"Okay." Jo looked dubious. "I guess that’s all we can do."

Sam nodded. "Fine by me. In the meantime, let’s just make sure Dupont doesn’t find out we have her."

Chapter Twenty-Three

It was a light crime day, and no calls had come in. Sam assigned Kevin to any new disruptions so that he and Jo could focus on interviewing the rest of the campers. He owed it to the Palmers to solve this as quickly as he could.

Sam gave Reese orders to call the other campers in. Hopefully, with Kevin on the call-outs, he and Jo would have enough time to get through the rest of the interviews that afternoon.

He retired to his office with Lucy and called Jo in after him. Kevin looked a little put out that he wasn’t in on the interviews, but Jo was a sergeant. Kevin was an officer—a lower rank. With no official detectives on the force, it made sense that Sam and Jo would take on the detective work. If Kevin wanted the better work, he’d have to earn it. Turning down the full-time job wouldn’t help.

Jo sat in the chair. "I really hope Reese can find something on that phone, but I’m not optimistic. What do you think we—"

Her words were cut off when Sam put the glass on his desk.

"What’s that?"

"Mick gave it to me last night. There’s a print on it. Could lead to Tyler’s killer."

"What? How did he get it?"

Sam relayed what Mick had told her while he dug the fingerprint dusting kit out of the bottom drawer of his desk. He slipped the glass out of the bag and dusted. There were several prints on it, and he lifted them all.

"So what do you figure? We test it against the partial print we found in the car?" Jo asked.

"Yep."

"And if it is the same guy, what then?"

"Punish him to the fullest extent of the law."

"The prints won’t hold up. What about chain of custody? Mick got the fingerprints illegally." Jo tapped the eraser end of her pencil on the pad of paper. "We have to figure out another way. We can’t test these prints officially because there’ll be a record of it. And if this comes to trial, then even the greenest lawyer will use that against us."

"Yeah, I figured that. We need to know if this guy is involved first, then we can figure out the legal way to get him for it. ’Course, we could just go down and beat everything he knows out of him right now. But I figure it’s better to see if the print matches—that way we know we’re barking up the right tree. If we go down there and we don’t have something solid to threaten him with, it gives him time to cover his bases, and we lose the advantage."

"Putting the match through the computer could screw things up for us later." Jo thought for a while. "We need a way to match up the print that isn’t recorded officially. And who do we know that has access to crime labs at an academic level that isn’t recorded officially?"

"Reese? But we can’t ask her to do this. Can we?"

Lucy’s tail thumped against Sam’s chair as if she were giving her opinion that this was a great idea.

"Of course we can. She cared about Tyler just as much as we did. She wants to see his killer put away too," Jo said.

"I don’t know." Sam glanced at the door. "We don’t want to let too many people in on the fact that we’re not doing things strictly by the book."

"Speaking of that, is Kevin coming on board full time?" Jo asked.

"No."

They stared at each other for a few beats. Nothing needed to be said. They were both relieved that Kevin wasn’t going to be full time.

"I guess we’ll have to get used to a new person, then. All the more reason to have Reese on our side." Jo pushed up from the chair and paced over to the long windows. She looked out at the mountains. "We’re not doing anything that bad. We’re just trying to expedite things. Stuff moves so slowly up here. And it won’t be so bad to have Reese on our team—she could get a lot done for us."

"She does seem to have mad computer skills and resources…"

There was a soft tap on the door, and Reese poked her head in. "I figured I’d let you know. The campers are on their way. Should be here in a few minutes."

Sam motioned for Reese to enter and then gestured for her to close the door. She was a quick study, her eyes darkening with understanding as they flicked from the glass, now with black dust on it, to Sam and Jo.

"Reese," Sam started. "I think you know sometimes we might have to push the envelope a little for the sake of justice."

Reese’s eyes lit up. "Oh, I totally understand. Like with the phone."

Sam smiled, his eyes meeting Jo’s. "Exactly like with the phone. And if you’re on board with that, I have a way you might be instrumental in finding Tyler’s killer."

Chapter Twenty-Four

Jo and Sam figured the best person to talk to next in the Palmer case was Julie. Jo had noticed she seemed a little hesitant when they’d been at the campsite. She was hiding something, and Jo wanted to find out what it was.

Reese ushered Julie into the room. She was dressed in camping attire—camouflage pants, tee shirt, light-blue windbreaker, hiking boots, and a wide-brimmed ball cap. She sat nervously in the chair on the other side of Sam’s desk. Sam made her wait, pretending he was looking through paperwork. Jo could feel the tension in the room as Julie shifted around in her seat, causing the chair to rock and jolt on its uneven legs.

"Sorry, Miss Swan. I was just looking through my notes here from when I talked to Amber and Noah." Sam leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. "So how long had you known Lynn?"

Julie’s eyes misted, and she sniffed. "Four years. We were all friends. Lynn and Noah started the company. They asked me to work for them. I was third on board."

"So you knew Lynn pretty well, then?" Jo asked.

"You could say that. We all hung around together a lot. We worked long hours, so we became kind of like an extended family."

"And how would you say Lynn felt about Noah taking up with Amber?" Sam asked.

Julie’s brows drew together. "Lynn didn’t care. She was the one that broke up with Noah."

"And what about Amber? Was she jealous of their former relationship?" Jo asked. When they had interrogated Amber, Jo had gotten the impression Amber was lying about both her and Noah being in the tent. Jo wasn’t sure if Amber was the killer. She didn’t know if there was a big enough motive there, but she wasn’t being truthful about something. Maybe digging into what Julie knew would uncover what that something was.

Julie snorted. "I’ll say. You ask me, she was just a rebound girl for Noah. She doesn’t have a lot of self-confidence, always clutching at him and crowding him. I don’t expect that to last long. But… well… that has nothing to do with what happened to Lynn, right?" Julie looked as if she might’ve wanted to say more but held off. Maybe the realization that Sam and Jo were doing a little bit more than just taking a statement had her nervous that she’d said too much already.

"So you think Noah was going to break things off with Amber?" Sam asked. "Maybe Amber caught wind of that. Maybe Amber thought Noah was going to go back to Lynn. Maybe Amber tried to make sure that wouldn’t happen."

Julie gasped. "You don’t think Amber would kill Lynn? Over that?"

"Someone killed her. We’re trying to figure out the motive. Do you know why anyone would want her dead?"

Julie shook her head. "I told you before. No idea."