Touch of Red (Tracers #12)(40)

Brooke tore off a bite and leaned down to offer it. The dog hurried over and licked it off her hand, and Brooke took a moment to stroke his ears.

“What breed is he?”

“He’s not, he’s a rescue. Mom says he’s got some of everything. You have a dog?”

“Just a cat. He’s a rescue, too.”

The boy scarfed the rest of his food, and Brooke could tell she’d made him uncomfortable with all her questions. His mom had probably taught him about stranger danger.

He stood and crumpled his food wrapper. “Well, we should probably get going.”

She forced a smile. “More vending machines to check?”

“Yeah. If I see you again, I’ll pay you back.”

“Don’t worry about it. It was nice meeting you, Cameron. Thanks for sharing your table.”

“Sure, no problem.”

? ? ?

Sean was relieved not to see Brooke’s car when he pulled into the Delphi Center. Hopefully, she was home right now meeting her locksmith. He suspected she wouldn’t hesitate to blow off the appointment if she got sidetracked at work.

Sean grabbed the paper evidence bag off his front seat. It contained a sixteen-ounce water bottle—luckily the only one he’d found perched at the top of the garbage bin. Because Mahoney had tossed it in a public place, he had no reasonable expectation of privacy, so Sean didn’t need a warrant for anything found on it—such as the DNA that would either implicate the man in a homicide or rule him out.

Sean’s phone buzzed with a call from Brooke.

“Hey. You get your locks done?”

“Not yet. Something’s come up.”

Sean stopped short. “What’s wrong?”

“I identified our witness. His name’s Cameron, and he lives at 267 Cherrywood Road. And get this. His mother works at Java House.”

“You interviewed him?”

“No.”

“How do you know all this?”

“I spotted him at Dairy Queen. He has red hair and freckles and a little white dog, Sean. He fits the description to a T!”

Delphi’s weekend security guard pushed open the door and held it, and Sean gave him a nod as he stepped into the lobby.

“There have to be a lot of redhead kids around town, and some of them probably have dogs, too. How can you be sure it’s our kid?”

“I snagged his food wrapper and ran it back to the lab earlier this afternoon. The prints match.”

“Jesus, Brooke. I can’t believe you did that.”

“I’m a CSI. That’s what I do.”

“Yeah, but you’re not a cop. And I already told you about interviewing witnesses—”

“It wasn’t an interview. It was a casual conversation.”

He could tell he’d put her on the defensive, and he didn’t give a damn. He needed to get through to her. She was putting herself in danger, not to mention jeopardizing the case.

“Sean, you have to get over here. Or send Ric over. Someone needs to talk to this kid’s mother.”

“Don’t tell me you’re at his house.”

“Why not?”

“How the hell did you get his address if you didn’t interview him?”

“It was on his dog’s collar. When we were talking—”

“Brooke. Listen to me. You shouldn’t be talking to potential witnesses or staking out houses. I don’t want you involved in this.”

“Too late. I am involved. And I found your witness for you, so you need to come see him. His mother has to be oblivious to all this. Why else would she let him roam around in public all day when someone just tried to run him down on his bike?”

“We don’t know that for sure.”

“I sure as hell do. Now, could you please send someone over here?”

Sean gritted his teeth and looked at his watch. “I’m tied up with something right now.”

Silence.

“It’s important,” he added.

“What’s more important than this eyewitness?”

“We’ve got a new suspect, and I think I can prove his involvement.” Or disprove it. “I’ll call Ric. Maybe he can get by there and talk the mom into bringing the boy in for an interview. With any luck, she’ll agree to let a forensic artist sit down with him, and maybe we’ll get a suspect sketch.”

“I don’t want him interviewed, I want him protected! Someone tried to kill him the other night, and he needs to be in some kind of protective custody or something.”

“We don’t have the resources for that, Brooke. As much as I wish we did. We’re spread paper-thin already trying to keep an eye on a whole list of suspects while we pin down their involvement.”

She went quiet. Sean glanced up and noticed the guard was watching him, blatantly eavesdropping. Sean stepped over to the reception counter and signed in. The sooner he got this evidence dropped off, the sooner he could deal with Brooke, who was obviously dead set on making his evening as complicated as possible. Why couldn’t she have called him with this lead instead of going over there? Now she was committed. He could hear it in her voice.

The silence continued, and he figured she was seriously ticked off by his less-than-thrilled reaction to her discovery.