“What about Seth Jacobs?” Evan asked. “If it plays out the way we’re showing it, that means he would’ve been with Annie Hawkins the night he died. Did he have sex with her?”
“That’s a damn good question,” Baz said, looking up to see what Reese had to say.
“As much as I’d like to tie these women to the deaths, it’s not the best use of our time right now. We know that Nancy Wright is currently MIA, as is our victim. We need to figure out where they are.”
Baz nodded, turning back to his computer. “Good point. I’ll get with Luca, see if he was able to look at traffic cams in the area. We need to see if we can track where Cedric Hawkins went after he stopped at the convenience store.”
“Do the same for Nancy Wright’s home,” Reese instructed. “If she was the one to call him, maybe she asked him to meet her.”
When Reese walked off, Baz turned his attention to his computer. He always enjoyed this part of a case. That moment when things seemed to come together, when there was hope of figuring it out on the horizon.
If they were on the right track, now it was just a matter of finding Cedric Hawkins before Nancy Wright did something stupid.
Chapter Fourteen
Reese left the team in the barnso they could do what they did best while he took Tesha out to meet with Magnus.
Although it would’ve been easy to push Magnus off, to reschedule the training session, he refused to do so. As far as he was concerned, Tesha deserved his full attention, and because he was focused on getting her the proper training that would keep her safe as long as she was working alongside him, he had dedicated his time to these sessions.
He found Magnus sitting on the back porch stairs, his phone in his hand and a smile on his face.
“There she is,” Magnus said by way of greeting when Tesha trotted over to him. He held up one finger. “Sit.”
Tesha instantly sat in front of him.
“Good girl,” he praised, getting to his feet. “Stay.”
This was one she was still working on, but Reese watched as she remained where she was as Magnus approached slowly.
“Stay,” he repeated when her butt bounced to get up.
She plopped back down.
Magnus’s grin was wide. “Good girl.” He offered a treat he produced from his pocket, then gave her a pat on the head. “Go play,” he said before turning his attention to Reese. “How’s she doin’?”
“Great with the basics. Well, exceptstay.” Reese grinned down at Tesha. “It seems to be the most difficult for her.”
“Considerin’ all she’s learned this year, I’d say she’s doin’ remarkably well.”
Reese would have to agree. Tesha had come a long way from the malnourished, trembling dog she’d been when he found her chained in someone’s backyard. Now she was well-fed, well-loved, and on her way to well-trained.
“As soon as you’re ready, I’d like to move into the tracking phase. It’ll take a lot more focus, though, so I think we’ll want to increase her sessions.”
Reese had known it would come to that, and he fully understood. Problem was, he never knew what his schedule would be, so he figured he would be leaning more and more on Trey to help out.
“What did you have in mind for today?” Reese asked, calling Tesha to his side, where she heeled at his feet.
“Actually, I was gonna see if I could borrow her for a few hours. I’m workin’ on a dog who’s hesitant around other dogs. Tesha’s proven to be good in those cases. Thought she might be able to help out. If you don’t mind, of course.”
“Not at all.” Reese knew the importance of socializing Tesha with other dogs. “Just holler later because we might not be here.”
“Closin’ a case?”
“If we’re lucky.” He motioned to the house. “Lemme grab her leash.”
Reese went inside to grab Tesha’s leash from the hook on the door. He was about to step outside when he heard Brantley’s voice. He was obviously talking to someone, but there was no response, so he figured he was on the phone.
“I understand that.” Brantley’s words were spoken softly. “I still want to know.” There was a brief pause, followed by, “Yeah, all right. Get back to me once you find out.”
