Page 72 of Seven Deadly Sins

Harper smiled. “You know I can’t divulge that information.” Especially since she had no idea. At this point, they were waiting for Thompson or his hired killer to make another move. “No further questions.” She gave the camera a sharp look, hoping Thompson was watching, then marched into the police station.

Liam, who had waited by the door, now opened it for her and followed her inside. “You did good.”

“I wanted to challenge Thompson.”

“I know you did. Good thing you held back. We want as few innocent people to die as possible.”

“Right. Far too many are dying as it is.” She sat at her desk and stared at the composite of the assassin. “She’ll change her look.”

“Yep.” Liam sat at his desk across from her.

“Any ideas what to do?”

“Nope. I’m going to browse the internet and study everything I can on Thompson’s family and career. Hopefully, something will pop up.”

“Haven’t the other agents been doing that?”

“Supposedly, but since you and I suspect one of Thompson’s followers to be in our midst, I don’t trust the information getting to us.”

She sighed. “More work for us. Any ideas of the jobs you want to divvy out to try and ferret the mole out of hiding?”

“Working on it.”

Harper tapped a pencil on her desk. They had the forensic lab in Harrington, their own small crime scene, Annie, the two other FBI agents, and IT. She didn’t count the chief. He couldn’t be, could he? She mentally added him to her list, not wanting to put anything into writing that could be found by someone.

“The tapping makes it hard to concentrate.” Liam glanced up from his computer.

“Sorry.” She gave an apologetic smile. It was easy. All they had to do was ask them to look up something they already knew the answer to and see what happened. Annie would never betray the department. The rookie street cop worked hard. She’d been visibly shaken at the crime scenes. The crime scene techs and forensics would be harder. Especially the techs as they were at every scene.

“We need to go over the bagged evidence from all the sites to see if anything was left behind. Something that’s missing.”

He straightened. “That’s a great idea. Can you get us in?”

“Of course.” She dangled my lanyard. “I’m completely trusted. Top of the food chain, so to speak. Small police departments give everyone dual roles. Come on.”

“You check everything in?”

“No. James does that, but I am his supervisor. Not that he needs one…” She should add James to the list of alleged moles.

“A man with opportunity.”

“Yes.” She pressed her keycard to the slot. A loud click sounded, and they entered. “Good afternoon, James. We’ll be studying evidence for the next hour or so.”

“Sounds good, Harper.” The middle-aged man as he waved them through.

The five-hundred-square-foot room had shelves from floor to ceiling on all four walls and more standing shelves making rows down the middle. Harper headed to where the latest boxes should be.

They weren’t where they should be.

~

“What’s wrong?” Liam peered over her shoulder.

“This is where the files should be. See? Everything is chronological. They should be between the murder we had last year and the domestic violence Annie handled last week.” She turned and studied the other shelves. “Sometimes things are misfiled. There are several boxes, so they shouldn’t be too hard to find.” She gave him the number that would be on each box.

They split up. Liam found one box on a high shelf, another on a low shelf. It seemed done on purpose. He took each of them and set them on a table at the front of the room. Harper found three more and added them to the pile.

“One is missing.” She counted them again. “I’ll keep looking. You start digging.”