Page 100 of Edge of Steele
She narrowed her eyes. “Yeah, sure. I’m just not sure how many. Or when.”
Like maybe not now with a seven-year-old.
He’d been thinking so much about getting back together with her, and thinking the only obstacle to overcome was her wariness after the lame way he broke up with her, and that they lived in different towns. But the real obstacle was much bigger. Huge, in fact. How had he missed it?
He was a dad now and anyone he dated would have to become an instant stepmother.
He couldn’t ask that of Ryleigh. Could he actually ask it of any woman?
The single moms at school came to mind. They’d been interested in him. Almost acting desperate for a suitable match. They were already mothers and didn’t seem to mind that he had a child. So maybe that was his future. Taking on a wife who came with her own child or children.
Another wrinkle to get over. To livewith, not in. No point in really thinking about any of it. He wasn’t in the market for a wife. At least not one other than Ryleigh Steele, and she sure wasn’t shopping for him.
“You’re lost in thought,” she said.
He waved a hand. “Nothing important.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but her phone rang, and she grabbed it. “It’s Kelsey.”
Ryleigh tapped her phone. “Finn is with me, so I’m putting you on speaker, Kelsey.”
Ryleigh set the phone on her knee nearest to Finn.
“We have the victim’s DNA results back,” Kelsey said. “And got a hit in CODIS.”
“That’s odd.” Ryleigh looked at Finn. “CODIS is the FBI’s DNA database, but Gates doesn’t have a record.”
“At least not that we uncovered,” Finn said, his mind racing with how this could be true.
“Nick and Russ were thorough and would’ve turned up a criminal record for Gates if he had one.” Ryleigh peered at her phone. “Wait. The database isn’t just criminals, so why was his DNA in it?”
“I don’t know if it is,” Kelsey said.
Ryleigh’s head popped up, and she blinked her long lashes. “But you said Gates’s DNA matched a record in CODIS.”
“No,” Kelsey replied. “I said thevictim’sDNAmatched the database, but Uri Gates isn’t the victim.”
Not Gates? How can that be?
Ryleigh’s heart pounded as she watched Finn’s mouth drop open. She let her gaze wander the room as she tried to process the shocking news.
Finn leaned closer to her phone. “Say that again, Kelsey.”
Yeah, he didn’t believe it either.
“The victim isn’t Uri Gates,” Kelsey said. “The DNA matches to a Dean Keenan.”
“Keenan?” Ryleigh whipped her gaze to Finn, her heart thundering now. “It’s Keenan. He died in the bomb.”
Finn nodded. “No wonder he’s not returning Eckles’s phone call. But why was he wearing Gates’s boots?”
Yeah, why? “Maybe he didn’t want to get his other boots dirty. Or if Keenan set the bomb, he wanted to put Gates’s boot prints at the scene to cast the blame on him.”
“Maybe Gates knows the answer to that question,” Finn said. “We have to find him. Find out if Keenan is our bomber, and he didn’t get out in time.”
Ryleigh planted her shaking hands on her knees to stem her eagerness to figure this puzzle out. “He could only be responsible for planting the first bomb, but since a photoelectric cell was found at both locations, maybe the same person made both of them.”
“Could be. And if Keenan set bomb one, we must have a second bomber. He could be getting ready to strike again, and we have no clue as to his ID.”
