Speak No Evil_ A Novel - Allison Brennan [43]
“Patrick, it’s your big sister.”
“What do you want?”
“Do I always want something?”
“Yes.”
She grinned. “We might have a break.” She filled him in on the deleted messages. “Do you think you can retrieve them?”
A long silence. “Don’t think so, Cara.”
“Why not? I know those undelete programs the department got from the FBI e-crimes division are the best.”
“True, but those comments would have been saved on the external server, not the victim’s own hard drive. Unless she copied them for some reason and saved them, you’ll need a warrant to access the MyJournal server, and then if they were deleted before a backup was complete, I doubt there’ll be any record of them.”
“Dammit, Patrick, that wasn’t what I wanted to hear.”
“But,” he continued, “I can find out if any of the comments were posted by your suspect. And there’ll be a log on Angie’s computer as to when the comments were deleted. Maybe she e-mailed them to someone, maybe she saved them. I’ll look, sis, but I can’t promise I’ll have the answers you want.”
“Thanks.” She hung up and relayed the conversation to Will. “We need to get back downtown ASAP. Dillon’s probably already waiting for us.”
“I hope he can help with a profile,” Will said.
“Dillon is unusually good at getting into the mind of murderers,” Carina said. “If anyone can help, it’s him.”
Nick arrived at the police station just before the lunch hour, hoping he could convince detectives Kincaid and Hooper to accept his assistance with the investigation.
If they didn’t want his help, he’d work it alone. But he hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
“May I help you?” the desk sergeant asked.
Nick showed his badge, knowing it was the fastest way to get information. “Sheriff Thomas, from out of state. I’m looking for Detectives Kincaid and Hooper about a case they’re working.”
“They just left.” He glanced at a sheet in front of them. “Signed out for lunch. I can page them for you.”
Nick hesitated. He’d rather talk to them in person, especially with what he wanted to discuss. “When will they return?”
The sergeant sized him up, approved. “They went across the street. To Bob’s Burgers. They left five minutes ago.”
Nick smiled, put his hat back on. “Thanks, Sergeant.”
“Anytime, Sheriff.”
THIRTEEN
CARINA GREETED HER BROTHER with a hug, then sat down across from him in the booth. “Sorry we’re late,” she said.
He waved off the apology. “I only just got here myself.”
“We really appreciate you doing this off the clock.” Though Dillon was a freelance forensic consultant for the District Attorney’s Office and often worked with the police department on complex cases, he was rarely called in before a suspect was in custody. He also maintained a private practice.
Dillon looked more like their Irish-American dad than any of the seven Kincaid children. While Carina shared the darker complexion of her Cuban-born mother, Dillon had the fair skin and red-brown hair of their father. He was built more like a lean football player than a shrink, which made sense since he’d played college ball and had intended to go into sports medicine before being diverted into criminal psychiatry.
Carina let her partner fill Dillon in on the details of Angie’s life, as they knew it, and her death. Dillon looked through the crime file while Will spoke.
“The DA doesn’t think we have enough to prosecute Thomas,” Will said. “That’s why we came to you. Carina and I are leaning toward him as the killer, but there’s no hard evidence. It’s all circumstantial.”
“And you think he’s guilty because she put a restraining order on him.”
“That and she ridiculed him in public,” Will said. “Through the online journal. He lied to us at least twice.”
“In addition to Thomas, we have a missing boyfriend, a small-time drug dealer named Doug Masterson,” Carina added.
“Are you certain the killer is somehow connected to her sex journal?” Dillon asked.
Carina glanced at Will. “We’re not certain about anything at this point. But because the murder was sexual and her body defaced