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“What have you got so far? Are we on the right track?”
“Oh yeah! When we’re done here, you’re gonna have to bring Dale in for this. No way he can claim innocence unless he wants to put the blame on his wife.”
“It was found on the work computer? Not his personal one?”
“Nope, I have no idea why he did it that way. Maybe he thought it would remove suspicion. He did have the folder with his recordings hidden behind something mundane, but still, it was a risk.”
“Maybe he was relying on the fact that his wife isn’t computer savvy.”
“Neither is he, for that matter. Here, have a look; I’m tired of looking at that young woman’s naked body. Especially since she didn’t give permission to be exposed. There wasn’t much else going on in that room, though, though she seemed a bit skittish sometimes. A few nights ago, she went out late but came back pretty quick looking putout, but so far other than the naked shots, that’s the highlight.”
Detective Sparks took her seat in the chair next to him at his desk and waited for him to pull up the date she was most interested in. Officer Bailey walked in just as the screen came up. “It’s time-stamped, so I’ll just fast forward to the approximate time of the murder. You can go over the rest for your case against Dale later.”
“You don’t think he did it?”
“Nah, he might be an old pervert, but I don’t see him for that.”
No one spoke as they watched Bridgette moving around the room on the screen, but their breaths were simultaneously held as each of them knew what was about to transpire before their eyes. Detective Sparks was already reimagining the room from the day before and was hoping that with the camera’s angle, they would be able to see the killer’s face clearly.
The sound of the door opening was almost loud in the room, and when Bridgette greeted the person familiarly, it was almost a letdown, as they thought that it was someone other than the perpetrator, until they saw the hand raised quick as a flash. Celia was about to sigh with frustration because all they saw on the screen was the hand, but then Bridgette stumbled back and into frame before dropping to the floor, and the figure followed.
“Oh shit!” Officer Bailey exclaimed as the three of them stared at the screen. Detective Sparks had had her suspicions but even she was shocked by what she witnessed. Andy shook his head, his mind a world of confusion as he tried to put the pieces together. “What does this have to do with the other thing?”
Detective Sparks shook her head. “We’ll soon find out, I guess.”
“What other thing?” Detective Sparks had yet to fill Officer Bailey in on what Andy had found earlier. “We got the results back from the school computer. You were right all along; Ryan Swamp never sent those messages.”
“Don’t tell me…”
“Round up the team; we have to go make the arrests. Shit, this is a mess.”
“Do you know who Connie’s real dad is by any chance? I haven’t seen any official documents with his name listed, and her only next of kin, her mother’s mom, is in hospice care at the moment.”
“The rumor is that it’s James Wyatt, but no one has ever been able to prove it, and I haven’t heard anything about it in forever.”
“James Wyatt, name doesn’t sound familiar.”
“Pretty decent guy, a few years younger than Ryan and I. He and Misty went to school together. When she came up pregnant her last year of high school, there were lots of rumors around town, spread by her, it was assumed, but those soon died down even before the kid was born. And like I said, no one has had much to say about it for years. Why?”
“The kid’s going to need a guardian to look out for her interest. Maybe… No, that’s a bit of a stretch even to expect it.”
“What?”
“I was going to say that maybe Ryan would want the job, but given the circumstances, I doubt it. By the way, I need to call the D.A. and see about dropping the charges against him; in the meantime, I’ll call and have the cuffs removed. I’ll leave his detail in place, though, just in case until we get this whole thing sorted out.”
Officer Bailey nodded his head and went off to alert the uniforms that they had a job while Detective Sparks called the D.A. with the new information before making the call to the cop on guard at the hospital with his new orders. Not that she expected anyone to attack Ryan there, but better safe than sorry.
Misty was feeling unsettled all morning, almost like the walls were closing in on her. She’d kept Connie home from school though she wasn’t sure why. It was just an underlying feeling in the pit of her stomach that made her feel like she was losing her mind. Walking back and forth in the house, which now seemed too small, wasn’t helping.
