“It’s Russ.” She tapped the screen. “You’re on speaker, Russ, and Finn is with me.”
“Warrant’s in for Eckles’s place.” Russ’s deep voice boomed into the silent night. “I want you to join me in serving it in the morning.”
“How about after I meet with the Veritas team, if that works for you?”
“It does. Durham, you’ll need to sit this out. I don’t want anyone outside of law enforcement present. Don’t want to give Eckles something to hold against us.”
Finn didn’t like being left out, but he got it and wouldn’t fight. “Understood.”
“Just got the background report on Eckles from Colin,” Russ said. “Have you read it?”
“Not yet.”
“Eckles seems clean, but his wife was involved with ecoterrorism about twenty years ago. The Sovereign Earth group.”
“Sovereign Earth, for real?” Finn asked. “Her husband is a logger.”
Ryleigh blinked a few times. “Something worth checking into for sure.”
“We’ll interview her when we serve the warrant,” Russ said. “If we think she’s holding out on us, we’ll bring her in for a more formal interview.”
“Sounds good.”
“See you tomorrow.” Russ ended the call.
“That’s really strange about Eckles’s wife,” she said.
“I’ve gotten to know Eckles a bit, and I can’t see him being our bomber or helping anyone else plant a bomb.” Finn bit the inside of his cheek, a habit he really needed to kick.
“Could be,” Ryleigh held his gaze. “But if they don’t have a good explanation for her ties to ecoterrorism, they could very well be our bombers.”
Ryleigh both hated Russ’s interruption and was thankful for it. Anything to bring her back to a professional connection with Finn and hide the personal. Things had been getting way too intimate for her liking.
Question was, what would he do now? He’d gained her forgiveness so she hoped he let go of his thoughts of dating again. For her heart’s sake. With the sun having set, stars twinkling above, and a soft breeze blowing a sweet jasmine fragrance, the setting was too romantic to resist any attempt he might make to flirt with her.
He sat back and crossed his ankle over his knee. “You never told me about your search of Shadow Lake Logging. Is that because I’m an employee?”
Phew. He stuck with professional. So why did she feel disappointed? Didn’t matter. She would ignore that and answer his question. “I can fill you in. The explosive inventory doesn’t jive.”
His big brown eyes flashed open, “Man. I’d say it might be a mistake, but I know my inventory was accurate. I even had the office assistant count with me and double-check.”
“We saw her signature on the form. So we have to assume the inventory is correct and someone with a key took the explosives.”
“And you know it wasn’t me, right?” He thrust his chest out.
“I know, but we don’t have any proof.”
Finn shook his head. “If I planned to steal explosives, I could’ve fudged the inventory so it didn’t look like anything was missing. I can’t see any of the key holders stealing them either.”
She sat up in her chair to add force to her statement. “But explosivesdidgo missing, and the building hadn’t been broken into—the lock is intact.”
Finn frowned, drawing down full lips she vividly remembered kissing. “Means the bomber had to have a key. Don’t ask me how, but he got it. Maybe he stole one of the other guy’s keys.”
“Then they wouldn’t have their key, right?”
“Right. Except Tobias. He could issue one to himself and sign for it.”
“He said he didn’t have any made, but he could be lying.”
