“We need to keep ourselves out of the equation,” River said, struggling to sound composed. “We really have no idea what’s going on yet.”
Tony gazed at her for several seconds, making River feel a little unsettled. Sometimes she could swear he was able to see right through her. Finally, he got up, retrieved the envelope with the letter, and took it back to his desk.
“Let me see if I can get any fingerprints from this,” he said. “If I can, I’ll send the images to Arnie so he can ask the lab to run them through IAFIS.”
IAFIS maintained tens of millions of fingerprints. It even stored prints from crime scenes that were never matched to an individual in hopes that at some point they could be identified.
“It’s protocol to send the letter to the police,” River said. “Let them look for fingerprints.”
“I realize that, but we’re former FBI. Arnie won’t care if we do it. They’re so backed up, it could take them forever to get to it. After I send them the images, we’ll turn the letter over.”
“I don’t know. What if this turns out to be important evidence?”
Tony shrugged. “The St. Louis PD will run the prints. No one cares who found the images. Arnie will make sure everything turns out okay.”
River didn’t say anything, but if this ended up being a vital clue, it might be inadmissible in a trial. She was also worried about going through April’s things. They didn’t actually belong to her father since April hadn’t yet been declared dead, but at some point, it was possible they would have to be turned over to the police.
Tony put on a new pair of gloves and removed the letter from the evidence bag. Then he retrieved a fingerprint kit from his desk and carefully sprinkled dark powder on the white paper. With a small brush, he whisked away the extra powder.
River realized she was holding her breath and slowly let it out. A moment later, Tony looked up at her.
“I have prints, but they’re probably Nathan’s.” He took out a roll of tape and nodded at River. “Could you get me a piece of printer paper?”
She got up and got another glove. Then she walked over to the printer and picked up a piece of paper using the glove to protect it from her own prints. She carried it back to Tony and laid it on his desk. He carefully placed a piece of tape over each fingerprint and transferred it to the clean paper. When he was done, there were six very clear prints and a couple of smudged ones.
“I’ll call Arnie and let him know this is coming,” Tony said.
River nodded. “I’ll get online. I want to listen to April’s podcasts.”
“Good idea,” Tony said. “Didn’t Nathan say she was working on seven cases at the time she disappeared, including the Castlewood Casanova case?”
“Yeah,” River said. “Just because she mentioned suspicions about that one, it doesn’t mean it’s connected. Or that any of them are.”
“That one is close though,” Tony said. “Ballwin’s a little less than twenty miles from here. The others could be in different states. Less likely anyone connected lives close enough to be stalking her.”
“Not impossible though. If she has listeners in other parts of the country, someone could still be worried if she’s getting too close.” River looked at the clock. “It’s after eleven. Why don’t you get us some lunch before I start researching? Once I get started, I hate to quit.”
“Sounds great,” Tony said, getting to his feet. “What are you in the mood for?”
River smiled. “Gyros?”
Tony laughed. “You’re reading my mind.”
The Gyro Company had become one of their favorite places to eat. From their gyros to their hummus and all their other great choices, River and Tony never tired of it.
“Grab some tiramisu too,” River called out as Tony headed out the door.
“You didn’t have to tell me.”
After thinking about it, River decided she also wanted some hummus. She searched the top of her desk for her phone, but it wasn’t there. She grabbed her purse and looked through it too, but no phone. Maybe she left it in the car. Hopefully she could catch Tony before he left the parking lot. She got up and hurried out of the office and down the hallway.
The other reason she’d suggested an early lunch was because she needed to clear her head. She couldn’t stop thinking about April. Had she made the choice River had been willing to make to protect Tony? Did she leave to keep the man she loved out of harm’s way?
As she jogged past the other businesses that lined the hallway on the second floor, River glanced briefly at a couple of the newer ones. The first was a graphic design firm called Art Attack Design. Cute name. There were two men and a woman working at computers who didn’t look her way as she passed by. They’d said hello, though, when she’d passed them in the hallway before. They all seemed nice. The other new business, down at the end of the hall was called TSRS. Just one man working there. So far, they’d never spoken. He kept to himself. There wasn’t anything on his door or on his windows to indicate what kind of business it was. The man looked up from his desk and saw her. He had dark hair, a mustache, a small beard, and thick black glasses. He smiled, and she returned his smile. As she hurried down the stairs, she realized she was breathing quickly. She always felt a little anxious when Tony was gone. Silly. She was a grown woman, armed, and trained by the FBI. As she tried to catch Tony before he left, she did her best to focus on their new case and not think about the Strangler’s partner, who had threatened to carry out Joseph Baker’s death sentence.
CHAPTER
FIVE
After a great lunch, River made herself a cup of cappuccino and parked herself in front of her laptop. It had been a snowy winter so far in Missouri, but today was bright, the sun shining as if promising that spring would surely come. Still, it was really cold, with temperatures in the teens. The coffee helped to warm her up, but each time she brewed a cup, she couldn’t help but think about the deranged man who had added a drug to some of the flavored pods they’d used in their single-serve coffeemaker a few months ago. These were new, and that man was gone, but the memory of that awful day still tickled her thoughts whenever she touched her lips to the rim of her cup. She pushed the uncomfortable memory back into the recesses of her mind and glanced toward the large windows at the front of their office. They looked out onto the hallway, which was also lined with glass that faced outside. Even though it didn’t look like winter from her vantage point, she felt sad knowing that each day brought them closer to the end of her favorite season. She’d loved snow ever since she was a little girl. It had made her feel safe, as if nothing bad could happen when it snowed. Evil was frozen and covered with a blanket of white that kept it hidden from the world. But of course, that wasn’t true. Evil flourished in winter just as it did in any other season. Their recent cases had proven that.
She turned her attention back to the matter at hand. It only took a couple of minutes to find a website for April’s podcast, Hot Coffee and Cold Cases. River was surprised to see how many people followed it. Ads along the sides of the first page made it clear there were several sponsors connected with the site. She wondered how long they would hang on with April gone. River grabbed her headphones and plugged them in so she wouldn’t disturb Tony as she listened.
The main page featured a picture of April. She was lovely—long brown hair and dark eyes. A smile that made it look as if she enjoyed her life and what she was doing, yet there was something in her gaze that caught River’s attention. An echo of pain. Of fear. River recognized it because she’d experienced the same thing. That cloud following you everywhere, casting its shadow on every aspect of your life. She sighed. Had the cloud finally consumed this young woman? Was April really dead? Had she been killed by someone connected with one of the cases mentioned on her site?
River scrolled down the page and found links to several different cases. Each one had a title.
She located the two cases April had helped crack. Just like the others, they had rather silly titles, but both of them had a large red circle across the page with the words Solved by Hot Coffee and Cold Cases within its border. River quickly looked through them. Each case had pages that detailed the crime and how the killers were caught. Although they were interesting, both criminals were in prison and unlikely to be the reason someone might want to stop April from further investigation. She proceeded to the unsolved cases. April had added new cases every couple of months. There was a written description about each one, as well as the podcast that people could listen to. April also had a disclaimer stating that the identity of anyone contacting her with a tip would be kept confidential. Besides the actual podcast, April had recorded updates as things changed with each case. It would take a while to listen to the original recording as well as the updates. River grabbed her notebook and settled into her chair, determined to get as far as possible before they had to leave for Nathan’s. Each one had an interesting title.
The Case of the Missing Mother
The Case of the Railroad Rage
The Case of the Convenience Store Carnage
The Case of the Hit-and-Run Hitchhiker
The Case of the Virtuous Volunteer
