Page 26 of Edge of Steele
Russ shared his email. “What else can we do?”
“Lunch, snacks, and drinks provided at the jobsite are always appreciated. If we don’t have to leave the site, we can work faster.”
“Of course.” Russ went to the board and noted the food needs but put Reid in charge of things.
Ryleigh hadn’t wondered until now why Russ hadn’t included Reid on the team instead of her. As a former agent, Reid would have the same resources as she did. Maybe more, as he’d been an agent longer than her before he retired. But then her family connection made her hungry for a resolution to the investigation, and Reid might not have the same drive.
“One last thing,” Blake said. “I’ll need a representative at the crime scene at all times in case we need to make snap decisions. We’ll work from sunup to sundown, so please make those assignments.”
“Roger that,” Russ said.
“That’s it for me,” Blake said. “If you don’t have any questions, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
No one spoke up.
“We’re good to go. Thanks, Jenkins.” Russ looked at Ryleigh and sliced a hand in front of his neck to tell her to end the call, which she did.
“I’ll give up my cabin to bunk in my brother’s cabin,” Colin said. “Gives you two extra bedrooms.”
Ryleigh remembered Colin saying his brother, Devon, worked for Shadow Lake Survival too.
Finn leaned forward. “Ryleigh will be staying at my place, but I have an extra room.”
He would say that. She opened her mouth to correct him, but stopped. What was the point? If the Veritas team needed all the rooms at the Maddox compound, there wouldn’t be any space for her. She had no choice but to stay with Finn. Time to start accepting that.
Russ turned to a different whiteboard. “Let’s note our potential suspects.”
He wrote Uri Gates—Smokey—on the board. “The most obvious one to me. His place was tossed. Someone was looking for something. It’s possible he set the bomb, and it detonated before he could get away. But we have no motive at this time.”
Ryleigh agreed completely with his assessment. “Did anyone find his phone?”
Russ shook his head. “My deputy dialed the number while at Gates’s place. It didn’t ring or vibrate there. Maybe the anthropologist who recovers the body will find it on him, or it could be in his vehicle.”
“Though I doubt Tobias is behind the bombing,” Ryleigh said. “We can’t rule him out. Could be an insurance scam, and we should search the business.”
Russ nodded and jotted down Tobias’s name. “I’ve already declared his office a crime scene. Sent everyone home. Posted a deputy on site twenty-four/seven. Warrant for the search should come in at any time. We’ll need to get forensics over there too.”
“Since you’ve posted a deputy at the mill office, I should call Tobias,” Ryleigh said. “He might not want to spend money on posting one of our guards there too. But I’d be glad to double our guys up at the bomb site to protect the Veritas staff when they arrive.”
“Ask if he stored solvents or other chemicals at the mill,” Ryan said.
“Yeah, go ahead and ask,” Russ said. “But forensics will give us a definitive answer. If you ask now and he lies to us about it, that’ll tell us something. If the warrant comes in by the time we wrap up, we can talk about completing our search first.”
Finn looked at Russ. “Virgil Eckles should be on the suspect list. Not that we have a motive for him, but he had access to the company’s explosives and he was the only one on site—other than Gates and Ward—when the bomb detonated. I collected his key to the explosives’ depot. Means the only people who can access it now are Tobias and me.”
Russ held out his hand. “I’ll take both of those keys. It’ll protect you from any suspicion of manipulating the inventory after the bombing.”
Ryleigh thought Finn might hesitate, but he handed over two shiny brass keys. “I implemented a restricted key system when I started. Only one locksmith can duplicate keys, and Tobias and I are the only signers on the account. They won’t make keys for anyone else. I also inventoried all explosives at that time, and the inventory jived with deliveries and usage. So if anything is missing, it happened since then.”
Ryleigh might not be happy with Finn, but she was impressed with his actions. “I had security cameras installed on the exterior at the office and depot. Maybe we’ll catch our suspect stealing the explosives.”
“And I added a sign-in requirement for all visitors to the office,” Finn said. “So we can review that footage and compare them to the logs.”
Ryan snapped his chair forward. “This isn’t an individual suspect, but Colin mentioned ecoterrorist groups protesting logging.”
Russ added it to the board and turned. “Who else might gain from setting the bomb?”
Yeah, who? That was the big question Ryleigh had asked since she’d taken on the account. “A competitor maybe who’s trying to put Shadow Lake Logging out of business or at least severely cripple them. I checked into that but didn’t find anyone who wanted to harm Tobias or his business. Or any competitors who’d received threats either.”
