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I close my eyes for a second as the pressure nearly doubles me over.
Shaking off the forming headache, I say, “I spoke with her the night before last. Right here.”
“About?” At my sigh, he adds, “Sadie. We have to do this. You know we have to go over every detail.”
“I know.” Taking a look around, I let my gaze scan the room, seeking anything out of place. It’s like a clustered science fair maze. I was terrible at science. “I asked her for a favor. I needed a workup on some rope. She said she’d make it her first priority.”
Quinn adjusts his forensic glasses. “A comparison for Colton. To clear him.”
“Yes, Quinn. To clear him…or to damn him. I always pursue the truth.”
“Hey,” he says, pausing his task to meet my eyes. “I’m not judging you. I would’ve done the same in your position.”
I let a wan smile steal across my face. “Anyway. I don’t think she had time to look into it.” I pull the letter from my back pocket. “Her assistant gave me this yesterday.” I unfold the note. “Sadie, I’m sorry I wasn’t able to complete your request. I’ve come down with something, but I promise to work on it as soon as possible. Trust your gut…until I can get you some answers. Avery.”
“What time was the letter delivered to you? By who?”
“A lab tech…Simon. Right before I left the station yesterday morning.” I press my fingers against the bridge of my nose. “Presumably, she wrote it the night before…or very early in the morning.” I slip on a pair of glasses. “She did tell me she wasn’t feeling well when we last spoke.”
Quinn braces his hands behind his head, going into his deep thinking mode. “So she writes a note with instructions for it to get to you before she heads home. That doesn’t sound like Avery. Even if she was ill, why not just call you?”
I shake my head. “She was working late that night. Maybe she left it at the lab because it was too late to
call, and she didn’t want to be bothered the next day.”
“Why not text?”
I tilt my head. “What are you getting at? I can see Avery writing a letter. She’s pretty old-school. Not more so than you, but she appreciates the simpler times.” I inwardly smile, remembering her fussing over a computer error one day in the lab.
“All right,” Quinn says. “If that checks out, then she had to be abducted shortly afterward. I think we should head to her house and help CSU conduct the search.”
I scan the letter again, looking for any signs that she wrote it under duress. “I took her advice,” I say as I spread the note out on the table. “She’s the only one in her field who would ever say such a thing. ‘Trust your gut.’” I shake my head and almost laugh. Then I glance at Quinn. “Well, maybe except for you.”
He squeezes out a tight smile. “Forensics doesn’t leave much in the way of trusting your instincts. It’s all about the facts.”
“Right. And she is the best.” I angle the letter to catch the UV light. “If she was on to something, it makes sense the UNSUB would want to stop her. It’s the only reason—other than to hurt me—I can think of as to why he took her.”
The light sets off fingerprints—presumably Avery’s—on the note. I take the bi-chromatic powder from my kit and dust the prints, then lift them carefully with tape.
“You really think he was bold enough to abduct her here rather than her home.”
Placing the tape on a card, I mark the evidence and then repeat the process with another print. “Do I think he’s bold enough? Yes. And it makes sense. He wanted me kept away from the department the night I watched over my mother. I thought then it was because he didn’t want me to interfere with Colton’s interrogation. But maybe it was more than that. Maybe he had Avery in his sights all along.”
The truth of that kills. I should’ve warned her. How many people in my life is he planning to torture? With that thought comes an abundance of guilt. So much so that I’m having a difficult time taking in an even breath.
“I’ve put two of my best on keeping a lookout over your mother,” Quinn says, as if he’s mentally tapping into my thoughts. I’m probably completely transparent. Unable to mask anything at this point.
“Thank you.” I swallow hard as I lift the last print. “I’m sure these are Avery’s, but I don’t want to leave any piece of evidence out of the investigation.” I place the cards on Avery’s worktable. “We should hurry. The techs need to get back in here so they can keep working on what Avery—”
I cut myself off as it comes to me. “What was Avery last working on? I mean, besides what I asked for.” I look around, trying to deduce her methodology. It’s tidy and neat…but in a way that probably only makes sense to Avery.
“The last time I heard from her, she called me about the third vic. She was working on a physical profile of the UNSUB based on the strength needed to hoist a body. We planned to run through it with a computer program to simulate the crime scene.”
Her computer.
Everyone in the lab has access to the same files, but Avery has her own, tightly guarded notes. I remove my glasses and pull up a chair, then tap the keyboard, awakening the screen.
While I log in under my ID and search through Avery’s files, Quinn says, “She could’ve been abducted at any point from here to her home. So far, CSU hasn’t uncovered anything at her house. We should broaden the search.” He moves toward the wall lockers, inspecting the fingerprints. “Everyone has been in this lab at some point. If the UNSUB did find a way in here, it’s like searching for a damn needle in a haystack for evidence.”
