Mia met Joaquin’s gaze, saw that it made sense to him, too. “What do wedo?”
Shoals picked up his briefcase, set it on Jack’s desk, and opened it, taking out two small boxes, kits of some kind. “We can do that by buccal swab. It has to be done by the book, of course, because it’s evidence, so I’ll need to handle the swab. It needs to be done at least thirty minutes after you’ve last had something to eat ordrink.”
So much for finishing hercoffee.
They walked back out to the living room, where Nate had a big fire going in the fireplace. Shoals and Janet got into a conversation about the different people they both knew and had worked with, while Wu seemed impatient, the scowl that was a permanent part of his face deepertoday.
“Is this taking you away from your other work?” Mia asked him. “I know this isn’t your onlycase.”
“There are never enough hours in the day.” When he looked at her, there wasn’t anger in his gaze, justweariness.
After thirty minutes had passed, they went into the kitchen, where Shoals washed his hands, put on Nitrile gloves, and took out a small swab. “Openwide.”
He scraped the inside of Mia’s cheeks, first one and then the other, and then stuck the swab into a tube that held a small amount of liquid. Then he took off his gloves and started from the beginning again. Clean hands. New gloves. Buccal swab on Joaquin’s inner cheeks. “That’sit.”
“What happensnow?”
“We’ll take this straight to the CBI lab and put a rush on it. We ought to have results within forty-eighthours.”
“What if he’s not in thesystem?”
“Then he’s not in the system,” Wu said. “But when we find him, we’ll already have the tool we need to convicthim.”
“Every piece of evidence is a dot on the page, a piece of the puzzle,” Shoals said. “Connect the dots, put the pieces into place, and the picture comes together. That’s what we’re doing right now—getting dots on the page, collecting pieces of thepuzzle.”
Joaquin turned to Mia, his dark eyes searching hers. He lowered his voice, spoke to her alone. “This is more than we’ve had sofar.”
For the first time since this nightmare started, Mia felt they were makingprogress.
* * *
A winter stormwas moving in fast, with at least a foot of accumulation in the forecast, so Joaquin chopped firewood. He wanted to make certain they’d be warm in case the power went out, as Nate said it sometimes did in big storms. Already, the wind had picked up, and the temperature haddropped.
Joaquin didn’t mind the snow. He didn’t mind the physical work either, as it gave him an excuse to hit something. In a rhythm now, he swung the ax, venting his rage on the wood, which flew apart into two pieces. He tossed them on his pile, then set another log on the stump, and swungagain.
Crack.
If Mia’s chain of command had done their job, she might not be in this situation, and people might not be dying. Instead, they’d covered up for Powell, burying Mia’s accusations against him, forcing her to work with a bastard who obviously had no respect for women, not even his fellow officers. They’d ignored her report about his looting, too, until they’d had no choice but to act. Their failure to do their duty had put lives in danger in Iraq and had almost gotten Mia killed inDenver.
Crack.
The cops were onto Powell now. They had DNA. If it belonged to Powell, they would lock him up and throw away the key. If it didn’t, then the cops had next to nothing, and the killer was still out there. No one had been murdered these past few days. Wu had pointed that out. He’d said that Mia was likely the killer’s primary target—and that he had saved her for last like dessert or someshit.
Fuck him. He wasn’t going to gether.
Crack.
Joaquin stacked wood on the deck, then carried a few armloads inside, where Mia sat at the table, studying the images Shoals had left her—images of the man who wanted to kill her. Mia had mentioned a few times that something about him seemed familiar. They were hoping that seeing the images might help her recognize him. But Joaquin could tell by the troubled frown on her face that it wasn’tworking.
He stepped out of his boots, took off his gloves, hat, and parka, then added wood to the fire, warming his fingers. “You know you don’t have to keep looking at those. If it’s not sparking anything, you shouldstop.”
One of the images had been taken from the security camera in the elevator and showed Mia pistol raised, determination and terror on her face. It had made Joaquin’s stomach knot to see it. He couldn’t imagine how it affectedMia.
“I suppose this could be Powell. Shoals said the height and weight were right. The images are so dark and grainy. Why have surveillance cameras if they’reuseless?”
“Goodquestion.”
“I just don’t understand why he would kill Andy or Jason.” She had a pencil in her hand, and Joaquin could see she’d drawn something. “Why would he take their money and phones? His family iswealthy.”