Latent Danger (On the Line #2)(32)

“Looking at her address,” Ronan said, “I would guess neither rich nor poor. Middle class, but my guess would be they aren’t paying for private school.”

“We should find out where she went to school,” Shauna said. “Could be she’s at a private school on a scholarship. Maybe there’s some overlap in board members or something.”

Ronan nodded, making a note.

Zach heard Shauna’s curse and looked up to see news vans converging. Thankfully, they already had a team of officers at the periphery to keep them back. “Can we get her out of here soon?” Zach asked Dr. Kane.

She gave him a nod, but he walked over to the perimeter all the same.

“Officer,” he said, keeping his voice low, “let’s move this line back.”

The officer nodded and signaled to another officer to help him create another barricade. As they worked, the first of the reporters were moving in from where they’d set up their vans, including Ray Lansing. Zach turned away, but not before Lansing’s voice rang out.

“Detective, does this clear the kid?”

Zach didn’t ask if the kid he referred to was Sawyer. They knew it would get out that they’d arrested Jonathan Sawyer in connection with the case, even if he hadn’t been arrested on the charge of murder. Yet.

That didn’t mean Zach was going to answer Lansing. He continued turning away, not giving the reporter a response.

Lansing didn’t give up. “Is the cold case division involved because of the similarities to the Marsh Murders?”

Zach stopped and turned to Lansing. He narrowed his gaze, trying to gauge how much the reporter knew. There was always what he knew and what he was willing to ask in front of others.

The reporter gave him a flat look. Zach turned away again. The guy didn’t know anything. He was fishing.

And Zach wasn’t about to bite that lure.

He made a mental note to ask Cal Rylan if Lansing was still dating his sister, Joy. None of them had been happy about that little development after the recent case. Well, except for the fact that Lansing actually seemed to be good for her and Joy had been through too much for them not to want to see her happy. Still, every detective in major crimes felt a little sick at the thought it was Lansing that she’d chosen to bring her out of her shell.

He ignored the calls from Lansing and others as he walked back to Shauna. He didn’t look at her and he didn’t lower his head to bring his voice closer to her. He kept his gaze on the doctor and her technician as they worked to clear the scene.

Shauna raised her coffee cup to her mouth. “Does he have anyone inside the department who might talk to him?”

“Not that I know of,” Zach said. “The department is pretty tight right now. We were crucified during the James sniper case. No one’s forgotten that.”

She didn’t respond, but her jaw was tense. He didn’t blame her.

Ronan stepped up to them. “The officers following Jonathan Sawyer say he’s been at home since he was released.”

Zach bit down on the anger rising in him. “Are they sure?”

“Yes.”

“Do they know if the father and grandfather have been at home?” Shauna asked.

Ronan sent a text message, then minutes later, relayed the answer. “Yes. The whole family is in the house. They came home with the attorney after the arraignment and bail hearing. The lawyer left but the family is inside.”

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Chapter Twenty-two





Shauna sat on a barstool at her family’s pub waiting for her father or mother to come through from the back kitchen. They weren’t open yet, but they would have heard the bell when she let herself in the front door with her key and would come out to see which of their children had come to visit.

Her brothers spent a great deal more time at the pub than she did, running it alongside her parents. Shauna’s visits were just that, visits. She’d waited tables and worked behind the bar as a teenager, but when she left the police academy, she went down to working the occasional shift here and there. Since earning her detective’s shield, those shifts had dwindled to none. Any time off at this point was spent sleeping in preparation for the times when a case became hot and she went back to stretches of long hours, day-after-day.

Of course, this case wasn’t only hot in the sense that it normally was for a cold case detective. Typically, she might find a lead on a case that opened things up and sent her chasing someone for days at a time, but the case itself was still cold. The crime was long over.

This case was different. Their killer wasn’t going to stop killing. Not unless they stopped him. So, she’d come by the pub to let her parents know she was still alive and to take a small breather before getting out there. They had a lot of threads out there they were pulling but each one seemed to come up empty. What they needed was a thread that led to another thread, and another. They needed something they could stitch together into answers.

“Hey my girl, what brings you in?” her father asked as he came out of the kitchen. “Doug Calhoun was by last night, said you were working a case with the New Haven guys. Didn’t think we’d see you for weeks.”

Shauna couldn’t help but wince. If it took them weeks to catch this killer... well, she didn’t want to think what he might do in that time.