Page 32 of Secrets Beneath the Waves

Ramon stopped walking.

The officer glanced at the street behind him, over Ramon’s shoulder. “The EMTs can take this guy away, and then we will get them to check you out before they leave.”

Swanson explained about the crash and the fact Drew had run over with the gun he pointed out. One that had slid under the car. But he didn’t say anything about the evidence in the back seat, except to say who he was and where he was going.

The officer crouched and put a set of handcuffs on Drew Chamberlain. Probably a good idea.

“Pioneer Forensics?” When Swanson nodded in answer to the officer’s question, the guy said, “I’ve heard you guys do good work.”

Swanson climbed out of the car, holding on to the roof as he stepped over Chamberlain’s body. “We do what we can. And that evidence needs to be with me at all times.”

Ramon figured the officer understood chain of evidence, but it never hurts to be reminded.

Swanson didn’t mention the name of the unconscious firefighter on the ground or any connection to Drew Chamberlain. Even though, when he discovered the DNA, he had likely seen the man’s photo. He must have recognized his attacker. But for some reason, he deemed it unimportant to mention right now that he knew exactly who this man was.

Or the fact it was no random attack.

Swanson took another step and started to sway. Ramon grasped his elbows. “You good, Doc?”

The other man cleared his throat and smoothed down his tie. Before he could say anything, the officer came over. “You guys know each other?”

EMTs lifted the unconscious man onto a stretcher.

Ramon turned to the officer. “Doctor Swanson has had a long and distinguished career as a medical examiner. I’m a private investigator. We hired Pioneer Forensics to process some evidence for a case, and Swanson coordinated with the police department for us. It has to do with the missing young women.”

Swanson said, “That’s what the evidence in my back seat relates to. A new lead for your police department to follow.” He nodded at the officer.

Before he could ask, Ramon said, “I had reason to believe the doctor here might be in danger transporting evidence at this time of night, over to wherever the department keeps all that.”

Swanson glanced at him. “And thank goodness you did, considering what happened.” He even shivered, which Ramon thought might be a little much but probably wasn’t altogether fake. “That man tried to kill me.”

“Did he say anything?” the officer asked, thumbs in his belt. “Or give you any impression that this was about the evidence in your back seat?”

Swanson shook his head.

“I’m going to radio this in and get the investigating detectives here to take the evidence.” He shot Swanson a look. “If this is really a lead in the case, they’ll want to take care of it personally and not run the risk of it falling into someone else’s hands.”

He wandered off, speaking into his radio.

“If you’re good,” Ramon said to the doctor, “I’m going to take this moment to duck away and see if I can get out of here without them catching me. The last thing I need is them dragging me into an interrogation room to ask me what my part is in all of this. Another girl was kidnapped tonight; that’s how I knew to follow Drew. My colleague and I saw it happen.”

“Another kidnapping?” Swanson’s eyes widened.

Ramon nodded. “I need to go make sure she gets back home.”

He jogged to his car, climbed in, and ignored the police officers, making a U-turn and hitting the gas past all the backed-up traffic. In the rearview mirror, he saw one of the cops run into the middle of the street and wave his arms. Ramon didn’t go back or even slow down. Probably at some point, he would have to sit down with local police and explain everything, but with Zeyla as the only one watching out for that girl, he didn’t want to leave her for too long.

She didn’t need to go up against the man holding that young woman alone. None of them did, not when working in pairs meant they had backup.

Ramon slowed and stopped for a red light. The app on his phone told him Zeyla’s location, indicating she was still at the same house. He used his dash screen to call Maizie’s number.

“Zeyla filled me in on what’s going on.”

“Homework tonight?” he asked.

“Nope,” Maizie said. “Which is good because I managed to get into the flash drive before the motel exploded. I have copies of everything from it. I’ve been going through all the files with Stairns so that we know what we’re talking about when we explain to you what was on there.”

“Why don’t you give me the highlights?” He pulled into the neighborhood where Zeyla was.