“Give me one second.” She re-bagged the evidence, handed it to DeCampo, and walked Stryker out of the garage. “Don’t say a word about this toanyone, especially your FBI friend. You gotta trust me.”
“I do.” He dropped a quick kiss on her lips, then took off down the driveway.
* * *
Emerson pulled out her phone and called her captain. “How’s it going, Easton?”
“Very well, Captain. Earlier, you told me you’d help me any way you could.”
“What do you need?”
“We found two guns in the main house. I need them matched against slugs I left with forensics for another case.”
“What do I have to do with that?”
“I need your help getting it pushed through ASAP.”
“You want to tell me why?”
“Someone tried to kill Stryker. Based on the photos and other evidence we’ve found, I think the weapons used are the same ones we found here.”
“Why wasn’t I told about this?”
“At the time, it wasn’t linked to any of my cases, and I didn’t want you to pull Stryker from helping me if you thought his life was in danger.”
“Understood. When can I expect the weapons?”
“Within the hour.” Emerson hung up and told DeCampo to run the evidence in.
“Sure thing,” he replied. “I found a small storage room in the finished basement with several sealed boxes. Can you tackle that while I’m gone?”
As soon as DeCampo left, Emerson made her way downstairs. The expansive lower level housed a billiard table, a ping pong table, and a home entertainment center. There were pinball machines and a small dance floor, along with a sauna and a lap pool.
She found the unfinished storage room. The officer had already sifted through three boxes. Emerson opened a box. It was filled with photo albums. She opened a second box. It was filled with holiday cards from decades ago.This is a waste of time.
Another box was filled with record albums. She opened one filled with brown packing paper. Beneath that lay a smaller, leather box. Taped to the box was a hand-printed note.
DO NOT DESTROY
Inside was a gun and a mini tape cassette player with a tape inside. Emerson pressed “play”. After listening once, she listened to it again. Only, this time, she recorded the conversation into her phone so there would be no chance of anyone erasing it.
Emerson Easton had hit the motherlode.
25
Executing Their Plan
After speaking with Nikki, Emerson hightailed it back to the precinct. Once there, she found Captain Perry in her office. “C’mon in. Have you heard from the lab yet?”
“Not yet.” Emerson sat across from her captain and pulled on a pair of disposable gloves. “While in the Barnham basement, I found this.” Emerson played the tape for the captain.
When it ended, she ran her idea by her superior officer.
“You have my full support,” said Captain Perry, before picking up her phone. “It’s Captain Perry. I’ve got Detective Easton with me. Can you check on the status of the ballistics report for me? It’s the Truman case.”
Adrenaline was pumping through Emerson. There were a lot of moving parts to her plan.
“Yes, I’m here.” Captain Perry slid her gaze to Emerson. “Thank you.” She hung up and nodded. “The slugs you extracted from Stryker’s headboard are a match with the guns pulled from the Barnhams. Now, we’ve got reason to detain Carla Barnham.”
