Dead Center

by Susan Sleeman

  Maya sat forward, pinning her focus on Ainslie. “If the swat is connected to Ethan, we should also ask him if he has any idea who might have done this.”

  Ainslie nodded. “I plan to ask him about it this afternoon.”

  Blake shifted his dark gaze to her. “No offense, Ainslie, but you’re too close and emotionally involved in the situation to be objective. One of us should also talk to your brother.”

  “Anyone else agree with that?” Grady asked.

  Everyone raised their hands and sympathetic looks were trained her way.

  Grady drew in a breath as if considering the vote. What was he thinking about that altered his expression so much? It seemed serious but he shook off whatever he was feeling and planted his feet in a wide stance. “So interview by one of us, it is.”

  Emory cast a pride-filled look at her husband. “Blake is the most logical person to conduct it.”

  Ainslie gave a clipped nod. His law enforcement background made him the obvious choice. Though, she had to admit she felt a bit betrayed by the fact that they had to question Ethan’s truthfulness even though she knew they were doing the right thing. “I’ll tell Ethan and arrange a time.”

  “Thanks for understanding.” Blake pasted on a tight smile.

  She nodded and looked at Grady, who was writing Blake’s name on the board under the murder investigation column before turning to face them. “Ainslie, go ahead and share what you know about Ethan’s arrest.”

  Ainslie shared every detail of the shooting. “The officer took one look at his bruises and bloody hands and Wade’s beaten face and assumed Ethan was the shooter.”

  “A likely assumption to make,” Blake said. “At least enough to detain Ethan until they could sort things out.”

  Ainslie didn’t like this fact, but it was true.

  “Why did Ethan get into a fight with a stranger?” Sierra asked.

  Ainslie wanted to shrug and leave it at that, but these wonderful people were here to help, and she had to share everything she knew. “Something’s been bothering him lately. I don’t know what, and he won’t tell me. His way of dealing with it is getting drunk and picking fights. He claims there’s nothing going on, but I know him. He’s fighting because he thinks he deserves the pain. He started doing that as a teen and never stopped, but he’s never been willing to talk about it.”

  “I’ll ask him about that, too.” Blake scribbled a note on his legal pad. “Were there any witnesses to the actual shooting?”

  Ainslie shook her head. “Or at least none that the police have told me about.”

  “Canvassing the area for witnesses should be top priority.” Blake jotted another note on his legal pad.

  “You think someone else saw it?” Ainslie asked.

  Blake looked up. “It’s possible.”

  “Why wouldn’t they have come forward?”

  “Fear of reprisal is the most common reason.” Blake set his pen down.

  “I can’t believe anyone would stay quiet and let my brother go to prison for a crime he didn’t commit.”

  “Don’t worry,” Blake said. “If witnesses exist, we’ll find them.”

  “We should move on.” Grady’s voice was oddly strangled, and his face pale. She wanted to ask what was up with the change in his behavior but would never put him on the spot in front of his team.

  “What about the guy Ethan beat up at the bar?” Maya asked. “Can’t he give Ethan an alibi?”

  Ainslie shook her head. “Ethan didn’t know him, and they fought in the parking lot. No witnesses there either. So we have no idea how to contact the guy. And Ethan’s co-workers had all left for the night, so none of them can vouch for him either.”

  “The guy could have gone into the bar after the fight.” Blake picked up his pen again. “We can ask the bar staff if anyone came in bruised and bloody that night. If so, maybe they recognized him.”

  “Might be CCTV cameras in the area, too,” Grady said. “The time stamp could clear him.”

  Nick stifled a yawn. “I’m on it.”

  If only it was that easy. “There’s something else you need to know. When Wade woke up, the police questioned him and showed him a photo array that included Ethan’s picture. Wade immediately said Ethan beat him up and shot him.” Ainslie sighed. “Ethan says Wade’s lying.”

  “Why would Wade lie about this?” Blake’s doubt lingered in his tone.

