Honor and Defend by Lynette Eason

Author:Lynette Eason
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-07-02T16:00:00+00:00

NINE

Ellen pulled her hand back and stared at the shiny object that had caught her eye.

Lee and the chief walked up beside her. “What is it?” Lee asked.

“An earring.” Ellen studied the pretty pearl with the simple gold clip.

“What’s that doing there?”

“I don’t know. That’s a really good question. There’s no dust on it so I wouldn’t think it’s been here long.” She looked up. “Chief, look at these cases here and tell me which ones are open and currently being investigated.”

He stepped forward and studied the names on the boxes. “Huh. On this rack, it holds cases with last names starting with A to E so that would just be Veronica’s.”

“What about this rack?”

“This is F to J, so Melanie Hayes is the only case anyone would be actively investigating.”

“And her box is on the other end of the shelves.”

“What are you thinking?”

“Just trying to put this together, figure out where the person would be standing for the earring to drop off and land here.” Ellen raked a hand down her ponytail. “Well, it’s a given that whoever came in with the intention of stealing the evidence didn’t sign the log. But at least we have a time line. The stuff was stolen either yesterday or early this morning. Can we check the security cameras?”

Chief Jones nodded. “Yes, I’ll pull up the footage and we can start going through it.”

She looked at the earring again. “I know I touched this, Chief, but do you think the lab could try to get some DNA off the part that hooks to the ear?”

“I think it’s a long shot, but bag it and note that you handled it.” He walked to a drawer and pulled out an evidence bag. She dropped the earring into it and snagged a marker from the cup on the shelf. She noted she’d handled the earring, wishing she’d grabbed a glove or something to pick it up, but she hadn’t even thought that what she was seeing was evidence. Kicking herself wasn’t going to help anything. She handed the bag to the chief.

“I’ll have Carrie get this on its way.” He paused. “Actually, I’ll ask Missy to do it. It’s something easy and I think she needs to do something right in Carrie’s eyes.”

“You think that’s wise? It’s possible someone inside this office stole the evidence.”

He hesitated. “I’ll call ahead and let them know she’s bringing it—and I’ll let Missy know that I’ve called ahead. Hold on a second.” He disappeared into the lobby area. When he came back he nodded to the door at the end of the hall. “Let’s go look at the footage.”

Lee had been awfully quiet during everything, just watching and listening. She glanced at him with a raised brow. He just shook his head. They followed the chief into another small area that housed the security computers. He sat in front of the nearest one and clicked the mouse. “Newfangled stuff. Let’s hope it’s worth all the money the good citizens of Desert Valley put into it.

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