“People have killed for less.”
Vaughn went back to taking the photos off the board.
“You hear anything from the captain about Zeke?” Darnell asked.
His partner had only been gone a week, but it felt like a lifetime. Vaughn had done his best to keep Darnell apprised of developments in the case—both cases— but following Tristan’s death, things had moved quickly.
They had Zeke cornered, had him dead to rights on Rebecca Quinn’s murder. But like all rich criminals, Zeke had a card up his sleeve.
“They’re working out a deal,” Vaughn said.
“A deal?” Darnell scoffed. “Zeke’s prints were on the knife, Rebecca Quinn’s blood on his shirt. And with Dr.Reeves’s testimony, the DA should—”
“He had information regarding Tristan Neely.”
Darnell lifted an eyebrow.
“Go on.”
“Zeke said that Tristan caught him cheating long before he was first reported. Offered him a proposition: ‘I’ll ignore the cheating if you find a laptop for me.’”
“Gene Reeves’s laptop,” Darnell said.
“Yep,” Vaughn confirmed. “Gave him a tight timeline and when he failed, turned him in. Oh, and Zeke said that Tristan made him print out those flyers at the DAL, probably to redirect our focus to Gene. Zeke also let Tristan use his father’s company mansion in Sea Bright.”
“Convenient, no?”
“Yeah,” Vaughn agreed. “I thought it was bullshit, and maybe Zeke’s dad was using his connections in the PPD to feed him information that his son just gave right back to us. But then we found some of those flyers in Zeke’s place.”
“Huh. Bet that made the DA happy.”
“Means that Zeke isn’t going away for life.”
“Also means that Devon’s donations will keep flowing to the PPD. Maybe even Princeton.” Darnell gave Vaughn a disgusted look.
“Yeah, my sentiments exactly.”
Vaughn went back to taking down the photos and was on the last one when the door opened.
“Detective Ryan, there you are—finally managed to catch you.”
It was Bowes, hopped up on caffeine and Adderall. Twitchy. Eyes darting.
“Well, I’m here—you found me.”
“You like to hang up on people a lot, don’t you?”
It took Vaughn a moment to realize that Bowes was just joking around.
“Have limited minutes and my cell phone bill is already hella expensive.”
“I know a guy who can hook you up. Unlimited, untraceable—”
“What is it, Bowes?”
“Well, remember that whole thing about Tristan being the only TA applicant?”
“Yeah,” Vaughn said. “He deleted the other applications, right? Using the laptop that Aaron had stolen from Dr.Reeves?”The one Tristan thought Gene Reeves’s half of the Riemann hypothesis was on?“The laptop that Tristan likely paid him to steal for him?”
