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Noticing how Elly leaned closer to hear, he lowered the phone and placed the call on speaker. “Matching the soil sample seems a stretch,” he said. “But what about the license plate? Elly and I found a shot of the truck’s license plate. I left that information for you in a voice mail.”
“Yeah, I heard the message, but it’s not a match to this truck. Did you get a good look at the driver? Did he look like our guy?”
“No, I couldn’t identify him,” Elly said. “So you’re saying the truck we found was likely someone else, not the shooter.”
“I don’t know, we’re running the plate number you gave us. Hang on a minute,” Steele said. Joe heard muffled sounds of talking in the background, then he came back on the line. “Okay, we got a hit. The license plate you gave us was for a black Chevy truck that was reported stolen.”
Joe couldn’t say he was surprised. This guy had clearly planned to go on this shooting rampage, and stealing a truck would make it that much harder to track him down.
“The abandoned truck was also stolen,” Steele continued. “It belongs to an older gentleman by the name of Fred Kettle. Grayson is there now. Hang on, he’s texting me.” There was another pause before Steele continued. “Okay, the guy’s truck is in his driveway, and the license matches the plate number you gave us.”
Swapping license plates was a criminal trick as old as time. “That proves the truck found near the precinct was used by the shooter.” Joe smiled with satisfaction. “He changed license plates to slow us down.”
“That’s affirmative,” Steele agreed. “I’m not sure why he left the vehicle behind, unless he figured it was easier to disappear on foot. Unfortunately, he didn’t leave behind any other evidence as far as we can tell. We’ll have the crime scene techs go over it in more detail, but I’m not expecting much. I’m sure he was wearing gloves. Maybe even a hat to limit the possibility of leaving hair behind.”
“Yeah, okay.” Finding the abandoned truck wasn’t as helpful as he’d hoped, but having even this small piece of the puzzle helped. The big picture would emerge sooner or later. “We know he stole a truck, changed license plates, and then abandoned it. Can we check the street cameras to see if this guy got into another car?”
“That’s being done, so far there’s only a grainy image of a guy wearing a ski mask running away from the abandoned truck,” Steele said. “No way to get facial recognition from the image.”
“I wonder why he didn’t wear the ski mask at the parade?” Elly said with a frown.
“He may have had one but didn’t want to use it right away.” Joe shrugged. “He likely believed he blended into the crowd better without it.”
“Maybe,” Steele said. “But he wasn’t banking on Elly’s keen instincts in recognizing a bad guy when she saw one.”
The admiration in Steele’s tone grated on his nerves. Which was probably why Steele had made the comment in the first place. Just another way of reminding Joe to keep his head screwed on straight.
“I bumped into him,” Elly said modestly. “Only because I was admiring the Christmas lights. I was polite, but he looked angry.”
“And that was another mistake,” Joe said. “He should have smiled and moved on, but instead, he didn’t bother to hide the evil in his heart.”
“Did you find anything else on the video?” Steele asked.
“Nothing helpful,” Joe said.
“We’re still waiting to hear from Brady,” Elly added. “I know they’re busy with a missing kid, but I’m sure they’ll get my sketch created into something that can be used by their facial recognition system soon.”
“Yeah, okay. We’re still checking a few things here,” Steele said. “I’ll let you know if we find anything more.”
“Thanks. We’ll talk more later.” Joe disconnected from the call. It bothered him to be sitting here with Elly rather than out on the street working the case.
All because Rhy had asked him to take care of his baby sister. And what had he done with that trust? Crossed the line by kissing her as if there was no tomorrow.
“I was hoping for more.” Elly sighed. “It seems like progress is going slower than normal.”
Joe had the same frustration. Especially in a case this big. “There’s a lot being done, but this guy was smart enough to cover his trail.”
“I know.” She turned back toward the computer. “Should we keep going?”
“Sure.” He swallowed hard and brought up the next video.
It was slow, painstaking work, but it had to be done.
“I need a break,” Elly said. She abruptly stood and moved into the living area, dragging her fingers through her hair.
He felt guilty all over again for putting her through this. “I’ll keep searching for evidence,” he said. “You should relax for a bit. Try to take your mind off this.”
“Impossible,” she said on a sigh.
