Page 43 of Hold a Candle

Chapter 11

Pauley looked at thecaller’s name and spoke into her cell. “Hiya, Mica,”

“Pauley, Angel found some interesting things on that burner phone I lifted off Blackburn,” he began.

“Such as?”

“That Macalister had the opportunity to kill him.”

“I knew it,” Pauley exclaimed fiercely.

“Not so fast. There is a message on here from someone named Kelpie telling Blackburn to move on Searcy. No explanation, nothing. Just short and sweet. Macalister could plead self-defense if challenged, although this is not a clear death threat.”

“Is there any proof Macalister was in the alley as his alias?”

“Aye, an incoming text message from his alias, Searcy, to meet him there. The timeline matches.”

“Sweet Jesus,” Pauley breathed. “Ye know what this means, don’t ye?”

“We have to give the phone to the chief and let him figure out a way to get it to Macalister without incriminating ourselves,” Mica chuckled. “If he doesn’t have information about someone named Kelpie, then we are impeding his investigation by withholding evidence we should have turned over.”

“Aye, especially since neither of us is supposed to be anywhere near the case.”

“No worries, lass. I’ll just tell Quinn that Angel was already working on the phone so it didn’t make it into the evidence box.”

“And ye think he will buy that?” Pauley asked skeptically.

“Of course not, but officially he will anyway. He wants to know what’s going on as much as we do.”

Pauley hesitated and looked around the table, her eyes landing on her son. “Anything about Luca on there?”

“Nay, ye know how it works with the gangers. Divide and conquer so the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing. Ruskag never had a burner on him, which was smart of him when he went for Luca. Blackburn screwed up when he met up with Searcy. To give him credit, he never intended fer anyone to find the phone. It wasn’t on his body. I found it by accident when I saw it poking out of a hole in a bag of fish guts in the bottom of the dumpster. He probably figured to collect it after he eliminated Searcy, and if he didn’t succeed, the burner would be forever lost in a bag of guts no one would be willing to dig into.”

“Leave it to ye, Mica.”

“Hey, ye know ye would have done the same thing,” he protested with a chuckle. “No job too dirty for a dedicated detective.”

Pauley rolled her eyes, even though Mica couldn’t see her. “Anything else?” she drawled.

“Aye. That license plate ye sent me and Quinn comes back to Highland Hatcheries, a legitimate business. But get this...they opened a brand-new hatchery around a year ago and closed down the old one. And the old one is only about 40 miles northwest of Inverness. Its remote location was the reason for closing it in the first place.”

“Who owns it now?”

“Angel is working on it, but it’s going to be hard to track down. She’s trying to navigate through shell companies to find the original source of the purchase.”

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