want to look at our timeline again. Something isn’t adding up for me.”
Chapter Fourteen
I took a detour on the way back to Jack’s office to the breakroom. I looked back and forth between the coffee and the sodas, trying to decide which would give me the biggest boost for the rest of the day. I was asleep on my feet, and we weren’t even close to being done.
“You okay, Doc?” Cheney said from behind me.
I turned and looked at her, wondering if I’d actually fallen asleep standing up. “Just trying to decide what my future holds.”
“Yeah, I know,” she said, slapping a file into my hand. “I could smell your brain burning all the way in forensics. Get a soda and a Snickers from vending. You look like you could use it.”
“Thanks,” I said, deciding that was as good of an option as any. “What am I holding?”
“Those are your red flecks from the Hargrove case,” she said. “Banner-red gloss with an additional coating of red metallic shimmer made by Enora Paint.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, swiping my card in the vending machine and choosing a Snickers.
“Enora Paint holds the exclusive contract for high school and collegiate-level football helmets. The flecks you found on your victim came from a football helmet. A King George High School football helmet to be precise.”
“That lines up,” I said. “Thanks for getting it back so fast.”
“Yeah, well, I’m putting in for vacation time next week. I’m about to spend the rest of the afternoon taking apart those cars you brought in.”
“Gotta catch a killer,” I said, enjoying the crack and fizz of the soda can as I opened it. There was such joy in that sound.
“Don’t we always,” she said and left.
I finished off my candy bar, tossed the wrapper, and then headed back toward Jack’s office. As soon as I came in he narrowed his eyes.
“You had chocolate,” he said.
“Bring it down, Sherlock Holmes. I brought you one too.” And I tossed him the other candy bar I’d gotten.
“You bought this for yourself for later, didn’t you?”
“You’ve got trust issues,” I said. “I bought it for my husband because I love him and he works hard. But I didn’t get you a drink because you only drink water anyway.”
“Fine,” he said. “Then thank you for thinking of me.”
“You’re welcome,” I said primly and lay back on the couch. I had bought the candy bar for me to eat later, but I would have gotten one for Jack if I’d thought he’d wanted one. It was rare for him to eat anything that was pure sugar, so I knew he must be asleep on his feet too.
“We’ve got a match on the paint flecks, by the way,” I said. “I saw Cheney in the breakroom. Said it’s a match for the football helmets at King George High. There’s an exclusive contract with a paint company, so I guess it wasn’t hard to ferret it out.”
“Good,” Jack said. “Now we have two murders and two missing murder weapons.”
“Them’s the breaks, kid,” I said. “What are you doing on the board?”
“Trying to work out the timeline,” Jack said. “Toby said she and Cami ate around eight o’clock and then stayed downstairs and talked for a while. And then Cami supposedly got a text message from someone at work, she went upstairs to shower and change, and then left again around ten. We’ve not recovered Cami’s cell phone, but we’ll be able to get a transcript of texts from the phone company. Toby saw Cami leave because she knew she had her purse with her, so she was still downstairs. It’s an hour-and-fifteen-minute drive to the courthouse.”
“That timing is pretty close to when she clocked in at the courthouse.”
