Playing Dead_ A Novel of Suspense - Allison Brennan [111]
Tip interrupted. “I knew Frank very well, and he didn’t hurt kids. He never hurt anyone. He only broke into places where no one was home.”
She nodded. “Right. That’s what the records say. Until the last time.”
“What do you want?”
“Do you know what Frank told Chase Taverton? I know there was a plea deal. It might not have been signed, sealed, and delivered, but it existed.”
“I don’t know anything about that.” He picked up a rag and started wiping down the clean bar.
“The fact that both men were killed within twenty-four hours has us suspicious. Both of them. Murdered.”
“Those kids didn’t know Frank was inside.”
“And you believe that?”
Claire had almost forgotten Lora was sitting next to her until she leaned over and, practically right in Claire’s face, said, “Why are you being so mean to Tip?”
Claire really wished she had Tip Barney alone. He knew something important. She ignored Lora and said, “Tip, please. An innocent man will die if you don’t tell me what you know.”
He shook his head back and forth. “You’re barking up the wrong tree, girl. I’m sorry about your dad, but there’s nothing I can help you with. Nothing.”
“Frank could have been killed before the fire even started, and the arson was to cover it up.”
“You have an overactive imagination, missy. Look. I’m sorry about your father, really, but there’s nothing I can do for you. Frank didn’t tell me anything. And it doesn’t matter anymore because he’s dead.”
“It does matter. It matters to my dad. To me.” Her voice caught. She’d planned on appealing to his humanity to talk, but the emotion wasn’t planned. This whole miserable situation was getting to her.
Her cell phone rang and she grabbed it. It was Phineas. Lora was staring at her with a frown on her face. Claire swiveled in the seat and put her finger in one ear as she answered the phone. “Hey, can I call you back?”
“I think I found something important.”
“Okay. Shoot.”
“Your friend Jayne came by and we went out to the data warehouse. She’s damn brilliant.”
“She is. And?”
“Nothing was deleted. When the reports were scanned, blank sheets were scanned in place of the two reports you asked about. So the right log was generated, but unless someone had rechecked the data, they wouldn’t have known the reports were blank.”
“Damn.”
“I thought that would help.”
“I need to see those reports, Phin. What about hard copies?”
“We only keep hard copies for three years, then they’re preserved at the data warehouse and destroyed.”
Shit! “So we don’t have them at all. Anywhere.”
“If they’re not in the court file, I don’t know where they would be. Unless the prosecutor kept a copy for some reason. And I’m sure the D.A.’s office has their own archive system.”
“Thanks. I’ll think on it.”
“I do have one more thing, though. I have the name of the head tech who performed the autopsies and filed the reports. The employee number is in the log as part of the file. Reny Willis. He’s not here anymore, he went to Contra Costa County in 1994, according to his employee file.”
1994. The year of the trial. “When in 1994?”
“His last day here was August 31, 1994.”
Her father was sentenced the week before that. The trial had ended two weeks earlier. Coincidence? “Phin, is Jayne still with you? I need to talk to her.”
“Here she is.”
Jayne got on the phone. “What—”
“Find Reny Willis. Phin has his personnel file. I need to find out exactly where he is, preferably an address. I think he knows exactly why those two coroner’s reports are missing.”
“I’ll do it for you, Claire, but promise me you won’t confront him alone.”
Who was she supposed to bring? Call up the FBI and ask Agents Bianchi and Donovan to join her? But . . . Bill would do it. Or Dave. She felt bad about throwing him out last night, but at the same time she was