“Well done, Linds. Thank you.”
“Just doing my job.”
“You do it very well. If only they’d sent Crime Scene into the house after they found King, they might’ve put this together much sooner.”
“I know. That was an unfortunate oversight in the original investigation.”
“For sure,” Sam said, “but I don’t think there was any malicious intent on the part of the detectives. They didn’t suspect the parents.”
“One of a million judgment calls made over the course of a career. Some turn out better than others.”
“That’s right. How’s Amara?”
“She’s settling in. As soon as Haggerty clears the house, I’ll take her over there to get the rest of her things.”
“Awesome, thank you again. I can’t wait to watch her shine after all this is behind her.”
“Me, too. We’ll get her there.”
“Yes, we will. I’m going to call this into Malone.”
“What are you thinking with the mother?”
“If it was up to me, I’d charge her with misdemeanor failing to report a crime, but as we all know, it’s not up to me.”
“Well, if there’s no more evidence, it’s safe to say McDermott won’t go for charging her with anything more than that.”
“I suppose that’s one good thing about her approach.”
They shared a laugh and said their goodbyes.
Sam called Malone. “Lindsey has a hit on Louis Bingham’s palm print from King Robinson’s autopsy.”
“Excellent,” Malone said. “I’ll let Hope know we’re prepared to go ahead with his arraignment. What about the mother?”
“I say we charge her with failing to report a crime and let her go,” Sam said. “She’s as much a victim of this crime as her children were.”
“I agree, and I’ll get with Hope about that. Hang on a second. Archie just came in.”
Sam heard them talking in the background.
“You’re on speaker, Sam,” Malone said.
“Two things,” Archie said. “We finally got King Robinson’s phone records and found nothing about Louis mentioned there. Apparently, he took Thelma’s warning to keep his mouth shut about Louis seriously. Even though he talked about Louis to his friends, he never put it in writing.”
“Got it,” Sam said. “What’s the other thing?”
“We’ve got film from Glover-Archbold showing what went down with Ivanov and Henderson that you’re going to want to see.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
As Jesse drove into the small town of Lewisburg, he looked for the flower shop on Main Street. The town was tiny, with a small downtown area, but the combined flower and coffee shop stood out with a bright yellow awning and a line of cars parked outside. He didn’t even know yet if Jordan was the owner of that shop, but it made him happy to see it doing a robust business.
“Here we are,” he said to Memphis.
“What’s the plan?” They’d talked about everything except what would happen when they got there, and now that the moment was upon him, he was struck with indecision about how best to proceed.
