Page 100 of Rekindle My Heart

Chapter 21

Seven o’clock the next morning, Ryan entered the conference room. He glanced at the empty chair next to him. He hadn’t talked to Erica after the paramedics sped off with her in the back of the ambulance.

“Let’s get started.” The chief called the meeting to order. “As many of you know, we took Sergeant Johnson into custody early this morning on charges of kidnapping, blackmail, and corruption.” He mentioned a few lesser charges as well. “Firefighter Randall is doing well and resting this morning. I’m going to turn the meeting over to Agent Fenley.”

Trey thanked him and walked to the board. He filled the room in on the events of the previous night, concluding with Johnson’s arrest. “Detective Whittier and I will be interviewing him later today.”

If Johnson was smart, he’d cut a deal and talk.

“Daniels, do you have any evidence connecting Johnson to the double murder and fire from the date of September the third?”

Ryan cleared his throat. “Not hard evidence, sir. No. But Sarge, um, Sergeant Johnson had worked with Bryan Kealy before coming to the Ashwood department. Upon reviewing Officer Kealy’s accounts, it shows he had an account on the site that messaged me. I believe he was the one who contacted me to meet. I will know more when we get the warrant for the website.”

Ryan cleared his throat. “As for the online, social forum Sergeant Johnson referred me to, I haven’t found anything suspect there. It appears to be a decoy he used to throw me off the trail when I had a hit on the actual website and the corruption. To be sure, I subpoenaed the records from the forum.

“As for Salvador Ruiz, I believe he could have been a mule or contact for Kealy, who was undercover at the time, but I can’t say for sure.”

Brannon said, “The night of the third, Sarge was with me. We had a domestic from nineteen-hundred hours until twenty-one-hundred hours. And before that, he was at the station. I saw him at the start of shift.”

The timeline ticked by in Ryan’s head. No way Johnson could have been at the crime scene when the fire started.

“Thanks, Ian.” Trey turned back to Ryan. “Any other suspects?”

“No one that stands out.” If it wasn’t Sarge, he may have hired someone to handle Kealy. Ryan needed to dig into the sergeant’s phone records a little deeper.

Ryan didn’t know what Sarge’s motive was for the corruption, but he knew money was a powerful pull. From what he’d been able to access in the short amount of time, he’d found that Johnson had several overseas accounts. Ryan was willing to bet when they got access to them, he’d find way more money than a sergeant could earn.

They covered a few more things, then adjourned.

Time to review the video from the fire again and find the killer. He peered into his empty coffee mug and frowned. The measly hour of sleep he got was anything but restful. A stop by the breakroom was in order.

At nine o’clock, he sat at his desk while lists of Tahoe owners scrolled by. He couldn’t focus on the screen. His thoughts were consumed with Erica. He’d gone to the hospital last night, but her parents arrived and there wasn’t enough room. Maybe it was for the best. Let her heal and think. He wasn’t sure the latter was for the best, but he needed to focus on the killer. If it wasn’t Sarge, then who?

He stopped his scrolling and rubbed his eyes. He needed more coffee. He was compiling all the evidence he could against Johnson. Now that he knew where to look, bits and pieces showed his fingerprints all over the place.

So far, on Ryan’s preliminary search of the site used to facilitate the corruption, one local firefighter flagged, Anthony Winters. Ryan did a run on his financials and found the man was in serious debt after his divorce two years ago, but had paid off over fifty grand to his creditors in the last six months. Ryan would bet he’d find the evidence he needed to lock down Winters when they got deeper into the site. It would be a long night now that the warrant had come in. He and the crew would be going over to search Sarge’s house in an hour. But until then, he was working on the fire and the murders.

No matter how he tried to tie Sarge to the murders, he couldn’t. Ryan was sure Kealy was his contact from the site, but nothing pointed to him being dirty. Ryan would bet his lucky pen—the one where the pinup girl’s clothes melt away to reveal her curvy body—that Kealy’s info would have pointed him to Johnson.

He kept coming back to Sal. Kealy could’ve walked in on a deal at the wrong time. But Sal…

Who wanted a drug dealer dead? That list was as long as his leg, single-spaced, in six-point font.

Ryan looked at the video of the Tahoe again, first from the night of the fire, then from the other day. He was missing something. He could feel it. Like a fart in the wind—it was there one minute and gone the next.

He tapped his pen on the desk. Freezing the frame, he enlarged the video. One on each monitor. It looked like the same truck, but one had a crack on the windshield and the later video didn’t. If it was the same vehicle, they would have had it repaired in the last two weeks.

His fingers flew over the keyboard as he searched auto glass repair in the area. He picked up his phone and started calling.

On the fourth call, he struck gold. One Brenda Harmon had her 2018 navy blue Tahoe repaired last week. Harmon? Where had he seen that name before?

Noting it on his report, he decided to give Ms. Harmon a visit.

Her address and next of kin pulled up on the screen. His hand hovered over the mouse as he read her info.

No. It couldn’t be. He closed the video and looked at the email.

“Son of a bitch.” He pulled up Harmon on the internet. How did I miss that?