“Of course. We should have gone there first,” Adam said.
“No.” She took a bite of soup. “I wanted to get to work. I don’t need anything until tonight, so it’s no big deal.”
Adam sat down across the desk from her, a steaming bowl in front of him. The vegetable beef was his favorite.
“So, Dr. Fleming”—Gabe leaned against a file cabinet—“Dr. Oliver is now convinced you have some sort of crime-solving superpowers.” He took a drink of soup straight from the container.
Sabrina dipped her head in obvious embarrassment. “I do not. I have excellent observational skills, and I’m able to apply previous experience to current situations in a way that often leads to conclusions others miss.” She made the statement without the slightest hint of arrogance. For her, this wasn’t bragging. It was a statement of fact.
“Well, Dr. Oliver asked me to give you this.” He pulled out a small card from his back pocket. “It has her contact information on it. She’d love to have lunch sometime.”
“Why?”
Adam bit down on the inside of his lip to keep from laughing at Sabrina’s horrified expression. Gabe made no such effort. “She wants to get to know you. Be friends. This is what girls do apparently. They have lunch.”
Sabrina wasn’t convinced. “What do guys do?”
“Dive,” Gabe said.
“Even with all your fancy equipment, you can’t have a meaningful conversation while you’re diving,” she said.
“Exactly. Less bother.”
“That makes no sense.”
Gabe took another swig of soup. “If I can’t respect a guy in the water, then I’m not going to want to hang out with him anywhere else. If he’s sloppy. If he’s lazy. If he takes unnecessary risks, then I don’t need to get to know him any further. I’m not saying he’s a terrible person, but I already know he’s not someone I’m going to want to be friends with. You may not know this about me, but I don’t have many friends.”
“I can’t imagine why,” Adam said under his breath.
Sabrina didn’t hear him.
Gabe did. “I don’t need many friends. I’m not trying to win a prize for the most people who will show up for my funeral. I just need a few people who will have my back and who I might enjoy watching a ball game with from time to time.”
Sabrina took a dainty sip of her tomato soup. “I feel the same way.”
“Oh really?” Gabe threw a satisfied smirk in Adam’s direction.
“Yes,” she said. “I don’t make friends easily. I’m too blunt. I’m not trying to be rude, but I often say what I think before I think about what I’m saying.”
Adam couldn’t argue that point, and Gabe couldn’t either.
“I do enjoy being around people, but I’m never going to be any good at having a large group of friends or maintaining some vast social network of teas and”—she waved Sharon’s business card—“lunches.”
Gabe patted her hand. “You’re brilliant, but sometimes you overthink things. Sharon’s interested in getting to know you. There are no strings. Just two super-smart women having lunch. You’ll probably wind up talking about dead bodies and computers. It will be terrifying to anyone close enough to overhear.”
“Fine.” Sabrina slid the card into her pocket. “I’ll consider it. But I don’t believe you came over here just to tell me you think I should have lunch with Dr. Oliver.”
“No, I didn’t. I want to know everything you can tell me about Lisa Palmer.”
8
I’m happy to help,” Sabrina said. “But I’m not ready yet.”
“You’re killing me,” Gabe said.
“I’m sorry, but right now I have a crazy amount of information swirling in my brain and it wouldn’t make any sense.” How could she get him to understand when she was still figuring it out herself?
“Can you give me a synopsis? Something? Anything?”
“I can give you a little bit,” Adam said.
Bless him.
“Fine,” Gabe said. “Her stuff is better than yours, but I’ll take what I can get.”
Adam stood, grilled cheese sandwich in one hand. “First, Lisa Palmer was a very good accountant.”
“Fascinating,” Gabe said, clearly not fascinated.
“No, I don’t think you appreciate how good she was,” Adam said. “She worked in a specialized division that handled some of the most delicate accounts her firm managed. When she left to start her own business, forty huge clients went with her. Ten of them, including Zinzer Hospitality, got together and paid off the firm when they tried to come after her for violating her noncompete clause.”
“That’s . . . unusual.”
“It is.”
“What was so awesome about her?”
“Well, I’ve been doing some of my own digging today and I don’t have proof yet, just some hints, but I think what made Lisa Palmer so good was she kept a lot of secrets.”
“This is supposed to be helpful? That she kept secrets doesn’t tell me much. Any secrets she kept died with her.” Gabe bit into his sandwich.
Adam didn’t back down. “Why were you so good as an undercover cop?”
Sabrina didn’t make eye contact with either man. She’d never heard Gabe talk about his undercover work. She wasn’t sure if she was going to now. She risked a glance and found him in a staring contest with Adam.
“Fine,” he said. “People trusted me. I’m very good at getting people to confide in me.”
Adam didn’t say anything. He just let Gabe’s words sit there. Adam took two bites of his sandwich before Gabe spoke again.
“Once someone has shared their deepest secrets with you, there are only a couple of options. Either they want to keep you close or . . .”
“Exactly,” Adam said.
Sabrina couldn’t take it anymore. “Exactly what?”
“They’ll either keep you close or get rid of you,” Gabe said. “There aren’t any other options.”
