Cut and Run (Criminal Profiler 2)

“We have fifteen attorneys on staff and have been in business in our current and former forms for nearly forty years. Do you have any idea how many clients that means?”

“I’m guessing a lot,” Hayden said. “But I’m betting you also digitized the client records along with the employee files. That kind of technology makes it so easy for you to find out.”

“I could do that, but I won’t. If we did represent those women, the work falls under attorney-client privilege.”

Hayden’s voice dropped as his patience thinned. “Well, for your own sake, I suggest you have a look.”

“Are you suggesting someone here was responsible for their disappearances?” PJ asked.

“I’m not suggesting anything.”

A knock on the door had PJ and Hayden rising as a woman in her late fifties with shoulder-length graying hair appeared. She nodded to Hayden but moved quickly to Slater and handed him an iPad. “I’ve pulled up his file. This is all we have, sir.”

“Thank you, Sharon.” PJ sat back down and scrolled through the papers, not saying a word until Sharon closed the door behind her. “I don’t want you to think that Slater and McIntyre isn’t cooperative. But we are bound by ethics and laws.”

“Understood. Just giving you a heads-up that we’ll be circling back on this matter. What about Garnet? There shouldn’t be any restrictions to talking about former employees.”

“No, of course not.” PJ studied the information Sharon had brought him. “Garnet was hired in 1985 as a private investigator. Back then the firm was small and had only a couple of attorneys other than my father and Russell. This day and age, I wouldn’t work directly with a private investigator, but in those days, my father and Russell would have.”

Hayden had searched PJ Slater on the Internet and learned he’d been born in 1990. He was the only child of Peter and Margaret Slater and according to the records was not adopted. “Do you have a list of cases Garnet investigated for the firm?”

That thousand-watt smile returned. “And we are right back to attorney-client privilege. Our private investigators often handle very delicate information that our clients would not expect us to ever reveal, even after forty years. I can tell you according to this printout that he handled dozens of cases. Why is Garnet so important to you now?”

“His name came up in an investigation, and we plan to interview him later today.” Hayden always judiciously balanced how much to tell as well as withhold during an interview. Sometimes he had to give a little information to prime the pumps. “Have you heard the name Paige Sheldon?”

“I did hear the Sheldon name. Her story was in the news recently. She’s missing, I think. Do you think Mr. Garnet is associated with the Sheldon case?”

“We don’t know for sure yet, but considering this girl is still alive and about to deliver a baby, we want to find her as quickly as we can.”

PJ glanced at his iPad screen. “As our firm has had no dealings with Danny Garnet in almost thirty years, there’s not much I can do for you, Captain. And how do you know these young women didn’t simply move on to greener pastures? They all could be alive and well in another part of the country and just be living under the radar.”

Hayden decided to toss Slater a little more information. “The thing is, Mr. Slater, I’ve got three Jane Does in the morgue right now. Their bodies are nothing but bones, and it’s clear they’ve been dead for at least thirty years.”

PJ’s expression didn’t change. “Do you know for a fact that the three sets of remains belong to Jones, Martin, and Saunders?”

“I won’t know until DNA testing is complete,” he said.

“And Faith must know about this discovery?” PJ asked.

“She does.”

PJ drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. “I didn’t realize this was a murder investigation.”

“I don’t like to use murder as part of my opening line. Has a tendency to put people on edge,” Hayden offered.

“I can see why. And you think because the former Slater and McIntyre represented these women, someone here might have had a hand in their deaths?”

“Begs the question, don’t you think?”

“Garnet did work for the firm during that time frame, but he could have been acting on his own.”

“Possibly. And the answer might be as simple as that, but you did say in the firm’s first years McIntyre and your father worked with Garnet. And you told Faith Josie Jones appeared in Russell McIntyre’s datebook multiple times during the time in question.”

“You really don’t think respectable men like my father and Russell would do something as heinous as kidnap three girls and murder them?” Slater asked.

A smile played at the corner of Hayden’s lips as he shook his head. “I learned a long time ago the capacity for evil stretches across all economic and social bounds.”

