“A burner phone just like the one Officer Murphy received. Only this one was dropped off at the station with your name on it.”
“My name?” He stumbled back into Nic’s waiting hand.
“A copy of your South Boston library card was attached.”
A stunned shockwave rolled through him—Nic felt it in his hand—but then his spine straightened with determination. “We’ll be there in twenty,” Cam told her and hung up.
Nic’s gaze shot over to the timeline of Erin’s case. “That’s the same library Erin was at the day she disappeared.”
Cam nodded. “And I haven’t set foot in that library since. This has to mean something. The cases have to be connected.”
The station was bustling, triple the usual force crowding the bullpen, as Di’s team waited with the D-4 cops and Matt’s agents for a joint task force briefing. No arguing, as far as Cam could see, which was a good sign. With a cop’s kid on the line, everyone seemed to understand they were on the same team. Well, everyone except Murphy and Smith, who’d wasted a day trying to handle this themselves. But he and Nic had brought them in line, and with the truth about his sister possibly on the line too, Cam needed everyone on the same page, now more than ever.
Spotting them, Di broke off her conversation with Matt and met them at the front counter. “You look like hell,” she said to Cam.
“Love you too, sweetheart,” he teased back with a smile.
Shifting from worried to mama-bear protective, she glared at Nic and Jamie. “You two were supposed to take care of him.”
“Don’t blame them, Di. With everything yesterday and then Ma taking a turn for the worse last night, it was hard getting much sleep.”
“She gonna pull through?”
He swallowed hard, forcing out the truth. “I’m not as sure as I was earlier in the week.”
“Oh, sugar.”
“Need to keep busy,” he said, shaking off the threatening break. “And we need to find Shannon.”
Di followed his lead. “We’re all set up in the big briefing room. Just need to usher everyone back there.”
“I’d like to listen to the message first, without an audience.”
“I’ve got the phone in my office.” She led them around the outside of the bullpen to her office.
Cam followed her in, Nic and Jamie on his heels, which almost caused a four-body pile-up when Di suddenly hit the brakes.
“What’s wrong?” Cam asked.
She tilted her head, eyeing her desk. “I had the phone right here.”
She went one direction, Cam the other, searching all around the desk. She opened and closed drawers, Cam got on his hands and knees and peered under it, and Nic and Jamie were scouring the rest of the office.
They all came up empty-handed. “It’s gone,” Cam said.
“That’s impossible.” Brow knitted, Di marched to the door. “Hey, Owens,” she called to the uniform at the desk right outside her office. “There was an evidence bag on my desk. Did you see anyone take it?”
“Smith from South End. Said you wanted it for the briefing.” Murphy’s captain.
“Fuck!” Cam shot past Di into the bullpen. No Smith or Murphy there. He hung a right and sprinted down the hall to the briefing room.
Just some other D-4 officers lingering around, waiting to get started. “Where’s Smith?” Cam demanded.
“On his way here,” one replied right away. “He’s bringing Murphy from the hospital.”
He reversed course, hightailing it to surveillance, where Di was already directing the duty officer to pull up the security footage. As Owens said, Smith approached Di’s office, told him that he was taking the phone to the briefing, then walked right past the briefing room and out the back door.
“You got outside cameras?” Nic asked.
