Neveah watched her without blinking so she wouldn’t miss it if Mercy did anything to either phone.
Mercy dropped them on the coffee table.
Neveah put on gloves to place them into separate evidence bags. “Which one is which?”
“The blue one is Trisha’s.”
“What are the codes?”
She wrote down the numbers the women recited. “Thank you.”
When the detectives got up to leave, Mercy said, “That’s it? You come in here, harass my widowed sister, take our phones and leave?”
“That’s it for now. If we find anything interesting on the phones, we’ll be back.”
“What does that mean? What would be interesting?”
“I won’t know until I see it.”
“Are you accusing us of a crime?” Trisha asked.
“Not at the moment. Did you commit a crime?”
“No! I’m a wife and a mother, not a criminal.”
“Then you should have nothing to worry about. We’ll show ourselves out.”
When they were outside, Anthony said, “That was well done, Detective.”
That he sounded surprised should’ve been no surprise to her, but it smarted just the same. “Thank you.”
“You think they were involved.”
“We’re almost sure they hired it done.”
“Wow. What’s the next step?”
“Would it be possible to have your IT people take a look at the phones?”
“Sure, we can do that. I’ll set you up with one of our detectives.”
“Great, thanks. In the meantime, I think we should have eyes on them.”
“I agree. I’ll keep our Patrol officers on them. Follow me to our house, and we’ll get those phones processed.”
“Excellent, thanks again.”
* * *
Sam was at the rink watching Scotty patiently assist the twins on the ice when she received an update from Neveah.
After seeing Trisha and her sister, I’m more convinced they were involved. I’m working with a Spokane IT detective to dump the phones now while their Patrol officers watch the house. I’ll keep you posted.
Excellent work, Sam replied.
“Sam!” Alden called to her as he went by, pushing an orange cone around on the ice. “Look at me! I’m doing it. I’m skating!”
“You sure are.”
