“No.” Her eyes narrowed, anger flashing.

The sheriff didn’t pause for a breath. “Do you know or suspect where Evan might be hiding?”

“No.” Tina’s voice went flat.

“You left the hotel yesterday. Where did you go?” he asked.

“I was driving around, looking for Evan,” Tina said.

“Are you sure you didn’t meet him?”

“What’s the meaning of this?” Morgan interrupted. “Tina is frightened for her son’s safety. She has no idea where he is.”

Sheriff Colgate sat back and studied Tina.

Esposito joined in. “I hope not. Because if you have any knowledge of where your son is or if you have helped him in any way, then you could be charged with aiding and abetting or conspiracy after the fact.”

“Hold on.” Morgan stood and turned to Tina. “Do not answer any more questions.” Morgan faced Esposito. “You are out of line. If you want to charge Mrs. Knox, do it. You have zero evidence.”

Esposito changed the topic. “We have plenty of evidence against Evan, though.” He lifted his forefinger. “Paul Knox was shot with a 9mm bullet, the same caliber as his own weapon, which is missing. At the time of his death, Paul had been cleaning his gun. The weapon had been out of the safe and available to Evan. So the boy had the means to murder Paul.

“Next is opportunity.” Esposito raised another finger. “There is no evidence of a break-in the night of the shooting. There is no sign that anyone else was in the house the night of the shooting. Paul was killed between midnight and one a.m. The teen was dropped off by a friend at the house at twelve thirty a.m., more than two hours past his curfew. We received the results of the expedited DNA tests on the blood on the fence and back door. The tests confirm that the blood is Evan’s. So we know that Evan was at the house when Paul was killed.”

Shit. Juries loved DNA.

“And finally, motive,” Esposito said. “Two months prior to the shooting, the sheriff’s department responded to a domestic disturbance at the Knox residence. A neighbor heard the teen and his stepfather fighting loudly. The teen took a swing at his stepfather, indicating a history of violent interactions between Paul and Evan. Evan has previous arrests for vandalism and destruction of property. He was also known to be angry about being forced to meet with his biological father. This anger could have been directed at Paul, who was the deputy who arrested Evan’s father and put him in jail.”

He paused for effect. Tina stared back at him, pure hatred in her eyes.

The ADA’s body tilted forward, almost imperceptibly, his use of body language subtler—and more effective—than the sheriff’s. “This is what we think happened. Evan came in late. Paul called him on it. They argued. They already had friction between them from other disagreements. The fight escalated and became physical. Evan sustained a cut or bloody nose. He picked up Paul’s gun and shot him in the abdomen. He panicked and shot Paul again.” Esposito focused on Tina. “The real question is whether you helped him get away.”

Lance hadn’t moved since the interview began, but Morgan could sense the hostility emanating from him toward Esposito and Colgate.

“This interview is over. My client will not be answering any more questions.”

“Think about Evan, Mrs. Knox.” Sheriff Colgate got to his feet. He leaned his knuckles on the table. “Every law enforcement officer out there knows he is armed and dangerous. It would be easier and safer if he surrendered.”

Chapter Nineteen

A new sense of urgency tightened Lance’s chest as he gripped the steering wheel. The sheriff’s department no longer considered Evan an innocent missing teenager.

He was wanted for murder.

They dropped Tina off at her hotel, with her deputy guard parked outside her door. At Morgan’s request, Lance took a two-minute detour to pick up coffee and donuts via the bakery drive-through window. He parked outside Sharp Investigations, and Morgan carried the white bakery bag and her giant tote into the building. Lance grabbed the two tall cardboard cups of strong coffee from the Jeep’s console and followed her inside. They settled in Morgan’s office, now the case war room.

Side by side, Lance and Morgan leaned backward on the desk and faced the whiteboard. She offered him the white bag, and he took a chocolate cruller. With two nights of no sleep, he was running on pure adrenaline.

Sharp walked in, two protein shakes in hand. He gave one to Lance. “Drink this instead.”

“I’ll drink that as well.” Lance popped the rest of the donut into his mouth, washed it down with coffee, then accepted the shake. Exhaustion weighed on his body and muddled his concentration. It was going to take caffeine, sugar, and Sharp’s miracle concoction to get his neurons firing.

Sharp went back to his office for his laptop. “I want to update my case notes while we brainstorm. Mind if I use your desk?” he asked Morgan.

“Not at all.” She took a second donut.

