Page 37 of Shadowed Witness (The Secrets of Kincaid #2)

After testifying about his investigation into a string of local robberies, Eric returned to the police station and beelined for his desk.

He needed to sort his thoughts and come up with a strategy to put a stop to the drug flow in this town before anyone else died.

And at some point, he’d have to figure out what to do about Allye.

She was still in danger ... and still ignoring his calls.

He couldn’t blame her for not wanting to talk to him, but he needed to apologize and, perhaps more importantly, make sure she wasn’t throwing caution to the wind because she’d lost faith in him.

The two problems were intertwined. Unless Allye was totally mistaken about the things she’d seen and heard, they had to be. Which meant Dion’s continued disappearance was likely related as well. If he could just figure out how, maybe, just maybe, things would break wide open.

As he passed through the receptionist area, the door to Chief McHenry’s office opened. The chief stuck his head out and spotted him. “Thornton, I need to talk to you.”

Eric redirected his steps to join the chief in his office. McHenry didn’t immediately offer him a seat. The hair on the back of his neck prickled. That wasn’t a good sign.

The chief flipped through a pad of paper bearing his scrawled writing. “I had several personal calls this morning, asking where we are in various investigations. Darla says she’s routed inquiries to your office number, but these people don’t seem to have received a callback.”

“I just returned from court and haven’t had a chance to check my messages today.”

“It’s not just today. It’s been all week.”

He grimaced. “I have been in the field a lot this week. I suppose I let the calls slip.”

The chief gave a noncommittal grunt and set the notepad on top of a stack of files contributing to the clutter of his desk. “Make that a priority this afternoon.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Speaking of priorities, you’ve been spending a lot of time on Allye Jessup’s situation.”

“With several incidents in a week’s time, I’m rather concerned about her.”

Doubt flickered in the chief’s eyes. “Her claims are concerning, but she’s always been a bit .

.. dramatic.” Eric stiffened, and the chief waved his hand.

“I’m not calling her a liar. Just making an observation.

I’d never want anything to happen to the girl, but we can’t waste limited resources on outlandish claims.”

He tried to word his response carefully.

“With all due respect, sir, there’s good reason to believe that at least some of those claims are true.

I witnessed one of them myself, though that incident didn’t fall under our jurisdiction.

I suspect the attacks on her might be connected with a local drug ring.

If we can track down her attacker, maybe we can shut his operation down. ”

Sweat dripped down his back as he watched for a telltale reaction.

Making the assertion was a gamble—he knew that.

If McHenry told him to stand down on the investigation because he didn’t see the value in it, things could become extremely difficult.

But if McHenry was in any way involved, he could still tell him to stand down or choose to do away with Allye before anything came of the investigation.

The chief held his gaze, his eyes giving nothing away. Finally, he scrubbed a hand down his face. “All right. If you think it’s a valid lead, I’m not going to call you off. Yet. But don’t let the important things slide.”

“I believe this is important. People are dying because of these drugs. There was a new victim this morning.”

“I know this matter is personal to you, Thornton. You’re driven.

I appreciate that. And I agree, these deaths need to end.

” He steepled his fingers. “But the hard truth is we’re never going to stop the drug flow completely.

Addicts are going to find a way to get what they want, and if we cut off one supply, they’ll either find a new one or create a new synthetic. ”

Heat crept up his neck. “Are you suggesting we give up?”

“No, but I’m not going to have you so laser-focused on one issue that you neglect your other cases.”

“Sir, I’m not—”

“Have you followed up on last week’s vandalism of the strip mall?”

Eric opened his mouth. Shut it. Shook his head.

“How about the break-in at the storage units?”

“No, sir.”

“And the gas pump card skimmers?” Chief McHenry waited until Eric again shook his head.

“I have a responsibility to the citizens of this town. All of them. I get it—we’re shorthanded, and lives are more important than buildings or finances.

But that doesn’t mean those things don’t affect people too.

