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Footsteps pounded down the marble hall. “Perimeter’s clear,” Tai said in his ear.
Bridger relaxed, a little. Dressler could still come out shooting. Anything was possible when civilians got rattled.
The man yanked open the door and stared out, a bloody towel in one hand. Pale and shaking, he waved Bridger and Kate inside.
While the man babbled, Bridger checked the hallway beyond. No sign of movement. A second later, Tai and Fenn appeared.
“I never saw the guy,” Dressler insisted. “I was in the media room.” His gaze shifted to the ground. The man was clearly embarrassed.
Bridger eyed the oversized foyer with its six-foot chandelier. “You probably have a top-of-the-line sound system,” he observed, trying to coax the man to focus.
Dressler smiled faintly. “Rocks the whole house when I crank it up.”
“Nice. What were you watching?”
“Basketball. The Warriors are trying to make the playoffs. I have money on the game….” He cleared his throat. “I heard Pastor head into the kitchen, but….” Dressler shrugged helplessly. “The next thing I knew, he was shouting. I ran in, but the guy hit me before I saw anything.” He pointed at the kitchen. “I woke up on the floor.”
He pressed the towel back to his temple.
Tai pulled his hand away. “Let me take a look at that.”
Blood trickled from a contusion at the corner of the man’s eye. The skull was thinner there. Tai was the medic, not Bridger, but even he knew that was a dangerous spot to take a hit.
He shared a look with Tai. Dressler’s story matched up with the video footage.
“I found something,” Fenn said over the comlink. “A cell phone.”
While Tai tended to Dressler, Bridger and Kate headed for the kitchen. Fenn was on his haunches photographing a smashed cell phone on the floor between the counter and the back door. The screen was splintered, the case, too. About ten feet away, just inside the entry from the hall, blood spatters made a trail back toward the front door. Dressler’s most likely.
Documentation complete, Fenn rose, the device in his gloved hand. Sirens blared. Closer now. Maybe another minute or two.
Fenn held up the device, back toward Bridger. A white label with Myles’s name covered the back. “Looks like your preacher’s. We saving this for the cops?”
Bridger eyed the abused device. “Why not?”
Dressler hurried in, towel still to his head. “What if there’s evidence on it? I don’t want to wait for the sheriff to try and figure this out. They’re barely computer literate. You must know people who can—”
Bridger held up a hand. “Calm down.”
The man wasn’t wrong, he just didn’t understand what Paige could do with a computer. She had no need of a broken phone to gain access to every text the preacher had ever sent, or anything else about the man’s digital life.
The sirens died in a final series of yips. Red and blue lights flashed through the floor-to-ceiling windows in the entry. Cue the cavalry.
“Time for you all to disappear,” Bridger announced. “Tai and Kate, drop Fenn at Jane’s place, then swing by the Peckham’s house. Find out what they know about their son’s whereabouts. Paige, we need access to Zack Myles’ phone records ASAP. I’ll hang here and talk to the authorities. We’ll rendezvous back at Jane’s place.”
The team scattered, disappearing with practiced ease long before the deputy and the pair of EMTs made it to the front door.
While the techs checked Dressler for damage, Bridger slipped out the front door to fill Paige and Mason in on the details over the comlink. Jane would be anxious for info.
He went over Dressler’s story and explained about Myles’ phone. Tai and Fenn filled in the other details so Paige and Mason were up to speed. They’d clue Jane in.
“So this Dressler guy didn’t see anything? No description at all?” Mason asked.
Bridger could only wish. “Nope. The guy was in a dark room watching basketball.”
Mason groaned. “So we have no firm ID on the intruder, and no idea where they’ve taken the victim.”
“That pretty much sums things up.”
