Reese texted Slade to have him provide the information once they had it.
“Remind him to stay with her,” Brantley ordered. “I want him guarding her door.”
Reese passed that on as well. He understood Brantley’s rationale where JJ’s safety was concerned. And Slade was competent, capable, and trustworthy.
Once that was out of the way, Reese told Brantley and Wes about the crime scene photos, reminding them they shouldn’t have knowledge of them. The last thing he wanted was to draw attention to Luca’s backdoor hack and end up in jail with two of their team members.
“No body, no crime,” Brantley said.
“If only it were that simple,” a woman said as she strolled toward them.
She was older—probably in her late fifties, early sixties—and dressed for battle in a sleek gray pantsuit, her black hair cut into a short bob around her face.
“Wes,” she said, holding out her hand to shake. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Thanks for comin’ so quickly, Janice.” Wes turned to them. “Meet Brantley Walker and Reese Tavoularis. They’re members of the task force Baz works on.”
“We’re also friends,” Brantley noted.
“Brantley, Reese, meet Janice Worthingham. She’s an old friend.”
“I take offense to the term, Wesley,” she said, her brown eyes flashing with amusement.
He chuckled, flashing one of those smiles that Reese figured was the reason he had so many ex-wives. “You know I would never refer to you as old, merely refined.”
“Refined, I can handle,” she said before turning toward Brantley. “What’s this about no body, no crime?”
Before Brantley could blurt out their findings—which would no doubt reveal they’d been obtained illegally—Reese interjected. “You should ask to see the crime scene photos.”
Her gaze shifted over his face, chock full of scrutiny. Reese could tell she was reading between the lines even as she remained silent.
“Hypothetically,” Brantley said. “If there isn’t a body, can they be certain there was a crime?”
“There are ways to prove a death without the actual body,” she said, looking between them. “But it’s not easy to do. It’s a very good question, though. I’ll be sure to ask for the evidence.” Janice looked at Wes. “Where is my client?”
“I’ll show you,” Wes said.
The pair strolled off to handle the situation, leaving him and Brantley behind.
“We need to check out that scene,” Brantley said under his breath.
“I’m sure they’ve got it locked up tight.”
“Luca send you the photo?”
Reese glanced at his phone. As he did, several pictures popped up in the text message thread. He clicked on one and then passed his phone to Brantley.
“This remind you of somethin’?”
“The crime scene at JJ’s?” Reese guessed because, yeah, it did remind him of that scene. And just like that horror show at JJ’s house so long ago, this one looked staged, too.
They knew what Dante Greenwood’s objective had been that day—to stage his kidnapping to get money from his parents—but Reese wasn’t sure how that would play into this particular scene. Were Molly and Sonny looking to make it appear as though they were dead? If so, why? For them to evade the kidnapping charges?
But why would they implicate Baz if Molly was trying to get in his good graces? Based on what JJ said had happened and what she and Molly had discussed, that was the conclusion Reese had come to.
This didn’t fit with that, though. Surely, Molly knew that she would never see Baz again if he was convicted of murdering her and Sonny.
Brantley turned Reese’s phone back and pointed at one of the photos. “If they were killed here, where’re the bodies? More importantly, wouldn’t it look like someone had dragged them away if there had been?”
