“No kidding.” She entered the room with Ryan on her heels and sat across from a nervous man in his mid-forties.
He resembled his older brother, and she had to work not to recall Jim Duvall missing bits of flesh and blood.
“Mr. Duvall, I’m Agent Cannon. Thank you for coming in.”
He nodded, his knee bobbing under the table.
“I’m sorry about your brother and his family. You have reason to believe the killer is also after you now? Why?”
Dave Duvall’s eyes widened. “He melted a hard drive and left it in my kitchen! In my house!”
“What was on the drive?”
Dave swallowed audibly. “I don’t know. I assume business stuff. Jim and I both worked at Duvall Manufacturing, butI was a manager. I dealt with people. Jim handled all the contract work and big business decisions.”
“Do you have any idea why anyone would want to hurt your brother and his family?”
“No.” Tears filled Dave’s eyes. “He was a great guy. Everyone loved him. Our stockholders were happy. Our employees all got raises since we nailed two new contracts overseas.”
“Making furniture?”
“Mostly desks and tables, and a little bit of higher end stuff you might see in a few hotel chains.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah.” Dave let out a breath. “Look, I’m not saying my brother was perfect. Sure, there was competition with other manufacturers. But that was just business. He wasn’t involved in anything that would make someone want to kill him.”
“Have you ever heard of something called the Collective?”
Dave frowned, but Jane swore she saw a hint of panic before it vanished. “Like a union?”
She studied him, aware of Detective Ryan’s intensity next to her. “I don’t know. You tell me.”
“My brother was open to unions, believe it or not. I’m telling you. He did everything aboveboard. You can look into whatever you need to find out who killed him. And Karen…and the kids…” He paused and buried his head in his hands.
Jane read his grief as genuine.
Detective Ryan cleared his throat, and after a quick nod from Jane, asked, “Mr. Duvall, are you sure you can’t think of anyone who might have wanted to hurt your brother? I know we already talked about this, but are you sure your sister had nothing to do with it?”
“Sherry? No. She and Karen had a dustup a few months ago. Something about wearing the same color to some gala, if you can believe that. But they quickly got over it.” He subtly wiped his eyes. “Sherry’s devastated. She’s keeping Bubbles, the dog.” He shook hishead. “Why would the killer kidnap the dog but kill the family? The kids? It makes no sense!”
“I agree.” Jane sighed. “We’re doing our best to solve this, but we need answers. You’re sure you have no idea what might have been on that cold wallet?” When he looked confused, she explained, “The hard drive?”
“No. I’m sorry. But…” He paused and lowered his voice. “I do remember Jim acting a little anxious the last week before he died. He skipped meetings due to personal reasons. He told me he was having issues with Karen. But when I hinted to Karen about it, she looked confused. And then Jim gave me the drive to hold on to.”
“You didn’t look at it?” she asked.
“No. It’s got a biometric sensor. Needs a fingerprint to unlock it.”
“Oh.”
“I’m not even sure anyone knew I had it. How could they?”
A killer might have tortured that info out of Jim Duvall.
“Where did you have the cold wallet in your home? Locked up or out in the open?”
“I had it in a locked desk drawer. But not anything you couldn’t strongarm open. It’s a nice desk but not, like, some kind of safe or something. I love—loved—my brother.” Dave wiped his eyes again. “But we lived different lifestyles. We didn’t come from money. Everything he had, he made. I was happy he gave me a job. The wealth was all his.”
