"Yep."
"And if it is the same guy, what then?"
"Punish him to the fullest extent of the law."
"The prints won’t hold up. What about chain of custody? Mick got the fingerprints illegally." Jo tapped the eraser end of her pencil on the pad of paper. "We have to figure out another way. We can’t test these prints officially because there’ll be a record of it. And if this comes to trial, then even the greenest lawyer will use that against us."
"Yeah, I figured that. We need to know if this guy is involved first, then we can figure out the legal way to get him for it. ’Course, we could just go down and beat everything he knows out of him right now. But I figure it’s better to see if the print matches—that way we know we’re barking up the right tree. If we go down there and we don’t have something solid to threaten him with, it gives him time to cover his bases, and we lose the advantage."
"Putting the match through the computer could screw things up for us later." Jo thought for a while. "We need a way to match up the print that isn’t recorded officially. And who do we know that has access to crime labs at an academic level that isn’t recorded officially?"
"Reese? But we can’t ask her to do this. Can we?"
Lucy’s tail thumped against Sam’s chair as if she were giving her opinion that this was a great idea.
"Of course we can. She cared about Tyler just as much as we did. She wants to see his killer put away too," Jo said.
"I don’t know." Sam glanced at the door. "We don’t want to let too many people in on the fact that we’re not doing things strictly by the book."
"Speaking of that, is Kevin coming on board full time?" Jo asked.
"No."
They stared at each other for a few beats. Nothing needed to be said. They were both relieved that Kevin wasn’t going to be full time.
"I guess we’ll have to get used to a new person, then. All the more reason to have Reese on our side." Jo pushed up from the chair and paced over to the long windows. She looked out at the mountains. "We’re not doing anything that bad. We’re just trying to expedite things. Stuff moves so slowly up here. And it won’t be so bad to have Reese on our team—she could get a lot done for us."
"She does seem to have mad computer skills and resources…"
There was a soft tap on the door, and Reese poked her head in. "I figured I’d let you know. The campers are on their way. Should be here in a few minutes."
Sam motioned for Reese to enter and then gestured for her to close the door. She was a quick study, her eyes darkening with understanding as they flicked from the glass, now with black dust on it, to Sam and Jo.
"Reese," Sam started. "I think you know sometimes we might have to push the envelope a little for the sake of justice."
Reese’s eyes lit up. "Oh, I totally understand. Like with the phone."
Sam smiled, his eyes meeting Jo’s. "Exactly like with the phone. And if you’re on board with that, I have a way you might be instrumental in finding Tyler’s killer."
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jo and Sam figured the best person to talk to next in the Palmer case was Julie. Jo had noticed she seemed a little hesitant when they’d been at the campsite. She was hiding something, and Jo wanted to find out what it was.
Reese ushered Julie into the room. She was dressed in camping attire—camouflage pants, tee shirt, light-blue windbreaker, hiking boots, and a wide-brimmed ball cap. She sat nervously in the chair on the other side of Sam’s desk. Sam made her wait, pretending he was looking through paperwork. Jo could feel the tension in the room as Julie shifted around in her seat, causing the chair to rock and jolt on its uneven legs.
"Sorry, Miss Swan. I was just looking through my notes here from when I talked to Amber and Noah." Sam leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. "So how long had you known Lynn?"
Julie’s eyes misted, and she sniffed. "Four years. We were all friends. Lynn and Noah started the company. They asked me to work for them. I was third on board."
"So you knew Lynn pretty well, then?" Jo asked.
"You could say that. We all hung around together a lot. We worked long hours, so we became kind of like an extended family."
"And how would you say Lynn felt about Noah taking up with Amber?" Sam asked.
Julie’s brows drew together. "Lynn didn’t care. She was the one that broke up with Noah."
"And what about Amber? Was she jealous of their former relationship?" Jo asked. When they had interrogated Amber, Jo had gotten the impression Amber was lying about both her and Noah being in the tent. Jo wasn’t sure if Amber was the killer. She didn’t know if there was a big enough motive there, but she wasn’t being truthful about something. Maybe digging into what Julie knew would uncover what that something was.
Julie snorted. "I’ll say. You ask me, she was just a rebound girl for Noah. She doesn’t have a lot of self-confidence, always clutching at him and crowding him. I don’t expect that to last long. But… well… that has nothing to do with what happened to Lynn, right?" Julie looked as if she might’ve wanted to say more but held off. Maybe the realization that Sam and Jo were doing a little bit more than just taking a statement had her nervous that she’d said too much already.
"So you think Noah was going to break things off with Amber?" Sam asked. "Maybe Amber caught wind of that. Maybe Amber thought Noah was going to go back to Lynn. Maybe Amber tried to make sure that wouldn’t happen."
Julie gasped. "You don’t think Amber would kill Lynn? Over that?"
"Someone killed her. We’re trying to figure out the motive. Do you know why anyone would want her dead?"
Julie shook her head. "I told you before. No idea."
"What about the breakup with Noah? How did that affect the company? Is that when the company started failing?"
"No. I don’t think that had anything to do with it. We’re all professionals. Sure, at first it was kind of awkward, but after a while, that all passed." Julie shrugged. "Anyway, that was almost a year ago."
"And they still wanted to have equal shares in the company? Seems like that might be problematic eventually," Sam said.
"I wouldn’t know anything about that," Julie said.
"Maybe one of them was trying to phase the other one out to get control of the company before this new game was released," Jo suggested.
"What are you saying? That Noah killed Lynn to get control of the company? Noah wouldn’t do that, and besides, wouldn’t her share go to her family or something?"
"Actually, no," Sam said. "When they started the company, they agreed to leave each other controlling shares. Of course, they probably didn’t think they would be breaking up when they agreed to that. Maybe Noah wanted to make sure she didn’t have a chance to change the agreement."
"Noah wouldn’t do something like that!"
Julie seemed adamant, but Jo wasn’t so sure.
"Where were you that night around 2:30 a.m.?" Sam asked.
"Now you’re accusing me?" Julie straightened in the chair, causing it to tip to the left. "Do I need a lawyer?"
Sam held his palms up. "We’re not accusing you. We’re just trying to get a timeline. We need to piece together the events of the night to see if anyone saw anything that might help us find her killer."
Julie crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I didn’t see a thing. I was in my tent."
"What about earlier that day?" Jo asked. "Amber seemed to think Lynn had some kind of an appointment."
Julie frowned. "Appointment? For what?"
"We don’t know. That’s what we’re trying to find out. Amber said Lynn was the one that wanted to come camping here in White Rock. Said she was very insistent."