  “I asked Ethan the same thing,” Ainslie said. “He claimed he didn’t know.”

  “I hate to ask this.” Blake made firm eye contact. “But do you have any reason to doubt your brother’s story?”

  “No.” But she had to admit with the way Ethan had been acting lately she probably should suspect something was up. Like maybe he was using again, because when he was, he lied about a lot of things.

  Blake kept his focus on her, the intensity uncomfortable, and she could easily imagine he’d been a tough sheriff. “What can you tell us about the evidence behind the charges?”

  “Not only did Ethan have blood on his hands from the guy he beat up, but the police found Wade’s blood on his hands and clothes. The bullet that injured Wade was a 9mm, and Ethan owns a gun of the same caliber. In fact, he was carrying it at the time of his arrest.”

  “Had it been fired recently?” Blake asked.

  “Yes, but he went to the firing range the day before so that doesn’t mean anything, right?”

  “Right,” Grady said. “What about a ballistics comparison test? Did it come back as a match to the bullet?”

  Right. Grady hadn’t been present last night when she’d discussed this with the deputies so he didn’t know this detail. “They couldn’t do one. The bullet is lodged behind Wade’s eye, and they can’t remove it without risking brain damage.”

  “I don’t get it, then.” Emory frowned. “How do they know it’s a 9mm?”

  “They did a CT scan at the hospital and state experts reviewed the film. They declared the bullet was a 9mm and added that it could be from Ethan’s gun.”

  Grady pinned his focus on Ainslie. “Do you know if they recovered the cartridge case?”

  “I don’t think so. Or at least that wasn’t mentioned. Is it important?”

  He nodded. “Cases have distinct impressions, just like bullets. If any were recovered at the scene, I could compare them to cartridge cases for bullets fired from Ethan’s gun.” He shifted his focus to Blake. “I need to get a look at that CT scan and get my hands on that gun for ballistic testing.”

  Blake shifted his focus to Ainslie. “Do you know who’s lead detective on this investigation?”

  “Reyna Flores,” Ainslie answered. “At PPB.”

  Grady looked at Blake. “Know her?”

  He nodded. “She’s good. Impartial and open-minded. Let me see what I can do about getting the file from her. Or, worst case, get her to share evidentiary findings so we know if they have anything else supporting the attempted murder charge. I’ll call her right after the meeting ends.”

  “You should know, I used to work for PPB,” Ainslie said. “I know Reyna, too. She wouldn’t let me have anything official to review, but she did tell me about the evidence I shared with you.”

  Grady nodded and looked at Blake. “With what’s been discussed so far, would you have brought charges against Ethan?”

  “Not sure until I see the file, but it sounds like a good collar to me.” He glanced at Ainslie. “I’m sorry. Just calling it the way I see it.”

  “I understand.” She did and yet she didn’t, but what difference did her feelings make to the investigation? She had to put one foot in front of the other and do whatever she could to move the investigation along, even if it made her feel uncomfortable.

  “We need to look into Wade Eggen,” Nick said. “I’ll run background on him.”

  “And I’ll look to see if he has a sheet,” Blake offered. “That might lead us in the right direction. And I can go interview him at the hospital.”

  “He�
��s not there,” Ainslie said. “He said since they weren’t going to operate to remove the bullet, he wasn’t paying to lay around in bed and checked himself out against doctor’s orders.”

  Kelsey shook her head. “He doesn’t sound like the brightest bulb in the bunch.”

  Grady noted the info in square red letters on the board. “Call me the minute you have anything on him or Bittner. Until then, Ainslie and I’ll go talk to Ethan and then do a door-to-door in his neighborhood to look for another witness.”

  She didn’t want to spend time alone with Grady, but after hearing the partners speculate on a potential witness, she was eager to try to find one. “And we can also interview the 911 caller while we’re in the neighborhood, too.”

  Blake glanced at his watch. “I wouldn’t go now. You’re best off waiting until this evening when people are home from work.”

  “Good point.” Grady looked around the group. “Any other ideas?”

