Seriously, what had become of her? Possessed her? A burned body lay half a building away. A lead that could find Kane was mere inches away in the crawl space, and she was thinking about romance. About her feelings for this fine man.
He offered his hand to her, but she shook her head and got to her knees to face the opening.
“Stop!” Sierra called out.
Brooklyn swiveled to look at her where she stood next to Dev.
“I need to retrieve any evidence you found.”
“But I…” She wanted to be the one to pull out the box, but knew she had to step back. “It’s a black metal box.”
“All of you back away so I can get a photo of the location and map it on my diagram.” She held a bright yellow plastic marker in one hand and her camera settled around her neck.
Colin offered his hand again and this time Brooklyn accepted it. Big. Strong. Chafed. He clutched hers and tugged her to her feet. Surprisingly, he didn’t let go, but helped her move out of the timbers.
“Ever see Tarver with a box like that?” Colin asked.
She nodded. “It’s fireproof, and he kept backup drives and flash drives with important information in it.”
“I don’t suppose he was kind enough to leave any of that in the box for us,” Colin said.
“You could be right,” Brooklyn said. “Just because the box is here doesn’t mean he didn’t empty it.”
“He might not have had time to get to it if he took off in a hurry,” Dev said.
“What might make him run like that?” Colin asked.
“The dead guy,” Dev said. “Say we’re right about wildlife trafficking, and this guy is part of an organized crime group that Tarver made mad. He ran because there was a second guy after him, and Tarver figured he could come back for the box later.”
“Not sure I buy that,” Colin said. “He had to know there was a chance law enforcement would find it before he got back.”
“Which means it had to be a life or death matter when he took off,” Brooklyn said. “No way he would leave it behind for any other reason.”
“But that doesn’t make sense,” Colin said. “Not if he had a big cat here. He would have to load it up and that would take longer than getting the box.”
“He could’ve already had the trailer hitched,” Dev said. “And then the second guy showed up.”
“Yeah, could be,” she said. “But trust me. For him to leave this, if it does contain his data, he would’ve had to think his life was on the line and that he could somehow come back for it.”
“Which means we need to get you out of here before he does.” Colin cupped her elbow. “Let’s go.”
She stared at the opening. “But the box.”
“Sierra can open it and tell us what it contains.”
“I can, but not here,” Sierra said. “It’s locked. No worries, though, I’m good at picking locks. It’s just going to take some time to do it. I’ll first want to swab for DNA and then print the box so any residual prints aren’t smudged in the process.”
“So there’s no reason for us to hang around here.” Colin gave Brooklyn a pointed look.
“Not unless Brooklyn has another idea of where Tarver might’ve hidden evidence,” Sierra said.
“I don’t,” she admitted even though she wanted to remain on scene to see what this super team recovered.
“Probably a good thing as I don’t think my back could take it.” Colin laughed.
She wrinkled her nose at him, then looked at Sierra. “Could you call us when you’re ready to open it? So we can be there when you do.”
“I hadn’t planned to process it until I got back to the lab. It’s a sterile environment with better lighting and equipment, and I don’t want to miss anything.”