“My father and Russell did a good bit of pro bono work in the early years as a way of giving back to the community. Maybe by representing these women we unwittingly put them in Garnet’s path. How would we have control over what he did on his own time?”

“Does it say Garnet was a felon in his files?” Hayden asked.

“It says his offenses were nonviolent, nor were they felonies. My father and mother have always believed in second chances.”

Funny he should say second chances, the name of Garnet’s bar. “Ever met a Jack Crow?”

“No,” Slater said.

“What about Sam Delany?”

“We can keep playing do-you-know, but the fact is I wasn’t even born when these women disappeared, and since my father and his partner are dead, there is not much I can do for you.”

“Faith said you checked McIntyre’s datebooks and found Josie. I suggest you do the same for the other girls. I also suggest you read up on their files and find out who represented them.”

“Most of Russell’s records were seized during Mr. McIntyre’s federal investigation. I was lucky to find the datebooks.”

“Your father’s records are intact, I assume.”

Slater was young but he wasn’t stupid, and he’d already shepherded this firm through his father’s death.

If either Russell or Peter Sr. had a hand in these girls’ deaths, he suspected PJ would find a way to hide it. It was easy to be high-minded and moral until your entire world was challenged. Hayden would have signed an oath with the devil to save Sierra, and he’d bet PJ would hide evidence to save his firm.

“I’m not releasing my father’s records, especially when he isn’t alive to defend himself.”

“Those girls deserve justice, Mr. Slater.”

“Of course they deserve justice. You aren’t fresh out of the academy. You knew when you walked in the door I couldn’t divulge my client names or discuses firm business.” PJ tugged at the end of his monogramed cuff. “You were hoping because I’m young, I’d make a mistake, but I can assure you that you aren’t the first person who’s tried to test my mettle since my father’s death.”

“It never hurts to ask,” Hayden said with a grin. “And you’re right about me being on the job for a long time. But one thing all that time has taught me is to know when something isn’t right.” He leaned forward. “And Garnet’s involvement with this firm does not smell right, Mr. Slater. So until you help, I’m not going to be far from your doorstep.”

“You’re wrong about us. I know my father and

his partner did things differently than I do. I know they understood how far a law could bend, but I don’t run the firm like that. We have nothing to hide.”

“I hope you’re right.” He picked up his hat while he and Brogan rose. They all shook hands, and PJ walked them out of his office.

Brogan paused. “Hell, forgot my hat.” He hurried in and out of the room in seconds, returning with his hat and a coffee cup. “You’re right about these to-go cups. Very handy.”

“Glad you like it,” PJ said.

Despite Brogan’s grin, they all knew they’d fallen on opposite sides of this case and would fight tooth and nail to protect their turf.

Outside, the two Rangers got into Hayden’s SUV. As they settled, Brogan reached for an evidence bag from the glove box. He opened his door, poured out the coffee onto the parking lot, and dumped the cup into the bag. “I grabbed PJ’s cup and left mine in its place. PJ’s DNA may not be admissible, but I’m kind of curious to know who spawned him.”

Hayden slid on his sunglasses. “Assuming all three of those girls had babies, he’d be the right age if he were one of the stolen babies.”

“As I understand it, he’s not adopted.”

“I’ll believe that when I see DNA results that do not link him with any of the three dead women,” Hayden said. His phone rang as he backed out of the space. “Captain Hayden.”

“Hayden, this is Judge Templeton. I got something for you.”

“That was fast.”

The old man’s tone was serious. “You don’t call in favors all that often, so I knew it was important. I did find Josie Jones in my daily journal. As you said, she was arrested for shoplifting when she was eighteen. According to my notes, she was very pretty and had a fancy lawyer defending her.”

“Slater and McIntyre.”

“How’d you know?”

“Lucky guess. Who was the attorney of record? McIntyre or Slater?”

“Peter Slater Sr. He saw to it she didn’t do any jail time.”

PJ had told Faith that Josie had been in her father’s datebook. Was PJ lying, or was Russell’s datebook misleading? “Thanks for the update, Judge.” He ended the call and checked his watch. “Let’s get that cup dropped off, and then we’re headed to Second Chances, search warrant or not.”