“We’ll turn him over to NCIS.” Aiden slowed to turn onto the main lake road. More snow had fallen, and a layer of ice still covered the asphalt beneath the new powder.
“Do you think he’ll get in a lot of trouble?”
“Not really. I’ll send a recommendation that he not, but he needs to be fired.”
I put my elbow on the door by the window and rested my cheek on it. My stitches protested but didn’t pull out. “I can’t quite connect the dots here. Why would one of the Cupids have dug up information about Nick just to mess with him for a while?”
Aiden shook his head. “I don’t know. This happened right after that first robbery.”
“You think Nick somehow identified one of the robbers? Like maybe he knew him and just didn’t put it together?” That seemed weak to me. “I think it’s more likely that it has to do with the murder charge. I mean, the more Nick gets bombarded at one time, the less time he has to devote to defending himself. Plus, well, there’s a lot of bad press. Maybe that’s it,” I murmured. “Maybe somebody wants him to look bad.”
“Who do you think wants his job?” Aiden asked.
Excellent question. “I assume anybody in the prosecuting attorney’s office right now. I’ve never liked that Orrin.” Orrin ganged up on Violet previously, which is why I had initially jumped into the case. “Or,” I mused, “it has to do with the murder charge. Maybe the real murderer wants Nick and everybody else preoccupied with other matters.”
Aiden sighed. “Yeah, but who could that be? So far, Saul doesn’t have a connection to Nick, neither did Lenny, and the lead guy doesn’t fit the description of anybody associated with the case.”
True. The Wilson brothers were older and rather dumpy. Plus, Spencer had been on a boat in Alaska, and Wayne, although married to Imogen at the time, hadn’t left prints or DNA at the scene. Of course, that didn’t completely clear him. “My money’s on Lisa Robinson,” I said. “We need to see if there’s any connection between her and Saul Nelson.”
I reached for my phone and dialed Detective Pierce.
“Hi, Anna. What’s up now?” he said by way of answer.
I held my breath. “Is Violet finished, and did you let her go home with Buddy and Yara?”
“Yeah, we just sent her home with your aunt and uncle.”
Relief filtered through me. “What a relief. There was no problem with the temporary custody?”
“Yeah, there was a problem. I had to fight Idaho Department of Health and Welfare because they said they couldn’t let her go home with a family she’d run away from until we had a hearing. Unfortunately, or, well, I guess fortunately in this situation, no temporary foster homes were taking kids, so we didn’t really have a choice.”
It scared me that she might’ve had to go somewhere else. She was fragile right now, and I was thankful that Pierce had intervened and at least helped her go to Yara and Buddy’s.
“It doesn’t look good for your hearing this coming week, though,” Pierce said.
My limbs chilled. “Did Violet tell you about the upcoming hearing?”
“Yeah, she seemed really worried. I don’t know what you’re going to do, but you’d better think of something.”
“I will.” I had no idea what, but I had a bit of time since the hearing wasn’t until Thursday. “For now, the ATF has authorized me to inform you that Saul Nelson, our second Cupid robber, is the one who had a friend with military record access research Nick’s past cases and found the one about the missiles. Whoever sent the anonymous letter was based on that.”
“That’s interesting,” Pierce said. “Someone’s messing with Basanelli big time.”
I nodded my head, even though we were on the phone. “My guess is either somebody wants his job, or they want him preoccupied during this murder investigation.”
“All right,” Pierce said. “I’m already conducting a background check on Saul Nelson based on Violet’s statement. I’ll add a search for any connection between him and Nick Basanelli, Richard Basanelli, and Imogen Wilson. We’ll see if we can figure this out.”
“Thanks, Pierce.” The man sounded exhausted. “Why don’t you get some sleep? I promise I won’t bother you until tomorrow, at least mid-morning.” Maybe he could even take the morning off. Although, considering it would be Monday, it was doubtful.
“Yeah, you get some sleep, too.” Pierce clicked off.
Almost instantly, both my phone and Aiden’s blew up with a loud buzzer. “What the heck?” I turned it over.
He grabbed his and read the face. “The alarm at your office just activated.” He took a sharp right turn to go directly into Timber City instead of driving around it toward our cabin and lifted his phone to his ear. “Yeah, Saber? I need backup. Anna’s office. Okay, good.” He clicked off. “Saber’s already in his rig and on the way.”
“My alarm goes to your office and not the police?” I guess I’d never questioned that.
“Yeah, my office is alerted instantly,” he said. “We can get to your office building faster, most likely, and I know the entire system since I installed it. If my team’s ever out of town, I can transfer the alarm notifications to the Elk County Police Department, but for now, it’s all me. Are you armed?”
