“Caught what?” Trey asked, looking intrigued.
“When we were talkin’ to Mrs. Jacobs, she kept clutching her chest,” Reese explained. “I thought it was worth lookin’ into.”
“I don’t believe in coincidence,” Brantley muttered.
Neither did Reese.
Charlie leaned in. “You think she drugged him?”
“At this point, anything’s possible. The only thing I know for certain is that Annie Hawkins and Mallory Jacobs are both hidin’ something.”
“And Mrs. Wright is MIA,” Slade offered.
Reese glanced at Brantley.
“The ME did say Wright’s liver had seen better days,” Evan added.
“Heavy drinker,” Slade commented.
“For quite a number of years,” Evan agreed.
“No foreign DNA found on either of them?” Brantley asked.
Evan’s eyes lit up. “He found a couple of hairs, sent those off to the lab. Said he should have information back by the end of next week.”
“We can get that pushed through,” Brantley informed him.
“One step ahead of you,” Trey answered with a smile. “I called JJ, figured she’d be the one to make things happen. She said she’d get it taken care of. Somethin’ about callin’ Rhonda to get the governor to make a call.”
“I’m still hung up on why the police report says Jacobs’s body was found at the club. Something’s off,” Charlie said. “Did someone tamper with the report? Or was it deliberate?”
“Damn good question,” Evan replied.
Reese didn’t like the direction this was heading. It was all getting turned around and quickly, and they were focusing their efforts on the deaths rather than the missing person. It was easy to do, but he knew it wasn’t going to help Cedric Hawkins.
He typed up another message for JJ, requesting she create a timeline for when they got back to the office. They needed to see this mapped out because there were too many inconsistencies.
He was just finishing typing when his phone rang.
“It’s Detective Mathis,” he informed Brantley before answering.
“We were able to get in contact with Mrs. Wright,” Mathis said curtly. “She agreed to come down to the station to speak to you.”
“Perfect. What time?”
“Forty-five minutes.”
“We’ll be there,” he told the detective. “Thanks.”
The call disconnected, so he relayed the news to the team.
“Charlie, why don’t you take this one,” Brantley suggested.
Reese watched the exchange, curious as to why Brantley was passing it off.
“If Mrs. Wright was abused, she’ll probably feel safer speaking to a woman.”
“I can do that,” she said with a nod.
