Secrets Never Die (Morgan Dane #5)(8)

Lance tried a scenario in his head. Paul was up late. He confronted an intruder. The intruder shot him first. Evan walked in on the shooting. Maybe Evan ran away. The boy was fit and fast. He would be a difficult target in the dark. But where was he? Why hadn’t he come home or gotten help?

“What time did Paul usually go to bed?” the sheriff asked. “We’re trying to piece the timeline together.”

“He had insomnia,” Tina said. “He often stayed up late or got up in the middle of the night.”

Deputy Harvey opened the door. “Sheriff, I need to speak with you.”

The sheriff went out into the hall, closed the door behind him, and conferred with Harvey again. When Colgate returned, his face was grim. “We’ve found a cell phone on the other side of the back fence. Does this look familiar?” He held up a plastic bag. Inside was a cell phone in a black case with a wolf on the back.

“Yes!” Tina perked up. “That’s Evan’s phone.”

“Do you know your son’s password?” the sheriff asked.

Tina’s voice shook. “3-3-0-3.”

The sheriff wrote the code down and shoved his notepad and pen back into his chest pocket.

“So maybe Evan got away?” Tina searched the sheriff’s face, clearly looking for hope.

“It’s too early to draw conclusions, ma’am, but we hope so,” the sheriff said vaguely. “How well does he know the woods behind the house?”

Lance had worked with the sheriff enough to recognize his holding back tone.

“A few weeks ago, Paul took him camping out there.” Tina pointed in the general direction of the back of the house. “They’ve gone fishing a few times too. Paul was teaching Evan to shoot.”

“Can you tell me what kind of shoes and clothes he was likely wearing tonight?” the sheriff asked.

“He has a brand-new pair of black Converse sneakers,” Tina said. “When I left for work, he was dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt with a direwolf’s head on the front. It says WINTER IS COMING.” She closed her eyes for a second. “Evan is a huge Game of Thrones fan. We binged six seasons when he had an emergency appendectomy over the winter.” A tear rolled down her cheek. She wiped it away, the gesture almost angry.

The sheriff nodded. “You hang tight, Mrs. Knox. We’re going to do everything possible to find Evan.”

But on his way out of the room, the sheriff avoided eye contact with Morgan and Lance. Behind Colgate’s carefully schooled expression, his eyes were worried.

The cops had found something they didn’t want to share with Tina.





Chapter Four

Lance followed the sheriff into the hall. He closed the door behind him. “What aren’t you telling her?”

Colgate grimaced. “This is an active investigation. You know I can’t divulge the details.”

“I’m going to find out.” Lance crossed his arms over his chest. “I will not stop until I find Evan.”

Colgate’s jaw sawed back and forth. Some cops worked with PIs. Others refused. Colgate shared only if it suited his case.

The sheriff sighed. “We would like to keep some details from the media.”

“Understood.”

“We found blood on the back of Evan’s phone. We also found a bloody handprint on the top of the fence in the backyard, just above where we found the phone. There are footprints in the dirt at the base of the fence as well.”

“Where someone landed after climbing the fence.”

“Yes.” Colgate frowned. “The soil is soft back there from the recent rains. The impressions are very clear. The tread has Converse written across the sole.” The sheriff brushed his hand through the wispy white hairs on his head. “We’re trying to process the outside of the house first, before the rain starts. The tech was able to pull prints from the fence. But matching them will take time, as will getting a DNA analysis on the blood.”

“And until the DNA test comes in,” Lance said, “we won’t know if Evan touched Paul and transferred his blood to the doorframe and fence, or if Evan is bleeding.”

The boy could be injured. Maybe even shot like Paul.

He was well enough to run and scale a fence, Lance reminded himself. To the sheriff, he said, “We also don’t know if the shooter went after Evan.”

“That’s right,” the sheriff agreed. “We’re going to work with the worst-case scenario—that Evan is hurt and whoever killed Paul is after him.”

“We’re running out of time if we want to follow his trail.” Lance glanced out the window at the end of the hall. Outside, tree branches swayed violently in the wind. “That storm will wash away all the tracks.”

“As much as I don’t want to, I agree.” The sheriff rubbed a hand down his face. “I called for a K-9 team from the state, but they can’t get here for two hours.”

“That’s too long to wait,” Lance insisted.

“Yes.” The sheriff propped a hand on his belt.

“Sheriff?” a young deputy called from the entryway. “There’s a man named Sharp here. He wants to talk to you.”

“Have him wait outside,” Colgate answered, then turned back to Lance. “Tell your boss that no one else gets into this scene.”