By the time they made it into the room, Pops had copies of everything organized and spread out on the table. Spencer pulled out reading glasses and put them on, sitting down at Elena’s notes.
“I’ll start here,” he said. “As a former prosecutor, I think I can make the most sense out of her notes.”
“Hi, everyone, I brought coffee,” Lucas said as he walked in carrying a tray of cups from the local coffee shop. “And I have some notes from Doc and Miranda that I think will help us prove Josh’s innocence.”
“Really? Have I mentioned how you’re the best?” Maya asked, taking a coffee and wondering what Lucas had learned from Doc and Miranda.
“You can tell me that as much as you want,” Lucas said.
He and Spencer traded introductions and then they all sat down and started to study the notes and pictures. Juniper, still up for a little bit of a rest, lay down next to Maya and placed her head between her paws.
“I’ll start with what I just learned,” Lucas said. “Miranda called and she took Josh’s knife to Doc. The knife didn’t match the wound on the deceased gang member and the blood pattern wasn’t right. Doc thought that maybe the knife was smeared in the blood pool to try to make it look like the murder weapon.”
“That’s great news,” Maya said.
“It is. It helps prove that Josh was set up. Doesn’t tell me who did, but that he is being framed.”
“What else did Doc find?” Maya asked.
“On a whim, I sent him some of Sydney’s crime-scene photos. Elena thought Ref was also framed for the murder. One of the big pieces of evidence was the scarf with his DNA. Supposedly she was strangled with it, but Doc disagrees. He thinks the pictures show signs of manual strangulation, including soft tissue hemorrhage, contusions, and hemorrhage around the esophagus. If that’s true, then Ref didn’t strangle Sydney, at least not with the scarf.”
“So now what?” Maya asked.
“I’ve studied these pictures and discovered more. Look at these footprints in this picture,” Lucas pointed out. “It looks like someone deliberately swept over them.”
“It does look that way,” Maya said, studying the picture. “What’s even more disturbing is that it appears the body was moved. Her arms had fallen in a way that makes me think she was trying to defend herself from her attacker. I bet she scratched whoever it was. Was there any DNA from skin found under her fingernails, Pops?”
Pops glanced up. He was going through Josh’s notes and then comparing them to the police reports. “I’m not seeing anything listed,” he answered after flipping through several sheets of papers. “Spencer, you have anything?”
“It does appear the medical examiner took some samples, but they were never entered into evidence. In fact, those samples, if what I’m reading is complete, were never even submitted for any kind of DNA testing. It’s like they completely disappeared. Elena made some notes about evidence that was withheld by the original prosecutor. I bet that’s one of the things. I wish she was here to help us decipher some of her handwriting.”
“Okay, so the body was moved, the scarf wasn’t used to strangle Sydney,” Maya said, “and evidence disappeared. I think we need to make a list of the differences between Josh’s notes and pictures and what Elena found. She found enough to give her interest to reopen this case.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Spencer said. “And I can tell that Elena is tenacious and probably the type to want to move up the ladder. If she had proven not only Diego Perez’s innocence, but also found the real killer, that would have definitely made the higher-ups in the DA’s office take notice.”
“And maybe the wrong people too,” Maya said. “Like a senator. You know him better than anyone, Spencer: Do you think he could have done this? Or would he have paid someone to kill his own daughter?”
“I want to say no, but if there’s anything I’ve learned over the years, it’s that people do things you don’t expect or think aren’t possible if they’re pushed to a breaking point,” Spencer said. “I hate to admit it, but I do think Dale had a temper, and I know he was frustrated with Sydney. We would meet every now and then for a beer and compare notes on Josh and Sydney. Miles too. I felt for Dale, because both of his kids were dealing with addiction. We were both exasperated. But to actually murder your own daughter? I guess I have a hard time wrapping my head around that. I was constantly worried Josh was going to kill himself with an overdose or an accident or who knows what, but I can’t imagine killing him. And Josh also mentioned to me the other day that Sydney told him her father slapped them all around.”
“I wonder if this was a crime of passion, so to speak. In the moment? An overreaction?” Maya said. “Maybe Dale confronted Sydney and asked her to stop. From what I’ve heard about her, she had spunk and wouldn’t have listened. Maybe her dad needed her to change her behavior because of his Senate race and she mouthed off. He decided to teach her a lesson and that lesson went too far.”
“I guess anything is possible,” Spencer said. “I saw who the prosecutor was. He was quickly promoted to a judge after this case but recently died in a boating accident on Lake Michigan. I saw it in the paper.”
“That’s convenient,” Lucas said. “Does the accident correlate with Elena’s visit to the prison to speak with Perez or with her asking for some evidence in the case?”
“Hold on a second,” Spencer said, pulling out his phone. He typed for a few minutes and then said, “I found the news article. It happened right after Elena visited Perez at the Pontiac prison.”
“Just a bit suspicious,” Pops said, peering over his reading glasses on the tip of his nose. He flipped through some more papers and then hesitated.
“Pops, what is it?” Maya asked.
“I just saw the name of the lead detective. It’s Tony Lancaster. Isn’t he one of the senator’s security details?”
“I think so… Lucas, did you catch the names of the two guys who came and helped last night?”
Lucas pulled out his memo book and flipped it open. “Yes. One of the guys is Tony Lancaster.”
“We need to make our notes and write down everything we can find, like the DNA being lost. Then we need to go speak to the Bradfords. We have a direct connection now to the senator since one of his guys was the detective,” Maya said. She turned to Spencer. “Do you think you can make that happen?”
