“I should be, but she bailed early.”
“Isn’t that out of pattern?”
“Yes.”
“What’s going on?”
“I have no idea. All I know is she seemed disturbed. I decided to call and see if you noticed anything odd in her behavior while you were talking to her Friday morning about the trespasser and trying to convince her again about security cameras.”
“No. I wonder if she’s worried about Steven.”
“Why would she worry about him?”
Oh, right. Cara probably didn’t know about the man’s injury. Their phone conversation yesterday had been cut short after he’d had to take a call about a four-car pileup that had sent him double-timing it to the scene to lend a hand.
He briefed her on the basement incident, leaving out his suspicions about the man. At this stage they were in the purely speculative category. And it wasn’t like Steven was hanging around the premises during the week presenting any danger to anyone—if he was, indeed, guilty of any crimes on Natalie’s property.
“Maybe she’s still worried about him.” As he wrapped up the story, Rod appeared in the doorway. He waved the man in.
“I suppose that’s possible. But why wouldn’t she have admitted that when I asked her what was wrong?”
“I don’t have an answer for that—but I do have a visitor who just walked into my office.”
“I’ll let you go.”
“Not until we finalize our plans for this week. Does Thursday work?”
“Fine by me. Let’s hope third time’s the charm.”
“Nothing short of a natural disaster is going to divert me from my mission this go-round. I’ll call you back to discuss details.”
“I’ll put you on my calendar—and hope no tornadoes crop up. Talk to you soon.”
As they ended the call, he looked over at Rod, who’d propped a shoulder against the doorframe. “What’s up?”
“I talked to our private lab a few minutes ago. They said you dropped a blood sample off first thing this morning for DNA testing, along with a box of Danish. They were impressed by the personal delivery as well as the Danish. It got their attention.”
“Good.” That had been his goal.
“The lab’s not exactly in our backyard. What time did you have to get up to be at their doorstep?”
“Early.” But it had been worth the predawn rising. The private lab they used to handle backlog would process the sample fast. Who knew how long they’d have to wait if they sent it to the state facility?
“Must have been a hot sample if you were willing to ding the department budget for a private facility.”
“Yeah. It may be a match for your vomit.”
Rod arched his eyebrows. “No kidding? You have a suspect?”
“I’d put him in the semi long-shot category, but there are enough markers pointing to him to justify giving this a try.”
“Let’s hope it pans out. I’d like to wrap up the paperwork for that autopsy.”
“We’re getting there. I’m working the case on a couple of fronts.”
In fact, his next call was to the firm he’d recommended to Natalie, to line up camera installation.
“Keep me in the loop.” Rod pushed off from the doorframe.
