“I was.”
“Any chance there was a second man involved?” Evan included the tech in his question.
The tech frowned and stood, pulling off her gloves.
“I only saw the guy on the ground,” said the sergeant. “He was already down when we pulled up. I didn’t see anyone else.” He grimaced. “And we didn’t look around for another person. The victims had seen the guy get hit and didn’t suggest someone had been with him.”
“There’s a set of shoe prints in the dirt over there,” said the tech, pointing at a bed of shrubs that divided Ivy’s property from her neighbors’。 A wide swath of grass separated the shrub bed from the driveway. “I could tell someone crossed the grass from the bed. And according to the officers who took the attacker to the hospital, he has on Nike tennis shoes. I called them to ask when I found the prints. Those are tennis shoes but not Nikes. The problem is I can’t tell you how long ago the prints were made.” She lifted her hands in a who-knows gesture. “Someone could have walked through there this afternoon. But I’ve photographed and recorded them.”
“Good job.” Evan could see the disturbance in the grass. A concrete walkway ran along the side of the house and then curved to join the driveway. Adam would have used it after breaking West’s window in the back of the house.
Evan walked down the driveway and followed the sidewalk to the bed of shrubs. One of the portable lights shone on the shrub bed. The tech must have directed it that way to process the prints. He stood on the sidewalk, hesitant to step into the neighbors’ grass or Ivy’s, not wanting to ruin any evidence.
“You can walk on the grass, Detective,” the tech told him. “I’m finished there.”
He took a few steps in the grass and spotted prints near the biggest shrub. There were several, as if someone had stood there awhile, not simply walked straight through.
Rowan might have been right about seeing two men.
He scanned the slight depressions in the grass, seeing that they led straight to where Adam had been knocked down.
But where did the second man go after that?
Unless it had been a neighbor cutting through the yard earlier that day for some reason. Evan walked back around to the tech and sergeant. “What’d the attacker have to say?”
“Not much. Just cursing out his ex-wife even though he couldn’t see her,” said the sergeant. “He was drunk. I heard his blood alcohol at the hospital came back as a point-one-nine. He also hit his head pretty hard and was dazed while we cuffed him on the ground. Didn’t seem aware of what had happened.”
“Thanks.” Evan headed back inside, ready to drive Rowan home.
Twenty minutes later they were almost to her house with Thor happily panting in the back seat. Evan had told her about the footprints, but she doubted they were relevant since the tech couldn’t tell how old they were. Rowan had spent most of the time texting and having short calls with her sisters and parents, checking up on them.
She leaned back in her seat and sighed. “You now have another case on your plate. At least Adam was caught. That should make things easier.”
“It’s not my case.”
Her head swiveled in his direction. “What? Then why did you come? How did you know?”
“Noelle is the detective on call tonight. It’s her case. She’s wrapping up another scene, and the sergeant will stick around until she arrives. She texted me when she learned it was your sister’s home and that you were here.”
There was a long pause. “You came just to check on me?” Rowan asked.
“Yes.” He glanced her way, wondering what she would read into that.
“Thank you,” she said after a moment. “But why would Detective Marshall think to text you?”
Tell her the truth.
He had nothing to lose.
“She’s perceptive,” he said.
“Women often are.”
“I think she noticed that I care about you more than as a friend.” He grinned at her. “What do you think of that?”
Even in the dark car, he saw her smile, and electricity flared between them. “I think she did us a favor.” She reached over and touched his cheek, her fingertips gently dragging over his stubble.
Evan felt it all the way to his toes.
Then she slid her hand down his arm and took his hand in hers. He squeezed it.
“I’ve been interested in you since the first time we met,” she said, squeezing his hand in return. “I think that was two years ago.”