Page 63 of The Woman Left Behind

“She’s having a busy couple of days. We’ve set a time for tomorrow afternoon to talk. She’s pulling her files to familiarize herself with this case, considering it was seven years ago.”

“I’ll want to know why she didn’t test for GSR.”

“That’s on my list of questions for her.”

Sensing that was as far as they could go on Ballard, Harry said, “Now the Dietrichs.”

Rus leveled his gaze on Harry’s. “They’re gone.”

Harry’s neck started itching. “Gone?”

“No one at their house. Looks kept up, but the feel is it’s deserted and has been awhile. I had a walk around. It also appears that someone took the time to shut it down. Blinds closed. Electric meter barely registering usage. Pads on the outdoor furniture stowed. Mrs. Dietrich doesn’t work. Mr. Dietrich hasn’t been into his office in months. Apparently, he’s working remotely. He told his staff he’s in Seattle because his mother is ill, and he needs to be closer to her. Problem with that, and what they don’t know but I do, is his mother died eleven years ago.”

“Fuck,” Harry bit off.

“They got land, so their neighbors aren’t close, but talked to several of the people on their road. No one has seen either Dietrich come or go in a good long while.”

“I announced the audit last year, Rus. How long have they been gone?”

“His office reports he hasn’t been coming in regularly for a good ten months, even though he does check in personally, but he does it randomly, and he doesn’t stay long. A few hours, then he’s gone.”

“So they heard about the audit, knew their file might be flagged, possibly knew two dead bodies were in the mix, they shut shit down and took off, with Mr. Dietrich showing sporadically to keep his finger on the pulse.”

“It’s a theory.”

“What’s your theory?” Harry asked.

“Same as yours. So that’s why I’ll now be requesting resources to see if I can track these assholes.”

“We have to wait for Idaho, Rus. Focus on Ballard.”

“I’ll focus on Ballard, at the same time get everything ready to submit, and if I have to, I’ll do it on my own time, so when we hear from Idaho I can just hit enter and shit will be in motion.”

Harry made a decision. “Not your own time, just do it.”

Rus nodded.

“Just got done talking to Cade about this case,” Harry shared. “He didn’t have much to offer except for the fact the Dietrichs were big donors to Dern’s election campaigns, and by Cade’s estimation, this put Dern in their pocket. Considering Sonny and Avery were indicated, he started poking around and he didn’t quit when they disappeared. While he was doing it, he heard rumblings that Dietrich was having some money problems. Sonny and Avery didn’t get caught or come back, the case faded away, Cade stopped looking into it.”

“So, possible insurance fraud,” Rus deduced.

“Possible,” Harry replied.

“I’ll start sniffing around that too,” Rus said.

“Good,” Harry muttered. And then he told his friend, “What Lillian and I have started is serious.”

Regardless that it was early in their relationship to make this declaration, Rus’s lips tipped up.

“I’m trying to take it slow for her, but she’s not making that easy,” Harry continued sharing.

“I know how that feels. Cin attacked me in the middle of Brittanie’s murder investigation. She knew the woman and loved her, I didn’t. She was feeling big things. She needed that connection, maybe even needed to feel alive or to suck as much out of life as she could get.” Another lip tip. “I was worried for her, but still happy to oblige, and in the end, it worked out pretty damned good for both of us.”

Something to think about if Lillian continued to push toward getting his dick, which was something, it didn’t have to be said, was hard as fuck to deny her.

“Cin knew her in school,” Rus told him. “She was a couple years ahead, but she said Lillian was one of the ‘smart kids’ when she could have been one of the ‘popular kids’ because of how pretty she is. She entered writing competitions and worked on the school paper and the yearbook. They didn’t run in the same crowd, but Cin liked her then, and she still does, even if they still don’t run in the same circles.”

None of this was surprising.

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