Page 19 of Missing Justice

Mitch had always made her nervous, but she supposed since he and Grey had been partners at the FBI, he might have insight into the case. “The senator won’t talk to me without his lawyer present. Tried to set up a meeting for yesterday afternoon, but the lawyer was conveniently already engaged.”

Grey didn’t seem surprised. “Have you told Jarvis you have confirmation of the identity?”

“Not yet. The forensic anthropologist is still working to figure out a cause of death. From her preliminary examination, some of Felicity’s bones are still missing, and so are the baby’s. When those are found, we’ll know more. Walt will have questions regarding both subjects, so I’m giving her a few more hours to work. Hopefully, I’ll have some answers.”

“Jarvis hired a PI?” Mitch paced up to the large sculpture and examined a section closer. “For what?”

Taylor withheld another sigh. “The senator wanted to remarry last year and needed to have Felicity declared legally dead. He hired Schock Investigations. Matt Stephens looked into the case and couldn’t uncover any evidence suggesting she might still be alive. Felicity was declared legally dead, and he married Ann.”

Mitch dropped onto the bench on the other side of her and leaned forward to look around her at Grey. “Matt Stephens. Why does that name sound familiar?”

“He’s a friend of Tony’s.”

Mitch sneered. “Moose doesn’t have friends, so whoever this bozo is, he must be a douchebag.”

“Moose?” Taylor said.

“Ever seen Tony Gerard?” Mitch made tall and wide motions with his hand. “He’s frickin’ Bigfoot and he’s got the cranky attitude to go with it. Grey loves him.”

“Matt helped out with Fallyn Pasche,” Grey said, completely unruffled as always. “When Tony was babysitting me.”

Mitch snapped his fingers. “And look how well that turned out. DC’s top fixer nearly died.” He hit Taylor with his steely gaze. “I’d stay away from Stephens, if I were you. If he’s as bad at being a PI as he is a bodyguard, you shouldn’t trust him.”

Taylor swung her attention to Grey. “I heard about that case. You ended up in the hospital after a car accident, didn’t you? No wonder you needed a new Challenger.”

“Tony saved my life,” Grey said. “And Stephens isn’t responsible for what happened to Fallyn. He’s a good guy and I trust him.”

Taylor didn’t remember all the details, only that Pasche, a political fixer, had nearly been killed. Matt’s involvement was news to her. She should ask him about it if she ever spoke to him again. “I asked him The Question.”

Grey’s brows lifted. “Are you investigating Matt?”

In a manner of speaking. Taylor gave a noncommittal shrug.

A nod from Grey, his eyes studying her. “And what did he say?”

“Blood.”

“What question?” Mitch interrupted. “What are you talking about?”

By studying Grey during the brief time they’d worked together, Taylor had learned a few tricks from the profiler. One of them being that asking random questions kept your suspect off-track, and their answers to those random questions often told you more about them than straight-forward ones.

Those dark brows of Grey’s lowered. “He’s scared of blood?”

Taylor nodded. “Weird, right?”

“Keep digging,” Grey recommended.

Mitch demanded an explanation again about The Question and what they were talking about. Taylor and Grey both ignored him.

“So what do you think about Felicity’s body turning up at the scrapyard?” she asked Grey. “Still believe Jarvis is a prime suspect? I like him for it, but a scrapyard? Seems messy for him.”

Grey was quiet. Taylor imagined she could see the finely-tuned cogs turning in the former profiler’s brain. “The senator is a puzzle. I never could figure out if he was lying or not. Even gave him a polygraph and the results were all over the board.”

Taylor had examined the polygraph results but her instinct saidall over the boardmeant guilty.

“Motive?” Mitch asked, leaning around her again. “I never heard of this Ann when we were investigating? Is it possible they were a thing back then?”

She had no idea, nor any proof that Walt and Ann might have been involved romantically, but maybe Matt knew more about that little tryst than she did. “I’ll check into that.”