  Sierra nodded. “I’ll run over to Ethan’s rental house to look at the crime scene. It might’ve been unprotected for days, but you never know what I might find.”

  “I took pictures the minute I learned of Ethan’s arrest, but two days had passed by then,” Ainslie shook her head. “I really believed what I saw on TV and in movies that the police could only detain someone for twenty-four hours without charging them. And that the person arrested got a phone call. Turns out, both are false.”

  “You’re sort of right.” Blake pulled back his shoulders. “The arresting agency only has twenty-four hours without getting a judge to sign off on a longer time. And about the phone call, most agencies will let a suspect make a call unless they think a call might do something detrimental to their investigation—like ask for incriminating evidence to be destroyed. So it’s a judgment call, and the officer must’ve thought Ethan was a risk.”

  A protest climbed up Ainslie’s throat, but she swallowed it down. “I can’t help but feel like the officer could’ve at least called me. Maybe he had it out for Ethan for some reason. Not every cop is a good one.”

  Blake cringed. “I can’t speak to the situation, but it sounds like that would’ve been the right thing to do.”

  “Can you email the pictures from the crime scene to me?” Sierra asked, likely to move them on before the discussion of a police officer’s actions grew more contentious.

  Ainslie nodded.

  A tight smile tipped Sierra’s lips, but it felt forced. “Did you notice anything unusual at the scene that would pose questions the detective didn’t ask?”

  Ainslie shook her head. “Everything was consistent with what Reyna told me.”

  “Do you know if they did a GSR test?” Grady asked.

  Ainslie hadn’t even thought to ask about gunshot residue. “I don’t know.”

  “That’ll be in his file,” Blake said. “But honestly, just picking up and putting his weapon into his holster would put GSR on his hands.”

  Sierra met Blake’s gaze. “GSR might be controversial, but it would be good if we could perform an independent test on the evidence.”

  “Yeah,” Emory chimed in. “I’d love to run the DNA, too.”

  Nick rubbed his hands together. “And I’m jonesing to get my hands on Ethan’s phone and computer files, which I assume PPB has in evidence.”

  “Plus, we need Wade’s hospital records,” Kelsey said, not surprising Ainslie that an anthropologist would want medical records. “It might shed some light on injuries that Ethan couldn’t have inflicted.”

  “Like what?” Ainslie asked.

  “Is Ethan right-handed?” Kelsey lifted her mug to her mouth.

  Ainslie nodded.

  Kelsey took a sip. “A possibility would be broken bones in Wade’s face that would only come from a left-handed person.”

  Ainslie was impressed with her thinking. “I hadn’t thought of that. I wonder if Reyna did.”

  Kelsey set down her mug. “Unless a doctor suggested it, I think it would be highly unlikely.”

  “His attorney will need to request the information,” Blake said. “Does he have a good attorney?”

  “A public defender.” Ainslie didn’t know if the PD assigned to Ethan was good or not. “I’ll call him to ask about that.”

  Grady noted these items on the board. “Anything else?”

  The others remained silent this time.

  Grady set down the marker and gave a sharp nod. “Then let’s get after it. Once we see the investigation files, hopefully we can make a hole in the prosecution’s case big enough for Ethan to walk through.”

  6

  Grady had been acutely aware of Ainslie during the meeting. It had ended and others weren’t watching him, so he let his focus trail her as she walked around the room and thanked each partner for agreeing to help Ethan. He didn’t know if she was doing it simply because she wanted to thank them or because she wanted to avoid getting into his truck with him to go see her brother.

  Honestly, he should be the one to avoid her because he knew she picked up on his unease when they mentioned interviewing Ethan. Grady could easily imagine having been interviewed by a police officer in the past, revealing his secret, and choking on his words. He’d thought when Ainslie caught his discomfort that she was going to question him. His past was the last thing he would talk to her about. The very last thing.

