Page 97 of Shrapnel

Owen’s jaw worked. He was breathing like he just ran a marathon. He met Elijah’s eyes. There was determination there and Elijah found himself nodding to him.

Noah hung up the phone and stormed over to them. “We got him!” he showed Elijah a grainy photo on his cell. “The DNA on the candy Owen found came back. It’s from an old arrest warrant a few years ago.”

Elijah grabbed the phone and tried to zoom in on the photo. He looked like a normal guy. Tan complexion with messy brown hair. He might have been handsome if it weren’t for his wide, manic eyes. They were disarming.

“Mateo Hudson,” Noah crowed triumphantly. “He’s been in the foster system since he was a kid. Disappeared on and off, but he recently was kicked out of university. Guess what for?”

“Chemistry?” Owen hazarded.

“Yes!” Noah wrapped an arm around Owen, hugging him to his chest. “Jamie was right. You are the best, man.”

Owen chuckled nervously, his entire face turning red.

“So this is the guy we saw on the CCTV camera? The one disposing of Andrews and tossing the candy?”

“And I bet the guy you winged with the knife.”

Elijah looked down at the photo. It had been sent to Noah directly from the lab. The photo was from the arrest over fifteen years ago. Mateo had been a kid. There was no way this photo was still accurate. But it was a name.

Noah was smiling like they had just won. Elijah wasn’t so sure. How could a guy this smart, one who had them running in circles for months, do something so stupid? Toss a candy with his DNA all over it? At a crime scene? No. There was something fishy here.

Jackson looked at the photo. “This isn’t right.”

Elijah nodded. “What are you thinking?”

“That there is no way this guy is working alone.” He pointed to the screen. “Look at the killings. They started savage and de-escalated. Killers don’t do that. They get bolder, more excited. I’d bet you this guy is the muscle.”

“And there’s got to be a brain behind the muscle.”

“Exactly,” Jackson agreed. “You take out his muscle and the brains will just get someone else. You’ve got to get them both.”

Jamie shifted in bed, eyes blinking open. The entire room went still, their conversations dying the moment he became conscious. Owen shoved Noah off and returned to his chair.

“Hey,” he greeted softly.

Noah’s eyebrows raised, and he exchanged a look with Elijah, who just shrugged.

Jamie made a groaning noise and Noah left to go get Molly. Jackson disappeared into the bathroom and came back with a cup of water. He handed it to Owen.

Sliding the plastic oxygen mask off, Owen carefully trickled water into Jamie’s mouth. Jamie licked his lips, blinking through the haze of pain meds.

“This sucks,” he rasped, struggling to sit up.

Owen helped him up, hand hovering over his back. “Are you in pain?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Feels like I swallowed glass dipped in acid.”

Molly returned with Noah. She looked exhausted and over it. “I received a lovely phone call from Grant. He’ll be getting my bill. And there will be a pain in the ass tax added. Be sure he pays it.”

Elijah nodded ruefully as the doctor went about checking Jamie. When she finished, she shrugged. “He’s probably fine to go home. Don’t overexert yourself. And if it gets difficult to breathe, go to the hospital. Or literally anywhere else.”

She left in a cloud of expensive-smelling perfume and Jamie glared at Elijah. “Snitch.”

“He’d find out anyway.”

Owen helped Jamie stand, fussing over him and helping him to Elijah’s car. “Are you going to your apartment?”

“No,” Jamie grunted. “If we’ve got this asshole’s identity, I want another crack at him. Take me to White Sand Mesa. Let’s find him.”