Page 27 of Witness To Murder
The ability to breathe escaped Leah temporarily. She would be a fool not to realize that would be the case. So far the whole sham had been very carefully orchestrated. There was no reason to believe this part would be any different.
“What can we do?” Tears burned in her eyes, even though she was suddenly fighting mad.
“How good is your relationship with your boss?”
The question surprised her. “At the library?” He nodded, and she shrugged. “Fine, I guess. I mean, she probably isn’t really happy with me right now, since I haven’t been at work in several days. But I called and explained the situation.”
Owen picked up the burner phone and shut it off. “We have a small window of time, I suspect, before the call records for Douglas’s phone make their way to Lambert. If he links that burner phone to you, I have a feeling he’s going to want to start moving toward making an arrest. You have no family in the city, no permanent ties like a house or a business, which makes you a flight risk.”
Leah’s breath caught. “How do we prevent that from happening?”
“We prove that you weren’t the only person who may have sent those calls and those text messages.”
“Makes sense, but how do we do that?”
“If the library has security cameras, we talk to your boss. See if we can find Isla in the library or nearby, outside the library during the times the calls or text messages were made. If the time frames match up, then we can show doubt at the idea that only you could have sent them.”
Anticipation fired in Leah’s veins. “There are cameras. Two in the library and at least two outside.”
“Tomorrow morning,” he said, “we go to the library and see what we can find. For now, we put the phone up and don’t think about it.”
That would be about as easy as having teeth pulled without a numbing agent. “I can try,” she admitted.
Owen suddenly reached for his own cell and checked the screen. “I need to take this.”
Though there had been no ring, evidently he had gotten a call. Probably had his phone set to silent. Leah watched as he walked out into the back courtyard. She imagined it was a call from one of his colleagues at the agency. Could be a girlfriend or wife. She hadn’t noticed a wedding band. They hadn’t discussed his personal life. Part of her was disappointed at the idea that he might be married or involved with someone. It was ridiculous, but just about every aspect of her life right now was ridiculous. What was one more?
Her mind kept going back to the idea that her friend—her best friend—could be responsible for all this. Why would Isla do such a thing? Leah had never once sensed that Isla was not honest with her or that she was only pretending to be her friend.
But then, Leah had never been particularly good at spotting duplicity. Look at how deeply she’d gotten involved with Chris before the trouble started. She’d had no idea just how far into the drug world he had been. She had ignored the rumors, too besotted to believe her parents or anyone else.
She had been a fool.
Had she been a fool with Isla too? With Raymond? The possibility that Raymond had misled her was far easier to swallow. They barely knew each other. But Isla…that was immensely difficult to fathom.
Yet the evidence kept pointing in that very direction.
Then again, the evidence regarding Raymond’s disappearance led directly to Leah, and it certainly was not true.
Maybe Isla was a victim too.
But how had that phone gotten into Leah’s room?
Owen came back into the house. “That was Jamie.”
Jamie Colby. Not just a colleague. The head of the agency’s granddaughter—someone high up the food chain. Leah’s heart nearly stopped. “Is everything okay?” If there was an emergencyand Owen had to be replaced on her investigation, she might just break down and cry like a baby.
“It’s about the Chris Painter case.”
If he had told her it was about Santa Claus, she wouldn’t have been more shocked. “Are you serious? What about it?”
“Apparently, he has been found right here in Chicago.”
Something like an earthquake shuddered through Leah. “Are you saying they found his body?” If that old case somehow got tangled up with this new one… Oh God, surely that wasn’t possible.
“No,” Owen said, his expression serious, his gaze searching hers. “He’s alive. He claims to have been held prisoner here in Chicago all this time.”
“Prisoner?” Leah didn’t know what to say. This was surreal. She wasn’t sure how many more revelations she could handle.
