Snaking through all the police vehicles, Dani finally stepped up in front of a white two-story modern house with police officers, medical professionals, and what was probably family all standing outside. A young uniformed officer was already making eyes at her while leaning against his car, doing nothing useful. She’d stopped being shocked a long time ago at how some guys were willing to flirt with her at crime scenes. As if they were all just hanging out at a sports bar.
“Who’s in charge?” she asked the officer.
The guy nodded down the sidewalk. “Detective Kramer.”
She spotted a fiftysomething man with a thick mustache in a brown sport coat talking on his cell phone and then made her way over to him. Noticing her walking up, he tilted his head with a wrinkled brow. He took another few seconds to finish his call, hung up, then glanced at the logo on her jacket.
“FBI?” he said.
“Special Agent Dani Nolan.”
“Detective Roger Kramer.”
“Victim worked in our office.”
“Right. I was told that. Well, welcome.”
“What can you tell me?”
“We got a 911 call around eight reporting a disturbance, possible gunshot, and a man spotted running away from the residence. We got here shortly thereafter and found the victim on the kitchen floor. Gunshot to the stomach. One of our officers said she was unresponsive. Minutes later, a man shows back up to the house, covered in blood, claiming to be a relative. Said he walked in on the shooting and tried to chase someone up the street.”
“You believe him?”
“At first, yeah. Some question marks, especially from the family of the victim. But he seemed somewhat credible. I mean, not sure why he’d come back to the crime scene if he actually shot the girl.”
“You said at first. Something change your mind?”
“Well, the guy hauled ass on us a few minutes ago.”
“He ran?”
“Yep. Faked out one of our officers and just took off. We’re still in pursuit of him, but he seems to have momentarily given us the slip.”
“Damn. You get his name before he took off?”
“Hell, I’ve got his entire wallet.”
He took a brown leather wallet out of his jacket pocket and handed it to Dani. She opened it to examine the driver’s license and stiffened. She closely examined the man’s face and couldn’t believe her eyes. Jake Slater?
“Everything all right?” Kramer asked her.
She nodded, swallowed. “Yeah, he just, uh . . . It seems odd that he’d come back here, give you his ID, only to take off running on you.”
“Yeah, totally bizarre. Plus, he was making claims that this guy he said was inside the house when he got here had taken his daughter.”
“Are there security cameras here?”
Kramer shook his head. “No cameras. The victim had just moved in this past week. Her father said they hadn’t had a chance to get a new security system up and running yet. And we haven’t found anything useful as far as neighbors’ cameras up and down this street.” His eyes narrowed on her. “You sure you’re all right? You look a little pale.”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Dani lied, trying to hide the shock she was feeling. “Just a little queasy. Shouldn’t have had those spicy wings tonight, you know what I’m saying?”
“I do. My stomach can’t handle the hot wings anymore.” He grinned. “The crazy thing is that our runner actually is a relative. He’s the victim’s uncle. The family says his daughter was with the victim earlier this evening.”
“Do they know where his daughter is now?”
Kramer shook his head. “They’re concerned. We have a search out with her name and photo. Nothing has turned up yet, but it’s early.”
“So it could be true? Someone else could’ve been here.”
“I suppose. But then why the hell would he run?”
She shook her head. “Doesn’t add up.”
“Plus, the family says there have been major issues going on between this guy and the victim’s family. The grandfather of the victim claims that our runner was angry at the victim for her role in a custody battle for his daughter earlier this year. He seems to believe the guy was capable of pulling the trigger.”
Dani couldn’t believe that—or maybe she just didn’t want to believe it. The Jake Slater she knew, and once loved, would’ve never been capable of such a thing. But then, it had been fifteen years. People change. She definitely had. Still, walking up onto a crime scene to find out a man she’d once believed she’d spend the rest of her life with was a likely suspect in a murder was a total shocker. She wasn’t even sure what to do with the information at the moment.