“So you think Lisa Palmer was an accountant for a lot of nefarious individuals and one of them decided to have her killed?” she asked.
“I think it’s an angle worth pursuing.”
“Let me guess,” Gabe said. “A lot will depend on what Sabrina can get off the laptop.”
“Maybe,” Adam said. “But if Sabrina’s conclusions are accurate, it’s unlikely this woman would have been driving around with a laptop full of incriminating evidence.”
“What if the killer put it in the car with her, hoping to destroy it?” Gabe asked.
“I think the killer put it in there to get us looking in the wrong direction,” Adam said.
“And what’s the right direction?” Gabe wasn’t really asking her or Adam, and neither of them tried to answer.
Poor Gabe. He looked so frustrated. “Gabe. I need another day or two. My head is pounding. I hurt pretty much everywhere. And I need to let this information marinate as I keep digging. I’m not trying to be evasive. We have evidence of two very different Lisa Palmers. On the one hand, we have the choir-singing, good-neighbor, nice lady who may have been clueless about the people she was working for. At least for a while. The torture might have been inflicted by the people she worked for to guarantee her continued cooperation after she did find out.”
Sabrina took a sip of her soup. “On the other hand, all of her so-called good behavior might have been a front to disguise her own evil. She may have been up to her eyeballs in dirty money long before she left Atlanta and came to Carrington. She may have known exactly what was going on and only recently decided to come clean.”
“Why do you say that?” Gabe asked.
She chose her words with care. “Sometimes people who know their time is short will try to make amends, or confess to criminal or immoral activity.”
Adam gave her an encouraging smile.
“True,” Gabe said. “So you’re thinking she might have been getting ready to confess or turn over evidence to Adam?”
“Poss
ibly,” she said. “We’ll have to do some checking, but I won’t be surprised if we find she refused treatment for her cancer. She may have seen it as some sort of just retribution.”
“Like she was getting what she deserved?” Adam asked.
“Something like that.”
“And they found out.” Gabe wadded a napkin into a tight ball and lobbed it toward a trash can.
“I suspect so.”
“Come on, Sabrina. What did you find that makes you think that?” Gabe asked.
She had to give him something. “The internet history on the tablet,” she said. “She researched colon cancer. And not general colon cancer. A very specific type. And then she researched life expectancy with and without a specific type of treatment. From what I can see, she actually had a good chance of surviving and living a long time if she’d pursued treatment.”
“But Sharon said the cancer was advanced.”
“These searches go back a year. This is all speculation, Gabe. But my guess is the reason we haven’t found the files we need is because she hid them. She’s probably been building a case—possibly many cases—and I wouldn’t be surprised if she knew she didn’t have long to live and was going to bring it all to Adam and then disappear with the hope the cancer would get her before the bad guys did.”
Gabe shuddered.
Adam slumped.
“How do we know if you’re right or wrong?” Gabe asked.
“I’m not sure,” Sabrina said. “We’re going to need to catch a break. Maybe something in her house will give us a clue. Can I look at the crime-scene photos?”
“You can do one better,” Gabe said. “You can come look for yourself.”
Adam straightened. “She has a concussion. She needs to be in bed.”
“I’m not saying she has to go right now.” A mischievous grin spread across his face. “But you know she wants to.”
Adam looked from Gabe to her.
She was hurting, but she was going to be hurting wherever she was. And she did feel a compulsion to find out more about Lisa Palmer. “It might be helpful,” she said.
“Yes!” Gabe didn’t bother to hide his glee. “Finish eating. We have a crime scene to visit.”
This was a bad idea.
Adam pulled in behind Gabe on the street in front of Lisa Palmer’s house. Sabrina moaned as she straightened in the seat beside him.
“Did I fall asleep?”
“For about five minutes,” he said. “You need to rest.”
“I know,” she said. “But I feel like this is important. Don’t you?”
He wanted to disagree, but he couldn’t. “Yes. I’m worried if we don’t move fast we’re going to miss something big, but I’m concerned you’re overdoing it.”
“I’m tough.”
“I know.”
“Let’s go.” She reached for the door.
“Wait,” he said. He hopped out and rushed to her door. He opened it and offered her his hand.
“Always the gentleman,” she said as she placed her hand in his.
“Do you mind?”
“It’s who you are, Adam. I love it.” She blinked a few times, and Adam got the impression she’d been unintentionally honest.
“Good.” He helped her from the car and closed the door behind her. She tucked her hand into the bend of his arm, even before he’d had a chance to offer it to her. Like it belonged there.
Which was fine with him.
“Can we walk around the outside first?” Sabrina was in full investigatory mode while he was mooning over where she’d put her hand. He needed to get a grip.
“Sure.”
He stayed with her as she meandered around the small bungalow.
“Cute house,” Sabrina said.
“You think?” It was a house. He wasn’t sure if cute was the appropriate description.
“I do,” she said. “If I were to upsize, I wouldn’t mind something like this. It has great curb appeal, a nice color palette, blends into the area. Well, it would if it wasn’t wrapped in crime-scene tape.”
“I don’t know.” He tapped the tape. “It adds a certain panache.”
