A Deadly Influence (Abby Mullen Thrillers #1)(59)

I don’t really remember that day. But I’m pretty sure Abihail’s right. We were in the hall with everyone

She shut her eyes. If she couldn’t trust her memory of that day, could she really be sure she remembered the man from the street? What if she’d gotten it wrong? Would they let him go?

She dialed both Carver and Abihail, but neither answered. That familiar crushing loneliness closed in again.





CHAPTER 38


“They were about to close,” Will said, walking into the task force room with seven Chick-fil-A bags in his hands.

Abby raised her eyes from the crime scene photos. “Did you tell them to put—”

“Bacon and ranch dressing on your sandwich, yes.” Will sighed, unloading the bags on the large table. “As I’ve told you before, I find your orders from fast food restaurants deeply ironic.”

“Why are they ironic?” Carver rummaged in the bags and retrieved a chicken wrap.

“Will thinks I’m committing slow suicide by eating a lot of butter and bacon,” Abby said. “While half my job is convincing people not to kill themselves.”

“He’s got a point.” Marshall opened his salad container and poured in some dressing.

“Well, people need a reason to live.” Abby located her chicken sandwich. “Butter and bacon are two very good reasons.”

“Where are we with the search warrant for the Tillman farm?” Will asked.

Abby took a bite of her sandwich. Pure bliss. How did some people manage without bacon? “Wong still hasn’t called me back.” The man Eden had picked out of the lineup had indeed been Karl Adkins. With that, they felt they should easily have enough to get a search warrant, and Detective Wong said she’d take care of it.

“Just got a message from Detective Turner,” Carver said. He was munching his wrap while reading something on his phone. Turner was the detective assigned to the murder case. “We have a probable ID on our murder victim. Liam Washington. The vehicle is registered to him, and his driver’s license photo matches the body. We have an address in Albany.”

“Could he be the one who kidnapped Nathan?” Will asked.

“The car doesn’t match the witness account,” Carver said. “But we can’t discount it. The witness didn’t get a good look at the kidnapper’s face. He didn’t point out anyone in the lineup.”

“Albany?” Abby frowned. It wasn’t anywhere near Tillman’s farm on Long Island. But maybe the address was out of date.

“Suppose we have two accomplices, Liam and someone else,” Carver said. “And two vehicles. One of them kidnaps Nathan, and they take him somewhere. Then, at some point, Liam decides to move Nathan.”

“Maybe he saw they might actually pull this off and get the ransom,” Marshall said. “It’s one thing to plan this, and it’s a different thing entirely to see the money being collected. He fantasized about it and figured he doesn’t want to split the ransom. He put Nathan in the car and was about to drive off when the other guy shows up.”

“The other guy knocks on the window,” Carver said. “Liam figures he’ll just sell him a bullshit story about taking the kid for a ride. Lowers the window, gets a knife in his throat.”

“Or he saw Gabrielle’s post and felt guilty,” Will suggested. “Figured he’d drop Nathan at the bus station and drive off. Except his friend had other ideas.”

“That works,” Abby agreed. “Either way, the accomplice kills Liam, shoves him in the trunk, drives to the parking lot to drop the car, far enough to throw us off. And either someone picks him up, or he calls an Uber.”

“Where are we with the shoe print?” Carver asked. “Did anyone check if it matches the sole of Karl Adkins’s shoe?”

“Adkins’s lawyer raised seven hells about it,” Barnes said. “Said we can’t take a picture of his client’s shoe without a warrant, and his client isn’t under arrest, and so on and so forth. We’ll take care of that later.”

“If the murderer knows what he’s doing, he got rid of those shoes after he dumped the car.” Marshall grunted. “And I’m not sold on the connection to the Tillman cult.”

“Still, it’s worth checking out,” Abby said.

“I said we’ll do it later,” Barnes said, raising an eyebrow.

Abby decided to drop it. Arguing with the two men would only make them hostile. The last thing she needed right now was a face-off with a couple of Major Case detectives.

Carver got up and shoved his phone in his pocket. “Turner is driving to Albany. I’ll join him, see what we find.”

Abby considered joining them as well and glanced at her phone to check the time. “Oh shit!”

“What is it?” Will asked.

“I forgot to pick up Sam from her dad’s.” She shut her eyes as the waves of guilt washed over her. What was Sam thinking right now? She’d left home dramatically on Saturday, and Abby, instead of trying to talk to her, had ignored her completely for the entire weekend. Epic mom fail. To make things worse, Monday and Tuesday this week were Steve’s days with the kids anyway, so Sam would just stay there.

“Be right back,” she blurted and stepped out of the room. It was half past ten. She always gave Sam a hard time if she caught her using her phone after ten, which just increased the failure of what was about to transpire. She called Sam.