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When Matt saw Kara walk out of Damon Avila’s house, supported by Michael, a flood of emotions ran through him. Fear was still there, but the relief was overwhelming.
If Kara had died, he would have a hole in his heart. Not just because she was on his team. Not just because he was responsible for her. Not just because she was a cop doing her job.
He was in love with her.
Matt had to compartmentalize it. He had to put it aside for now, figure it out later.
Michael brought Kara over and sat her down on a lawn chair. “I’m going to get you some water.” He glanced at Matt. “She’s fine, just shaky.”
“You would be, too, if you were holding a fucking bomb,” Kara snapped.
Michael laughed. “And she’s almost back to her old self!”
He walked away as the bomb squad drove up.
Matt squatted next to her. He wanted to touch her—and he did. Just her arm. Just to sayhey, you okay?
“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “It’s one of those delayed-reaction things. Michael had the damn thing defused in less than ten minutes, and I was totally fine throughout. Then it was done and I froze. Well, I was already frozen because I wasn’t allowed to move orboom.”
“That’s really not funny, Kara.”
“It has to be.” She took a deep breath and stared at him, really looked at him. He wanted to kiss her. He didn’t.
She sensed it and smiled slightly. “It was Neil’s files. Avila put the bomb in Neil’s files. That’ll give your shrinky friend something to get excited about, and give the lawyers real evidence to nail him.”
Michael came back, handed Kara a water bottle, and Matt stood up. “Bomb squad is taking care of it, they just need a little time. They’re taking the dogs through the house and grounds.”
“Good.”
“This is the nail in Avila’s coffin,” Michael said.
“We definitely have enough to arrest, and I’m going to push him hard. I need to find out if there are any more explosives out there. We know three C-4 bricks are missing—we suspect that only one of them was used in total for the first two bombs. What about the one you just found?” Matt asked, nodding toward the house.
“Half brick,” Michael said. “It had a motion trigger, similar but not identical to the first bomb, based on the ATF analysis. But if the chemical analysis comes back identical to theWater Lily, it’s enough to nail him.”
“How fast?”
“Twenty-four hours or less. They have to get it to their lab for an accurate comparison.”
“Good, but I’m hoping Catherine and I can get a confession. It’ll save time, money, and this town will finally have some peace,” Matt said. “But we need to find that remaining C-4. Did you see anything that ties Damon to Rena Brown’s murder?”
“Nothing before we found the bomb—nothing visible. But a good crime scene team should go through and look for trace, take his shoes, clothes, the whole nine yards. None of that was on the warrant.”
“I’ll get another. So after the bomb squad is done, I need a deputy on this house until we can bring in a full team. I’ll call in the Evidence Response Team from Seattle.” Every major FBI office had a specially trained ERT that focused on crime scenes. The ERT was the framework for Matt’s Mobile Response Team.
“Why kill Rena?” Kara asked.
“Maybe she saw or heard him do something that concerned her. They worked together. We’ve been over at the pub every day since we’ve been here, that would have put him on edge. Maybe she remembered something.”
“Hmm.”
“You don’t think so?”
“He’s not left-handed,” said Kara. “At least, he wasn’t when working the bar. He works with both hands, like most bartenders, but when he rings up orders, he uses his right.”
“I’ll check, but ninety percent of the population is right-handed. But if he uses both hands working, he could be ambidextrous, or used his left hand to throw us off.”
“He’s not that smart.”