  She turned from her conversation with Kelsey and caught him watching her. Rosy red color crept up her neck and over her cheeks. He needed to do a better job of controlling his interest so he didn’t make her feel uncomfortable. But how, when just looking at her sent his heart racing in a way he’d never known before?

  She crossed the room to join him. “Ready to go?”

  “Lead the way.”

  She marched out the door, her shoulders back as if she thought it necessary to defend herself around him. He didn’t much like that. Maybe she felt the need to protect herself because he’d been coming on too strong whenever he looked at her.

  Get control. You can do it.

  In the lobby, she took a moment to greet their receptionist and the security guard, who opened the door for her. She asked about his wife, and Grady was struck by how kind and caring she was. He’d never seen this side of her. Was hard to do when he ran the other way most every time he’d laid eyes on her.

  Grady nodded a quick greeting at Danny, then continued on and stepped outside. Head down against the spitting rain, he opened his truck door for Ainslie then went to tell Drake their plan. Grady had to admit he was thankful for an extra set of eyes to keep Ainslie safe.

  In his truck, he did his best to keep his eyes on the road and off Ainslie, but her fruity scent that he thought included peaches and flowers, caught his attention. Or maybe he was drawn to the way her skinny jeans clung to her long legs. Or to the bright turquoise rain jacket she wore over a ribbed black sweater. Oh, man, he had to stop it. And stop it now.

  “You keep looking at me,” she said.

  “Sorry. I’m trying not to, but…” He shook his head but kept his eyes on the heavy traffic heading toward downtown Portland. “We should really talk about what’s going on with us. Maybe just acknowledging the feelings and getting them out in the open will help make it go away.”

  She clasped her hands together. “Do you really think that’s necessary? We’ve done a good job of avoiding it for months. Why can’t we continue to do that?”

  “Because we were only successful because we managed to avoid each other, but now that’s impossible.” He glanced at her. “And honestly, I don’t think avoidance is a good solution.”

  “It’s worked for me. I’m not interested in a relationship right now. Getting my brother out of jail is the only thing I should be thinking about.”

  He didn’t want to get involved either, but her rejection stung. “And after he gets out of jail? You interested in getting involved then?”

  She shrugged.

  The sting sharpened into a bite. “Is this apathy directed at me or all
men in general?”

  “I’m not sure.” She sat unmoving, a pensive look on her face. “But I do know you and I are wrong for each other. I can barely tolerate football, and you live for it. In fact, I’m not big on any sports.”

  Interesting. “And I guess you think that’s important in a relationship.”

  “Isn’t it? Not sports in particular, but sharing interests?”

  He focused on the freeway traffic, the cars in front spitting up so much rainwater he had to turn up the windshield wipers.

  He’d never thought about what would make a good relationship. Never had to think about it. Not when he didn’t plan to get involved with anyone. His parents came to mind. They were good role models for long-term commitment and happiness. Their love was based on their strong faith and commitment to God, not shared hobbies.

  “I don’t know if I agree with you,” he said. “My mom loves sewing, but Dad never felt the need to take it up or sit and watch her sew. And Dad’s a big hunter. Mom hates guns. Never went hunting with him even once. But they’re very happily married, and the interest thing hasn’t hampered their relationship.”

  “That’s different.”

  “How so?”

  “I don’t know, but it is.” She turned to look out the window.

  He wanted to probe more, but it was obvious that she was struggling to find a legitimate reason why she couldn’t get involved with him. First, she’d mentioned her brother’s investigation. Then she’d argued about Grady being her boss. Now she’d brought up football. The only legitimate reason in his mind was freeing Ethan, and that was temporary.

  What might she come up with next?

  He should just tell her that he wasn’t interested in a serious relationship either. But she would likely want an explanation, and telling her about his past was out of the question. He didn’t want to see the disappointment, maybe revulsion, in her eyes when she learned his secret. So his best bet was just to keep his big mouth shut. To keep his eyes and hands off her. And remember she was off limits. Because he wasn’t about to lead her on only to hurt her, and that was kind of what he’d been doing.