What in the world? Crawling on her hands and knees, she peered closer at what she could now see was a large rock with paper wrapped around it.
Her mouth went dry as she recognized the picture of Cocoa on the paper with a crude threat written beneath.
“If you want to see the dog alive, find the package your sister stole from us.”
Her sister? A package? Eva’s thoughts whirled as she called Finn’s cell number to report what had happened, unable to deny Cocoa’s disappearance was linked in some way to Malina.
FIVE
Finn pulled up in front of Eva’s place ten minutes after her call. It had helped that he’d already been on his way back to the training center to talk to her about the video. There was a brief image of a man lurking near the edge of camera range, and he hoped she might be able to identify the guy as one of the attackers.
He let Abernathy out of the SUV and took the K-9 with him as he quickly headed inside the house. He’d barely knocked at the door when it swung open. Eva stood there, trembling, so he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her.
“Oh, Finn, it’s awful.” Her voice was muffled against his chest and her tear-streaked cheeks tugged at his heart. “Thankfully, my two roommates were gone when this happened, but Alecia had left barely five minutes before the incident. What if one of them had been hurt?”
“It’s okay, you’re safe now.” She felt good in his arms, and he wanted to continue holding her and offering comfort but needed to focus on this most recent threat. “Ready to show me the crime scene?” Eva had been so upset when she’d called that he’d had trouble understanding what she meant about a rock and a threat against Cocoa.
She pulled away from him, subtly swiping at the dampness on her face. “Yes. It happened in my room.”
Finn followed her up the stairs to her second-floor bedroom, decorated with cheerful yellow paint on the walls and frilly white curtains. His gaze zeroed in on the broken window, and then at the rock on the floor surrounded by bits of broken glass.
“Stay back,” he warned. “Abernathy, sit.”
The yellow Lab sat beside Eva as if guarding her. Finn didn’t want his K-9 to walk over the shards of glass glittering on the hardwood floor.
He pulled a large evidence bag from his pocket and picked up the rock carefully, noticing it was big and heavy enough to leave a dent in the hardwood floor. He wrapped the edges of the bag around it to preserve it. There was a chance he’d be able to lift fingerprints, either from the rock or the paper itself.
Examining it further through the clear plastic evidence bag, he could see what Eva had meant by a threat against Cocoa. The note beneath the dog’s picture said clearly that if she wanted to see the dog alive, she needed to find the package her sister had stolen.
Stepping carefully around the broken glass, he approached the shattered window. It faced the tiny backyard, which wasn’t fenced in. It was empty now except for two garbage cans, one tipped over on its side. He could easily imagine someone throwing the rock from there. Eva’s room was on the second floor, so not too high. The bigger question was how the perp had identified Eva’s window. Being followed to the house was one thing, but knowing the specific window that belonged to her bedroom rather than her roommates? That was something different.
Or had it simply been a coincidence?
Most cops didn’t believe in coincidences, and Finn was no exception. Sure, they happened on occasion but not often.
His instincts had been right all along. Whatever Malina had got involved with before her death had caused Cocoa’s dognapping and three assaults—if you counted the rock incident—against Eva.
He backed away from the window and turned to look at her. “Do you have any idea what package they’re talking about?”
She shook her head vehemently. “No! Absolutely not.”
Her response was exactly what he’d expected, but this time he wasn’t going to let it go. “I need you to think back to the time before Malina’s death. Did you ever see her with a package? Did she carry a large purse? Or did you sense something was amiss?”
“No!” She lifted a shaky hand and pushed her hair behind her ear. Again he had the crazy urge to pull her into his arms to comfort her. “She had a medium-sized purse, not a large bag. I promise, Finn, I’m not lying about this. I want Cocoa back just as much as you do. If I knew anything I’d tell you.”