“Don’t mention it. Have a great day, Detective.”
Eric parroted the well-wishing in his head. No chance he was having a good day. The possibility of that happening was long past. The blatant mishandling of this case could only mean one thing. Susan’s death wasn’t the result of some random crash. She had been targeted. And somehow his old mentor and Dean Finley were caught up in the mess.
SIXTEEN
1:30 PM
Sandra was still spinning from Officer Moore’s update. Timothy Hanson being Ryan Crawford’s biological father gave Sandra something to work with the next time she called Ryan. Something she planned to do as soon as Gibson wrapped up the call he was on. Before that happened, Neal’s phone rang.
“It’s Detective Birch,” Neal told everyone.
Sandra understood why Eric hadn’t called her directly. He couldn’t be sure if she was on with the hostage taker or not.
Neal answered, telling Eric, “You’ve got the team.”
“Good, because this is something all of you need to hear.” He told them about all the missing documentation and photos and ended with the fact Susan’s car went straight to an auto wreckers to be destroyed. He summed up with, “As much as I hate to say this, I think there was a cover-up. Susan Crawford’s accident was orchestrated.”
“And you realize just by saying that you’re throwing your fellow officers under the bus?” Kreiger tossed back.
Hence Eric’s precursor…The thought fired through Sandra’s head, but Eric didn’t need her fighting his battles.
“I do, and trust me, I wouldn’t say it if I felt there was another explanation,” Eric replied.
“We have news too,” she cut in, wanting to prevent Kreiger from unleashing a tirade and shared what they’d learned from Moore.
“Wow. I never saw that coming. So what are we thinking now? That Timothy ordered a hit on them to wipe out any chance of the affair coming to light?”
“That’s the working theory,” Sandra said. “It’s just the timing that has us stumped.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out. But if there’s not anything else for me, I need to get back to things.”
“Sounds good, Detective Birch. Keep us posted.” Neal ended the call and pocketed his phone.
Sandra noted how melancholy Eric had sounded. Also that heneededto get back to things. He was as true blue as they came. Thinking negative things about his fellow officers would be eating away at him.
Gibson spun around. “Okay, so I just finished talking with human resources over at Hanson Property. Susan Crawford quit, no reason given in the file. I can tell you that while she was with Hanson Property, she was Timothy’s personal secretary.”
“So they worked closely together. Plenty of opportunity for a romantic relationship to develop between them,” Monica said.
“Where did she go after Hanson? Did she get a better paying job?” Sandra considered checking for herself, but Gibson was finished before she got her fingers over the keyboard of her laptop.
“She started a job a few weeks later, but soon after held three jobs simultaneously. It looks like they were all at restaurants.”
Sandra glanced at Neal. The glint in his eyes seemed to reflect her thoughts. Who gives up a full-time secretarial job without having other employment lined up? Especially when the timing suggests that Susan may have known she was pregnant.
“Tell me you have the names of the other secretaries,” Neal said to Gibson.
“Susan was one of four working for top-floor management. The others were Heather Wainscott, Beatrice Sullivan, and Hilda Beal.”
“Dig up their details. With any luck a chat with them will shed some light on Susan’s last days with the company. It might even give us something useful to sort out this mess,” Neal said.
That is the primary hope…“I don’t think it would be a bad idea to speak to the woman who followed Susan either and the woman who was working with Timothy up until his death last week.”
“Well, I’ve got their names,” Gibson said, spinning back to face his computer, bringing up a window to the forefront. “Susan’s immediate successor is dead, so unfortunately unavailable for comment. Timothy’s last secretary is still with the company. Now, she’s assigned as a secondary assistant to the general manager.”
“All well and good, but we’re only assuming Susan’s death is connected to a possible affair and her pregnancy,” Kreiger began. “If Timothy had her killed, we can’t ignore the possibility there are other potential motives. Maybe Susan witnessed something after she quit, closer to the timing of her accident. She could have threatened to expose it.”
Sandra’s mind was stuck on Kreiger’s use of the wordaccident.Knowing what they’d just learned from Eric, she couldn’t think of it that way anymore. She wasn’t sure how Kreiger could. To her, it was more accurately acrash. But Sandra’s mind was literal and worked on specifics.