She laughed. “You’re terrible.”
“You’re laughing.”
“I’m terrible too. This woman died. I realize she may have done some horrible things—or helped people do horrible things—but that doesn’t mean someone had the right to kill her.”
“Agreed.” If she was going to insist on being professional, he would be too. “Do you see anything about the exterior of her house that gives you any insights?”
“No. I’m not even sure what I’m looking for.”
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
Gabe called to them from the porch. “Where do you want to start? Upstairs? Downstairs?”
“Wherever she worked,” Sabrina said.
Gabe nodded and held the door for them to go inside. “Right this way.”
They stepped into the tiny entryway and Gabe opened the French doors into what had probably been intended to be a formal living room but Lisa Palmer had used as an office. Sabrina released Adam’s arm and wandered through the space. Gabe leaned against the door frame and watched Sabrina. “Can I sit in her chair?” she asked.
Gabe nodded.
Sabrina sat down and swiveled the chair from left to right. “You’re sure there was no computer when the forensics team got here?”
“No. But I can’t imagine that she didn’t have one.”
“Two,” she said.
“Why do you say that?” There was no rancor in Gabe’s voice.
“The desk is faded. In two identical places. One is a little lighter than the other, which makes sense with the way the sun comes in.”
“Which means someone took them.”
“Unless she destroyed them herself,” Adam said.
“Why would she do that?” Gabe asked. “If Sabrina’s supposition is correct and Lisa Palmer was planning to hand over all the evidence to you anyway, wouldn’t it have made more sense for her to leave them?”
“Maybe she knew what people like Sabrina can do. That they can find files that were supposedly deleted.”
“Okay. I like it. Or maybe she wanted to control the narrative,” Gabe said. “She gives you files, but they’re the files she chooses to give. And to avoid risking us uncovering anything she doesn’t want us to know, she destroys the computers the files were created on.”
Another very real possibility.
“Or the murderers took them and melted them down in acid, and that was that,” Sabrina said. “It’s all conjecture. Not one shred of evidence.”
“We have to start somewhere,” Gabe said. “If you were living in this house, where would you hide a hard drive?”
Sabrina grinned. “Oh, Gabe, there are so many places.”
“I’ll make a list. We’ll have forensics search every one of them,” Gabe said.
Adam had to give Gabe credit. He wasn’t taking anything lightly.
For the next hour, Sabrina walked through the house. Every now and then she’d make a suggestion. By the time she was done, Gabe’s list had everything from the more obvious places, like false bottoms in desk drawers and cushions, to the not-so-obvious possibilities, like the soles of boots and eye shadow containers.
“Seriously? Eye shadow?” Gabe had asked.
“Do you know how small a microSD card is?” Sabrina didn’t give Gabe a chance to answer. “You’re looking for something the size of a fingernail. It could be hidden beneath any kind of pressed makeup, like eye shadow or blush, or it could be in a lipstick tube. The problem with the micro cards is that they could be almost anywhere.”
They entered Lisa Palmer’s upstairs bedroom. Gabe went first, followed by Sabrina. Adam was bringing up the rear, but he rushed forward when Sabrina groaned.
“Are you okay?” Adam asked. “Do you need to sit down?”
“No,” she said. “Look at this room.”
“Oh.”
Now he understood. One entire wall was a bookshelf filled with books. On the other wall was a large shelf with a display of Japanese puzzle boxes.
Adam shook his head. “This could take days—”
“Weeks—” Gabe said.
“Months.” Somehow Sabrina’s pronouncement of the situation made it much more dire. “Of course, it’s probably not in here at all.”
Gabe threw his hands in the air. “What? This is the most logical place to hide something small and flat.”
“Which makes it the least logical place.”
“Unless,” Adam said, “she figured people would assume it was the least logical place, thereby making it the most logical place.”
Gabe and Sabrina glared at him.
“What?” He wasn’t wrong. They were just mad because he was right.
“Forensics is going to hate me,” Gabe said.
“They already do.” Adam tried to keep his expression serious.
“Not helping, Campbell.”
Sabrina had already moved on. She examined the bathroom, the picture frames in the short hallway, and then spent twenty minutes in the kitchen looking at everything from salt and pepper shakers to trivets to cabinet pulls.
“You seriously think she hid a memory card in a cabinet pull?” Gabe pretended to pound his head against the wall.
“No, but I think you have to check. Forensics should already know this, but make sure they take all the outlet and light switch covers off. They’re going to have to literally take this entire place apart to be sure we aren’t missing something.”
“We already know we’re missing something. Like the entire computer system. Why are you sure there are other things to find?” The way Gabe asked the question made Adam think he didn’t disagree with Sabrina, but that he was looking for more reasons he could use when he contacted the forensics team and told them what he needed.
“If she was planning to turn over evidence on someone, she would have needed to have the information stored on a small, portable, easily concealable device. It’s obvious she thought they were on to her.” Sabrina picked up a set of candlesticks and examined them.
“Why do you say that?” Gabe opened a cabinet door, and three spice jars fell onto the counter.
In Too Deep Page 10