Shaking his head at her donut, Sharp opened his laptop and scanned the screen. “I don’t even know where to start. Our primary objective was to find Evan, but finding Paul’s killer now seems equally important. Do we have any more leads on Evan’s possible location?”

“No. His friends deny having seen him. We’ve checked his favorite places. The sheriff’s deputies have been trolling teen hangout spots. Every cop in the state is on the lookout for him. He must be holed up somewhere. He’s not at Jake’s farm.” Lance told Sharp about his late-night reconnaissance.

“You’re sure it wasn’t a cop?” Sharp asked as he typed.

“A cop would have arrested me on the spot, not bashed me over the head.” Lance drank more of his shake.

“Right.” Sharp looked up. “An honest cop.”

“I hadn’t thought about dirty cops.” The idea whirled in Lance’s mind, generating new theories.

Sharp shrugged. “The sheriff’s department has had its issues with corruption.”

“If Paul knew something about one of the deputies he’d worked with . . .” Lance went to the board and wrote DIRTY COP? under MOTIVE.

“Could it have been Brian Springer?” Sharp asked.

Lance pictured the sedan in the shadows. “What does Brian drive?”

Morgan turned to the desk behind her, picked up her case file, and opened it. “A four-door black Ford Taurus.”

“Is he a big guy?” Lance asked.

“Over six feet tall and in decent shape,” Sharp said. “But he’s not huge.”

“It’s possible then.” Lance made a note next to Brian’s name. A cop would be trained to fight.

Sharp got up and paced the space between Morgan’s desk and her credenza. “As the victim, Paul is the center of all this.”

Lance drank his coffee in the hope that the caffeine would kick in soon. “I have no doubt the sheriff’s office is reviewing Paul’s cases, looking for someone released from prison who held a grudge.”

Sharp nodded. “We don’t have access to his old case files, so we’ll have to leave that task to the sheriff’s department. I did an internet search but didn’t come up with anything.”

Morgan closed the file and set it on the desktop behind her. “The Knox front door was unlocked, and there were no signs of a break-in. If Paul let someone in that night, it would have been someone he knew and trusted.”

“Like Brian.” Lance underlined the words DIRTY COP on the board. “Would the boys have told you if he were corrupt?”

Sharp stopped pacing. His head tilted as he considered Lance’s question. “They wouldn’t lie to me. They know Evan is missing. But the answers I got were a little too vague for my comfort. Jimmy mentioned an excessive force complaint filed against Brian.”

Did that mean Brian had a history of violent behavior or poor impulse control? The same argument used for Evan’s motive could apply to someone else.

“Plus, it appeared as if Brian left his house in a hurry and took his desktop computer with him,” Sharp said.

“Or someone stole it,” Morgan suggested. “For the same reason that the police seize criminals’ computers—to find out what they’ve been doing. Brian is a seasoned deputy. I’m sure he knows how to cover his tracks online. But no one sanitizes their actual machine every night. His hard drive would contain plenty of information about his recent activity.”

Sharp returned to the chair behind the desk. “Jenny is looking for a property on a lake in Brian’s family. We can’t talk to him until we find him. Your mom is also trying to find any information on the excessive force complaint filed against Brian and the department by Sam Jones.”

“Let’s move on to other theories,” Lance said.

Sharp leaned forward and pressed a key on his laptop to wake it.

“Have we ruled out robbery gone wrong as a possibility for his death?” Morgan pointed at the ROBBERY notation on the board. “As Lance pointed out to the sheriff, the fact that there was no obvious sign of a break-in does not rule out a robbery. Even quality locks can be picked by an experienced burglar.”

“All true,” Sharp agreed. “But since the killing was particularly cold-blooded, other motives come immediately to mind: revenge, elimination, and information.”

“Don’t forget anger.” Morgan picked up her coffee. “That’s how the sheriff is justifying Evan as the prime suspect.”

“And with good reason.” Sharp shifted backward in the chair and studied the board. “Evan has means, motive, and opportunity.”

“I know, and I’ve struggled with that very question,” Lance said. “But I can’t see Evan hurting anyone but himself.”

Shifting her coffee to her left hand, Morgan walked to the board and picked up a marker. She began to write notes in Evan’s column. “If the weapon is recovered and ballistics proves Paul was killed with his own gun, that would be another hefty piece of physical evidence against Evan. He lived in the house and had access to the gun. His DNA and fingerprints will be all over everything. If he should be arrested, I’m sure the ADA will point out every damning occurrence, no matter how irrelevant or ridiculous.”