"Anything in there besides crumbs?" Pierce asked. She pulled in a deep breath before looking. That drawing was bothering her more than she was going to tell her two boy buddies now.
Miranda held it open wider, looked again. There was something in the bottom crumpled up.
A wad of paper, balled up tight. She tilted it toward Pierce, who snapped a photo. Miranda pulled it free.
She set the lunch bag aside and started to smooth the paper flat on the table. Gently. She’d learned long ago how not to screw with evidence. The forensics people got really, really angry when that happened.
She looked down at the letter.
U diserve to fucking die. In bright red marker.
"Well, this is rather succinct," Miranda said.
There was a sticky note on the bottom, with blue ink, and in a more flowing hand.
Derek, I think Pete might be a little angry about last week!
"Wonder who Pete is," Miranda said. “Or…was.”
"I'll check the witness list," Pierce said. "See if there's a Pete anywhere in the files."
"And the sticky writer. That's someone who saw this threat and thought it was funny." It told her the writer was familiar with Derek enough to joke with him about something that had happened. Probably at work. “It’s sounds so casual to me. Like the person really knew Derek well enough to know how he’d react to this.”
"It could be a coworker," Pierce said. "Or family."
"The wording doesn't sound like family," Miranda said, thinking about it. They didn’t have a lot to go on, but this was his lunch bag. For work. "'I think Pete might be a little angry about last week.' That sounds like someone who was in the day-to-day. Someone who knew what happened last week."
"Someone at the factory," Knight said. “It makes the most sense.”
"If Pete worked there too, someone might remember him," Pierce said. "Especially if he had a reputation."
"Fingerprints first. Then Questionable Documents for the handwriting." Miranda picked up the evidence bag. She looked at Pierce. "Wonder if we have any super genius baby sisters in that department who can help us out?"
Now they had an actual lead to go on. It was a place to start.
Chapter 18
Dani had the results spread out across her secondary monitor. Her lab had a special guest today, while Questionable Documents was being repainted after that rather nasty spill a week ago from the biologicals lab had done damage to the walls and floor. Dani didn’t mind—Payton didn’t take up too much room, and was a rather quiet kind of person, anyway.
She was there on a consult, as one of her previous cases was prepping for trial. And…she hadn’t wanted to work from home—Payton had said something about wanting to be normal for a day or two. And something about her husband driving her insane because of something going on with his family down in Texas. An aunt or sister or something. Dani hadn’t pressed for details. Payton had had a strange, wild-eyed look on her face at the time.
Mostly, Payton just worked.
Dani was the one who’d done most of the talking.
The video call notification popped up on Dani's screen. Miranda. Oh, goodie. She’d been waiting for Fearless Leader.
Dani accepted the call. Then Miranda was there, with a beautiful, beautiful blond man at her side. Well. That was unexpected. Talk about pretty.
"Hey. Danielle Conner, meet Pierce Asher. Pierce, Dani," Miranda said. "Tell me you have something good."
"Define good," Dani said. “Payton’s camping out in my office today, too. She’s keeping me in line.”
"Hi, Payton! Two Ashers in one day.” Miranda paused while the other woman moved her chair closer. Payton didn’t say anything, just waved. “Dani, give me something that moves us forward."
"Then yeah. I've got good." Dani pulled the DNA results up so she could reference them while she talked. "We got a hit on the letter."
"A hit on what? DNA or prints?" hot blond guy rumbled. Talk about giving the shivers.
