Page 56 of Defenseless
He nodded. “Oh, and Sabina?” She turned before opening the door. “When this is all over, maybe we could take a vacation? After my grandad’s Halloween party or something. A long weekend in Cabo or Belize? Maybe even a week?”
She’d never been to Cabo before and now that she was in California, it was only a short hop away. Lazy days at the beach and long nights with Chad sounded like a dream come true. She’d never allowed herself to think of such things before. That she could do so now, and with a man she loved, was almost overwhelming. She smiled and nodded. “I’d like that. A lot.”
He met her smile with one of his own. “Good, I’ll make the plans then once we’re free.” She stared at him for another long minute as he sat there on the side of his bed, the blankets draped over his lap but with his chest and feet bare. She doubted their relationship would always be smooth sailing, but she made a promise to herself to not ever take it for granted that she had the opportunity to have one.
Forty-five minutes later, the four of them pulled onto the HICC grounds with Ryder and Killian trailing behind in one of the company SUVs. Chad had tried to convince them to get some sleep, but she suspected they’d grab a few hours in the dorm and stick around. Bringing Kevin Jacobs down wasn’t an official operation, but Sabina appreciated the fact that everyone was treating it as one. In fact, Colton had even suggested it was a good training exercise for the team before taking on official business.
Ethan waved them into a large conference room as soon as they walked in. Ava, Leo, and Collin were already seated, as were Colton, Ryan, Teague, and Tucker. Tess’s voice was projecting through the speaker sitting in the middle of the table.
“The rest of the gang is here now,” Ethan said, interrupting what sounded like an explanation of some statute of limitations.
“Good, now I can get to the meat of the matter,” the lawyer said, not missing a beat. “I had a fascinating conversation with a former colleague who now works at the SEC. They’ve had their eye on Kevin Jacobs and some of his businesses for several months. Needless to say, they found your information informative. They aren’t the only ones interested, though. The Federal Election Commission is also investigating him. Neither investigation may end up being related to your situation, but they do help us. He’s done something, or several things, to land on their radars, and that won’t be a comfortable place for him to be.”
“What is the SEC looking at?” Ava asked.
“He’s the majority shareholder of three companies that have had some infusions of cash in the past few years that the forensic accountants can’t account for,” Tess answered. “My contact wouldn’t say which companies—”
“No need,” Ava said, then flashed Sabina a look letting her know that she’d research it. Sabina’s plan A was to bring Jacobs to justice for the murder of her mother. But if there wasn’t enough evidence to support that charge, then her plan B was to throw him to the wolves in every way possible. Well, plan B might also be a component of plan A. She was nothing if not thorough.
“Right…so, moving on,” Tess continued. “I have my people preparing a new file on the murder of Emer Houseman. I’ll be including all the evidence we’ve found to date, along with your statements, Sabina and Kara. It would be helpful if there were video evidence of Jacobs near Sabina’s apartment the morning the postcard was dropped off…”
“We’ll look into it,” Sabina answered, glancing at Leo, who nodded in return.
“What was in the evidence turned over to you?” Kara asked.
“To be clear, I had it turned over to the lab at HICC,” Tess responded. “They are licensed and authorized to process crime scene evidence. I didn’t want there to be a chain of custody issue if they discover something. But to answer your question, very little. Photos and the reports, of course, but you already had those from Gina. Your mother’s clothing and jewelry, the ring found with the dead man, and the scarf used to kill her.”
She and Kara flinched at the image as well as the memories. Under the table, Chad’s hand wrapped around hers. His touch didn’t chase the demons away altogether, but it did steady her.
“The scarf will have his DNA on it, won’t it?” Sabina asked.
“Yes, but the statement he gave eighteen years ago addressed that. He said it was a scarf she wore often, and he’d handled it on more than one occasion. Usually while helping her into or out of her coat,” Tess said.
Sabina looked over at Chad, who was frowning. “What?” she asked.
He tipped his head. “There have been a lot of advances in DNA technology in the past few decades. I can see his DNA being on the scarf if he handled it. But handling it to help someone is one thing. Using it to strangle someone—which takes a lot of strength—is another.”
“Hmm, you have a point,” Tess said. “I’ll ask them to test for quantity and, if possible, the pattern of the DNA.”
“It could amount to nothing. I don’t know how much DNA degrades over time,” Chad said.
“But it’s worth looking into,” Tess said, and Sabina and Kara nodded.
“Anything else?” Sabina asked. Tess spent another few minutes walking them through everything that had been delivered to HICC. She’d call the lab later, but it was good to hear from the lawyer what she should be asking about.
When Tess wrapped up the summary, Kara asked, “What’s next? I feel like I should be doing something.”
“You’ve done a lot already,” Ethan said. “Yesterday was a long day.”
Kara made a face. “It was a long day of sitting on my ass and going through Uncle Mike’s things. Surely there’s something I can do?” Kara looked at Sabina. Now that they’d gone through all the boxes, Sabina planned to join her team and follow up on the cyber leads. But Kara didn’t have those skills—or that outlet.
“Your father,” Ethan said, drawing the women’s attention. “Ava is looking for him, but maybe you know more about him than you think you do. You could spend some time thinking about where he might have gone after he and your mom divorced.”
Kara frowned but didn’t dismiss the suggestion as Sabina might have.
“What might I know?” Kara asked.
Ethan lifted a shoulder “I don’t know.Wedon’t know. Not until you give yourself the space to think about it. Maybe it will be nothing, but maybe you’ll think of something.”