” He held up a hand as Eric started to protest. “Before you say it, I also know not every case can be closed quickly, and some are never solved, but I’ll be hanged if I allow lazy investigating to be the cause of it.

If you have a hot lead on the drug front, by all means, follow it.

But do not spend all your time chasing rabbits. ”

The chief’s reprimand stung. Perhaps he’d be a bit more lenient if he knew all the facts about the cases Eric was focused on. Or he’d double down because of his relation to Mayor Jennings. Since he didn’t know for sure where McHenry stood, he kept his mouth shut.

The chief leaned back in his office chair. “Another thing. Where are your reports from the last few days?”

He had known that question would come sooner or later. He’d hoped for later. “I haven’t typed them up yet. It’s been a hectic week, sir.”

“I thought you of all people would know better than to use that excuse. I expect to have them up to date and on my desk by Monday morning.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You’re dismissed.”

Eric returned to his desk on stiff legs. That could have gone much worse. Didn’t make it easy to swallow though, especially since he still believed his focus was in the right place. But the chief wasn’t wrong about the need for follow-up on his older, but still recent, cases.

Not for the first time since his promotion, he wished the city had approved funding to open two detective positions instead of one. He was thankful for the job, but having a colleague to share responsibilities with would be extremely helpful at times like this.

Instead of digging into the cases pressing on his mind, he called up the voice mail on his work phone. McHenry had given him a direct order to prioritize them. Might as well get it over with. But when the automated voice stated the number of new messages, he winced. This would take a while.

By the time he wrapped up the last of the calls, Darla had waved her good-byes and headed out for the day.

The chief was still in his office, door closed.

It wasn’t unusual for the man to stay late.

He expected a lot from their small police force, but he gave a lot too.

It was part of the reason Eric respected him so much and struggled with the thought of him being dirty. Was it even possible?

But he knew it was possible for anyone to be corrupted, no matter how highly he thought of them.

Still, he wouldn’t assume it without proof.

His spectacular failure at Allye’s only highlighted the need to carefully weigh the evidence before coming to a conclusion.

If only he had remembered that before losing his temper this morning.

He sighed and jotted down the time and pertinent info regarding the call he’d just made.

The owners of the storage units broken into a week and a half ago weren’t happy about the lack of progress on the case.

But the thieves had been smart and hadn’t tried to hock anything yet—at least, not to any of the local pawnshops or neighborhood social media pages that Eric was watching.

But they could have easily driven to a larger city or posted it somewhere else online.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have the time to monitor every possible sales avenue.

That task finally done, he allowed his mind to fully return to the bigger issues Kincaid was facing. He had plenty of official notes on the investigation already, but he flipped to a blank section of his notebook. He needed to look at this from a fresh angle.

Priority number one was to identify and arrest Allye’s attacker before the man struck again. The man was almost definitely a murderer and likely more than a low-level drug dealer. They needed him off the streets.

He scratched 1.Allye’s Attacker onto the page and underlined the words.

Beneath them, he noted the meager description Allye had given, then wrote Sketch Artist under that.

Click. Once Allye worked with the forensic artist and they got even a preliminary sketch, they’d have a lot better chance of finding the guy, but he hated that they had to wait that long.

There wasn’t much else they knew about her attacker.

The guy seemed to have vaporized. But then again, Allye and possibly Dion were the only ones who would recognize him on the street.

For all Eric knew, he could have passed the guy walking into Zhan’s or nodded to him at a gas station.

His jaw tightened. The situation was maddening.

But frustration wouldn’t get him anywhere. Making a conscious effort to relax, he continued on, adding the few connections he did have, each on its own line.

Kincaid Lake?

John Doe’s murderer?

Drugs?

Dion?

When he could think of nothing else pertinent, he moved to the next item on his list: Mayor Jennings.

He turned to a new page and stared at it, clicking his pen as he thought.

He still didn’t quite understand what the mayor’s connection was to all this.

Jennings was there the first night Allye was attacked.

He claimed he’d heard her scream from his office and found her unconscious and alone in the alleyway. Truth? Lie? Eric wasn’t sure.