Trey was quick to answer. “According to the notes, yes. One of the detectives marked it down as questionable. Seemed put off by how nosy he was. Looked like Collins showed a significant amount of interest and it drew suspicions. Shortly thereafter, another woman went missing.”
“He was takin’ the heat off himself,” Brantley said. “Probably got a little too close when tryin’ to cover it up. Realized he had to do something to redirect. Do you think there’s a significance with those dates?”
Reese shook his head. “I don’t. I’m leanin’ more toward it being a tradition he’s set for himself. A way to remember the others by.”
“Or a goal,” Trey said. “He has those dates set in his mind, which gives him something to look forward to. Not sure how he selects a month, though. The disappearances aren’t spaced perfectly.”
Reese sighed. Just another thing they didn’t know for certain.
“You at home?” Brantley asked Trey.
“No. Still here at HQ. JJ and Baz are upstairs, pullin’ more information. Figure if y’all are pullin’ a late night, we will, too.”
“Well, keep at it, Trey. I think you’re on to something,” Reese told him. “Let us know as soon as you find anything else.”
“Will do.”
The call disconnected.
“He’s comin’ out of his shell quickly,” Reese told Brantley.
“Just wait. My brother might be reserved but he knows how to get shit done.” Brantley reached over, squeezed his hand. “Why don’t you catch a couple hours’ sleep. I’ll keep an eye on the house.”
Because they were in it for the long haul, Reese knew he couldn’t argue, so he reclined the seat. Within seconds, he was out.Chapter SeventeenWhen Trey disconnected his call, Baz made his way down the stairs. He hadn’t wanted to interrupt and was doing his best not to insert himself into Trey’s research. The last thing the guy needed was Baz providing his opinion when it wasn’t warranted. Trey was doing a damn fine job, and Baz wanted him to maintain that confidence.
At his desk, he sat down, opened his laptop, and typed in his password. His stomach growled and he thought about food but shrugged off the thought. Too much to do.
“The brother? Really?”
Baz looked up at the loft, where he’d left JJ, but he was unable to see her. He could definitely hear her, though, and she seemed perplexed about the idea their suspect could be Detective Collins’s brother.
“You don’t think so?” he called out, spinning around in his chair so he could see her if she chose to come down.
“I mean, maybe,” she said, appearing at the top of the stairs, iPad in one hand as she tapped the screen with the other. “I just wanna know how the good detective could cover somethin’ like that up.”
“Family,” Baz mused.
“Nope. No way.” JJ shook her head as she started down the stairs. “What about you, Trey? You’ve got, what? Six siblings? Would you cover up their crimes?”
Baz glanced over at Trey, watched the man consider it.
“I guess it depends on the circumstances. If one of them was a serial killer, no, I wouldn’t cover it up.”
JJ was still shaking her head. “Exactly. I loved my brother and all, but if he’d murdered people … I would never cover up somethin’ like that.”
Baz had never heard JJ so much as mention her brother. Anytime they’d talked about family, it always came back around to his.
“I wouldn’t know,” he told her. “Only child.”
“You wanna go out?” she asked Tesha.
When the dog made a beeline for the door, JJ followed, so Baz did, too.
“What gets me is that he went into law enforcement,” JJ said when they were outside, Tesha wandering through the threadbare grass that hadn’t quite given up for the coming winter, the area lit by the security lights mounted in the eaves.
“Not all cops are good, JJ. The badge doesn’t change the way someone is on the inside.”
She turned to face him. “I did not expect you to say that.”
“Why not? It’s true.” Baz leaned a shoulder against the barn while they waited for Tesha to do her business. “Like everything else, not all cops are bad, but not all are good, either.”
“What about that whole back-the-blue pledge you guys take?”
“No pledge. I do back the blue. I back the men and women who go out to make a positive difference, who’re there to protect and serve. That’s the pledge we take. Those who’re in it for the right reasons don’t see the badge as a free pass.”
JJ nodded. “I get it. I do. But what about in this case? Do you think that’s why Collins became a cop? So he’d be in a position to cover up his brother’s crimes?”
“Only he knows the answer to that.”
Tesha wandered back over, stared up at JJ with so much love on her face.
“You ready to go back to my house, little lady?” she asked her, then looked over at Baz. “You have plans for dinner?”
